WILD ORCHID 2: TWO SHADES OF BLUE.

US, 1992, 105 minutes, Colour.
Nina Siemaszko, Wendy Hughes, Brent Fraser, Robert Davi, Christopher Mc Donald, Tom Skerritt, Joe Dallesandro.
Directed by Zalman King.

Wild Orchid is a rather lurid sex melodrama. It was written and directed by Zalman King, former actor who became a writer (Nine and a Half Weeks) as well as director (Two Moon Junction). For television he devised the Red Shoes series and wrote and produced such films as Lake Consequence. King sees himself as the master of erotic melodrama. The films, however, while being titillating, are often highly pretentious in their aspirations for artistic style. They more than resemble the popular magazines - and are probably designed for this kind of audience.

Wild Orchid 2 has only a nominal relationship with the original Wild Orchid (a lurid King melodrama with Jacqueline Bissett, Carre Otis and Mickey Rourke, a ludicrous attempt at high melodrama).

King has the ability to contract strong character actors for his film. The leading case here includes Australia's Wendy Hughes as a high-class madam, Tom Skerritt as the heroine's father, Robert Davi as her bodyguard, Christopher Mc Donald as a licentious senator, and has Joe D' Allessandro in the supporting cast. The film focuses on a young girl, Blue, played with attractive pout by Nina Siemaszko.

The plot line is lurid conventional: the young girl travelling with her drug-addicted father, his death, her having to pay his debts and being in thrall to a club owner, her being rescued by the madam, her being trained as a prostitute, her revulsion for her work - and yet her desire to exploit it for her own gain, her falling in love with the all American hero, the shock of his being brought to the brothel by his allegedly religious father, her escape from the brothel, her going back to school (with a talent for writing) and encountering her boyfriend again, the build-up to the unmasking sequence - all leading to the happy ending.

The film is not particularly worth seeing in itself, but is typical enough of the ambitious Zalman King and his desire to bring this kind of film into mainstream movie-making.

1.Audience for this kind of lurid melodrama? The focus on sex, violence? Greed and exploitation?

2.Location photography, California settings? The road, the restaurants, the brothels, the wealthy mansions? The all American school? The blend of the daylight naturalistic with the shadowy world of the brothel? The atmospheric musical score?

3.The title, the original Wild Orchid, the focus on Blue? The work of Zalman King, how seriously to be taken, his taking himself and his work seriously?

4.The tone of the film - the ambiguity of the moralising, exploring the world of immorality, enjoying the presentation, yet the final moralising stance?

5.Blue, her age and experience, the relationship with her father, love for him, his playing jazz, his drug-taking, moving from place to place? Her disillusionment with his drugs? His death? Her getting the drugs, her relationship with Jules, his using her? His introducing her to Helen? The options for the future, going to the brothel, the promise of wealth, yet the strict discipline? The other girls, the tour of the brothel and the clients? Her friend Mona (and Mona taking her money, leaving, yet coming back)? The discipline? The ominous presence of Sully, his accompanying her, protecting her, falling in love with her, defending her? Her clients? The senator and his associates, their brutality? Her later turning against him and humiliating him? The vengeance against her? The discussions with Helen, the possibility of running away? Leaving with Sully, going back to school? Her behaviour at school, the headmistress, classes, her writing? Her vision of the boy early in the film, the hitch-hiking? Going back to the town, seeing him again at school, sport? The irony of his father bringing him to the brothel, her disguising herself, the relationship with him? His not connecting the two women? The final confrontation, Helen, the video, the authorities? The boy seeing the truth? The escape from Helen - and the happy ending? Her future?

6.Helen, the glamorous madam, her background, her girls? Contacts? Her ruthlessness? Money? Friendship with Blue, yet warning her? The girls leaving and coming back? Her pursuit of Blue? The video and exposing her?

7.Sully, his work in the brothel, silent, attraction to Blue, with her, helping her, the escape? The violence and the gun?

8.The young man, his father, the churchgoing? The encounter with Blue? Her father's story of love at first sight? His going to the brothel, the pyjamas, the virgin, pleasing his father? The encounter with Blue, not recognising her? Back at school, in love with her? The truth? Coming to terms with it? His bullying father?

9.The senator, his friends, prostitutes, sexual perversity, the clash with Blue? His vengeance?

10.The range of girls, the clients?

11.School, the contrast of the ordinariness of school with the brothel? The 18-year-old girl and her experiences?