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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.

I noticed that the overall IMDb rating for this film was a lowly 3.2. This seems a bit unfair. The story is good, not great, and may at times be bit predictable. But the acting is quite good with a very sympathetic performance by Tom Skerritt. Robert Davi shows a warm side in much contrast to the "heavy" he played in a James Bond Film. Wendy Hughes couldn't have been more cold and calculating in much contrast to the warm and loving character she played opposite Peter Falk in "Happy New Year" or the playful character she played opposite Pierce Brosnan in "The Heist." Lastly, Zalman King as a filmmaker has tried to elevate the adult genre to an art form. If not familiar, try to see his most successful series: "Red Shoes Diaries." Sometimes you can catch an episode on late night Showtime.

It might be said that not every film is meant to be "Gone With the Wind" or "Citizen Kane." There's nothing wrong about a shoot-em-up western where the gunfighters never seem to run out of bullets. And although "The Fast and the Furious" may never make IMDb's top 250 list, it was a good enough film for the producers to make two sequels.

It's all about entertainment and since the world's population is so diverse, we all like different types of movies. One could guess that some viewers who are offended by nudity may have been "turned off" by this film, which also may account for the low 3.2 rating. But the film is worth a watch.

Finally, Nina Siemaszko is excellent in this film. She brings across her vulnerability, frustration, disappointment, etc. Her performance must have been good, because other producers noticed and she had a nice supporting role in "The American President" and a recurring role for 3 or 4 years on "The West Wing." On a personal note, I would urge all of us to respect the IMDb and the lengths they go to provide this forum. Let's give fair comments to all films we view. We may actually affect the careers of some of the industry people.

Why did anyone keep giving Zalman King money to make these? And how did Tom Skerritt keep getting sucked into these things? You'd think "Poison Ivy" would have been enough to teach my fellow Seattle-ite to stop riding the 90's Alyssa Milano erotic thriller burn-out-coaster (he's really the only thing even passing for okay in this). To Tom's credit, he grits through with as straight a face as humanly possible. A great actor reduced to, well, "this." The other actors plow through it in what I suspect is some kind of drug and alcohol-rehabiitation parole requirement.

On the plus side, the garage sale I bought this at did come with a free box of tissues. I think that's positive.

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.

I was a little kind of disappointed when I watched the normal version of this as it feels like it teases so much more. Luckily I was able to track down the unrated cut and it offers some extended dialogue scenes and more "steamy" content.

That being said, its still not great. Nina Siemaszkos character is not very likable but this is probably a part of her situation in the film. Its got a pretty decent cast all in all but Robert Davi and Christopher Macdonalds characters could have used more time.

I like the filmography, soundtrack, overall setting, and costumes for the actors which is where this movie scores points in my opinion. If it was named something else it would probably score better.