Evidence Room Gleefully Revives a Vintage Potboiler

When first published in 1939, James Hadley Chase’s gangster classic, “No Orchids for Miss Blandish,” pushed the envelope of propriety to a shocking degree and wound up a perennial bestseller.

The 1978 stage adaptation by Scottish producer and playwright Robert David MacDonald, presented at the Ivy Substation by the Evidence Room, is more camp than cutting edge, a no-holds-barred melodrama that goes as far over the top as a vintage Cagney movie. Although occasionally so hard-boiled it’s rubbery, this updating is a stylish homage to the period, executed with sprawling zeal by director Bart DeLorenzo’s intense cast.

The first scene is off-puttingly arch, with characters declaiming over the “footlights” of Rand Ryan’s lighting design. However, by Scene 2, in which Miss Blandish (Ames Ingham) is snatched by the Grisson Gang, the actors chew the scenery with more finesse. From there, the plot churns with more frenetic action than the entire Greek cycle on spin dry.

Tony-winning designer Richard Hoover’s versatile but odd set features a mammoth painting of a war scene that slides up and down to reveal two playing areas. Audrey Fisher’s costumes are period gems, while John Zalewski’s sound design is effectively disorienting.

The adaptation is problematic: A character tells another to “eat a big one.” Not one but two tough guys quote Matthew Arnold and Andrew Marvell at the drop of a fedora. But when the repartee is dead-on, it’s a feast of kitsch.

DeLorenzo and cast wisely don’t hold back in this resounding potboiler. Pamela Gordon is gloriously excessive as gang leader Ma Grisson. Mickey Cottrell strikes the one effectively downplayed note as Doc, the have-hypo-will-travel sawbones who keeps Miss B in a narcotic haze.

* “No Orchids for Miss Blandish,” Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 28. $15-$20. (310) 535-4996. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.