From softcore sex king Zalman King comes WILD ORCHID 2: TWO SHADES OF BLUE, a sequel in name only that either thankfully or regrettably has nothing to do with its predecessor.
Instead of the original's sex-crazed lady lawyer playing kinky games in Rio, this outing turns to a kinky morality tale of a hapless teenager forced into prostitution in steamy, sultry Southern California of the 1950s. Blue (Nina Siemaszko) dreams of nothing more than having a normal teenaged life
with a nice boyfriend, a normal suburban mom and dad and all the other accessories. She meets the prospective boyfriend early in the film, Josh (Brent Fraser), a strapping, upstanding youth she meets outside a church, no less. But the two go their separate ways before anything can happen. And
unfortunately (though fortunate for King's purposes), Blue's mother was a whore who's long since flown the coop and her dad, Ham (Tom Skeritt), is an itinerant jazz trumpeter with a nasty heroin habit.
When Ham misses a gig because he's too strung-out to blow, Blue yields her virginity to Ham's "old pal", clubowner Jules (Joe Dallesandro), in return for a fix for dear old dad. Ham gets happy, but the shock of how his fix was earned kills him. Dissatisfied with Blue's listless performance both as
lover and waitress at his club, Jules sells her to Elle (Wendy Hughes), a high-class madam who specializes in catering to the kinky whims of senators and generals and such. Blue brings even less enthusiasm to their beds than she brought to Jules's. When a senator tries to break her icy reserve by
hiring her for an evening of filmed gang rape, her chauffeur Sully (Robert Davi), who has fallen platonically in love with Blue, saves her.
They run away to the town of Blue's dreams, where Josh just happens to be the star of the high-school football team. Elle tracks Blue down and stages a special private screening of her film debut for Josh. But Josh remains steadfast in his love for Blue, leading to a clinch for the fadeout, while
Elle slinks away, presumably setting the stage for yet another WILD ORCHID bouquet.
Resembling something like a dirty-minded John Hughes movie, WILD ORCHID 2's screenplay, also written by King, contains more than its share of howlers in its dialogue as well as in its plotting. Ham's description of his marriage to Blue's mom as a "piggyback ride to hell" sounds kinkier than
anything that happens onscreen. King later takes a slap at the decline of American standards by having Elle coo that Blue would do well to study another whore's stripping technique because "she was trained in Paris." (Yes, but everyone knows the Japanese do it more efficiently.) Blue doesn't seem
to do anything particularly erotically or efficiently. When she's not moping, whining or pouting, she has a bad habit of heaping contempt on her clients, at one point humiliating the guest of honor at a stag party in front of his well-heeled friends.
In light of such behavior, Elle's dedication to making Blue a whore for all seasons becomes downright baffling. But for all its loony plot contrivances and loopy dialogue, what WILD ORCHID 2 lacks, and badly needs, is a sense of humor. King (9 1/2 WEEKS and cable TV's popular "Red Shoes Diaries")
goes about his business here with a deadly earnestness, as though he were trying to make a Philip Kaufman (HENRY AND JUNE) film from a Russ Meyer (VIXEN) script. His sex scenes look erotic, conveying the impression of a man who has studied his Penthouse layouts very carefully. But there is little
joy, forget about passion, to the sex itself, most of it grimly coerced by ugly men in tuxedos from women with the emotional range and heat of department store mannequins. The film's overall dourness and smarmy pseudo-decadence only contributes to a sex film that seems calculated to make its
audiences swear off sex.
Despite her kewpie-doll face and curvaceous body, Siemaszko (BED & BREAKFAST, LITTLE NOISES) comes off more like a petulant girlfriend from hell than an obscure object of desire. She's not likely to make anyone forget WILD ORCHID's Carre Otis, as the lady lawyer who sweats on cue, not to mention
Kim Basinger's refrigerator raid in 9-1/2 WEEKS. On the other hand, one good thing can certainly be said about WILD ORCHID 2: Mickey Rourke is nowhere in sight. (substance abuse, nudity, sexual situations, profanity.) leave a comment
