Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue

The story is about a young girl named Blue (Siemaszko) who takes a job in a brothel after her Jazz playing father (Skerritt) dies as a result of drugs. She later decides to leave and finds it difficult because of the dictator like headmistress (Hughes). The story is really weak and prevents the film from being any good. Then there is a lot of nudity and sexuality but it is not strong enough to keep the voyeurs attention either. Top it all off with poor acting and no imagination and you have "Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue." So the film fails all around. The story has absolutely no similarity or connection to the original "Wild Orchid" starring Mickey Rourke which isn't much better.

The story is about a beautiful young girl, Blue (Nina Siemaszko), who is approaching sexual maturity. In order to achieve a happy and fulfilling life she must avoid being corrupted and enslaved by sexual desire and lust, and ultimately find true love. But this is no easy matter in the cold, cruel world in which she suddenly finds herself virtually alone and defenseless. She becomes the unwilling victim of power hungry individuals who seek to exploit her as a prostitute. With help from more compassionate and understanding people, Blue struggles to maintain dignity and courage in her desperate commitment to be free.

While its true that the film has little connection with its predecessor "Wild Orchid", its main flaw seems to be that its just a little too cliché and at times hard to believe. This shortcoming is difficult to avoid, however, in most any book or film. To Zalman King's credit, the final outcome and the essential theme are not completely obvious from the very beginning. The exotic setting in the past also helps give the film a sense of novelty.

While the movie does have numerous sexually explicit scenes, which may offend some people, it exhibits far less voyeurism and wanton sexual intercourse that are typical of so called "soft-porn" movies. Whereas, I found Nina Siemaszko's natural beauty to be a refreshing change from the irritating plastic-boob floozies that are the main attraction of the aforementioned genre. Moreover, Wild Orchid 2 is a far more compelling human drama than stories about men from out of space who want to learn what love is, but seem to only be interested in sex. A rating of 2.8 hardly does this film any justice. I myself was quite found of the movie, and consider it worth viewing by those seek more tragic and melancholy overtones than what you may find in a typical romance.

Nina Siemaszko portrays of young "virgin", who is lonely, innocent and vulnerable, yet strong willed and independent, with higher moral values. She acted well enough to earn my sympathy, and I found myself routing for her throughout the film. Through Blue's trying experiences, we learn that in order to find true love we must be bold and determined, we must exhibit self-sacrifice and compassion, and, above all, we must look beyond outward appearances and fallacies, and seek the inner beauty that lies within ourselves and others we meet.

My review was written in April 1992 after watching the movie at a Midtown Manhattan screening room.

A sequel in name only to the Mickey Rourke-starrer "Wild Orchid", Zalman King's pretentious exercise in softcore erotica is hot stuff only for pay-cable and home video markets.

Filmed as "Blue Movie Blue" and on the shelf since last fall, pic has already been followed by a third "Wild Orchid" feature "Red Shoe Diaries", which debuts on Showtime almost simultaneously with "Blue" getting a theatrical release.

All three films have in common the focus on a beautiful young woman's rites of passage. Here petite Nina Siemaszko portrays Blue, a California teen who's orphaned in 1958 when her heroin-addicted jazz trumpeter dad (Tom Skerritt) dies in a freak car accident.

She's taken under the wing of brothel madam Wendy Hughes and introduced to a life of prostitution. Her sexual flowering has already occurred at the hands of sleazy jazz club owner Joe Dallelsandro.

There's a certain amount of interest generated in Blue's fate as King's slowly paced melodrama unfolds, but Siemaszko's zombie-like performance denies the put-upon character much sympathy. Artsy photography is very distracting, as are several music video-styled interludes.

The picture's original title stems from a ey plot point: Siemaszko is coerced into appearing in an unfinished stag film, or blue movie. Extremely disappointing finale has not one but two white knights appearing to save her: a platonic lover Robert Davi and all-American boy Brent Fraser. King evidently intends this as a story book fantasy but destroys all credibility with such lame devices.

Siemasko's extremely alluring figure (which she bares) counts more than her acting ability this time out. She's briefly upstaged by Canadian thesp Lydie Denier as the lovelost brohel irl. Aussie actress Hughes adopts a neutral accent and severe manner in the villainess assignment. One can infer she's a lesbian doting on Blue, but King plays down numerous opportunities to make this subplot explicit.

Rest of the cast is stuck with stereotyped roles, resulting in overplaying by Davi as the brooding Hughes henchman who turns over a new leaf. Dallesandro as he lech and Christopher McDnald as an evil senator. Fraser is forced to gush unconvincingly as the handsome rich kid who has his first sexua experience with Blue at the cathouse, but does not recognize her before or after without her Louise Brooks-styled wig.

Pic is technically well-made. As with King's Sherilyn Fenn-starrer "Two Moon Junction", there is plenty of camp potential here (e.g., prostitute Blue going back to school as just another bobby-soxer) but it remains still-born under King's ponderous, self-important direction.

A pretty bad movie, and despite what others seem to think, it was not as good as the first (which wasn't especially "good" either).

The whole attraction for the first Wild Orchid film is the awesome sex scene with Carre Otis and Mickey Rourke. Otherwise, it's a pretty dull and even pretentious movie.

However, the sequel has only one halfway decent sex scene in it, and the female character is not enjoying it at all.

Overall, both Wild Orchid films are of the sort one sees on Cinemax or Showtime at 1 AM. A minute or so of eye candy isn't really worth seeing the rest of the film.

Blue (Nina Siemaszko) and her drug-addicted jazz trumpet-playing father Ham McDonald (Tom Skerritt) go on the road. She has to sleep with Jules to get drugs for him. He crashes the car and dies. Alone, she falls under the influence of Elle (Wendy Hughes) working in her brothel. High school hunk Joshua Winslow doesn't know her secret and has fallen for her. Once he's even dragged to the brothel by his father to lose his virginity. Elle's henchman Sully (Robert Davi) rescues Blue from perverted Senator Dixon and they escape trying to live a normal life.

Zalman King's overwrought style is all over this movie. It's luscious and cheesy. It's 90s late night fare. Nina Siemaszko's stone-faced acting limits this and doesn't really help the movie. It's a beautifully shot softcore porn and a slow moving melodrama.