Wild Orchid (1990)

Wild Orchid (1990)

Wild Orchid movie storyline. Emily Reed (Carré Otis), a beautiful young lawyer, leaves her Midwest home town for the first time in her entire life to interview for jobs in New York City. During an interview at a firm specializing in international law, she claims to be fluent in several languages, including Portugese, and asserts that she has always been fascinated by other cultures.

The two interviewers (Lester Berman and Steven Kaminsky) are impressed and Emily is offered the job as a paralegal, as long as she is willing to travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that morning. After she accepts, Emily meets Claudia Dennis (Jacqueline Bisset), with whom she will travel to Brazil. Claudia informs Emily about the real estate deal they are going to close.

Wild Orchid (1990)

Arriving in Rio de Janeiro, they are welcomed by Flavio (Milton Gonçalves), a hotel concierge at a five-star hotel, and driven to a construction site. Claudia points out an old hotel that will be torn down and replaced after their deal is brokered, and describes plans for a marina. Claudia seeks out Elliot Costa (Michael Villela), who is due to sign over the land, but discovers that he has gone to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a wedding. She decides to follow him there and instructs Emily to go on a date in her place that night. Claudia describes her date as “a predator” and warns Emily not to reveal too much.

With Claudia gone, Emily explores the grounds and spies a local Brazilian couple (Anya Sartor and Joao Carlos Dos Santos) having sex inside the dilapidated hotel. Scandalized, Emily hurries back to her own hotel room and puts on the dress that Claudia left for her to wear. In the lobby, she meets Claudia’s date, James Wheeler (Mickey Rourke), an enigmatic American businessman accompanied by two bodyguards. They walk from the hotel to a nearby restaurant, and Wheeler lags behind so that he can watch Emily.

Wild Orchid (1990) - Carre Otis
Wild Orchid (1990) – Carre Otis

At dinner, he asks Emily to guess the personal secrets of other diners. She describes an attractive married couple, stating that they met at a ski resort and honeymooned at a “grand hotel” that was surprisingly rundown. Wheeler presses for more information, but Emily does not want to go further.

When he threatens to approach the couple, Emily stops him, continuing her story about the honeymoon. She describes the couple having sex in full view of a voyeur. Wheeler leads Emily to a patio, where they don masks and join a group of samba dancers. As she watches a couple doing a seductive dance, Emily is startled by a man in a wolf mask, who bites her neck. She runs back to her hotel.

In the morning, Emily is shocked to find James Wheeler in her room. She accuses him of biting her neck but he denies doing it. Claudia calls from Buenos Aires and gives Emily orders to set up a meeting with Elliot Costa’s lawyers at the airport. Wheeler makes a date to pick up Emily that afternoon. When she meets him, he introduces her to Hanna (Assumpta Serna) and Otto Munch (Oleg Vidov), the couple they observed at dinner.

Wheeler has invited Otto, a race car driver, to accompany him on a motorcycle ride. Emily joins Wheeler on his motorcycle, while Hanna rides alongside Otto’s motorcycle in a limousine. Wheeler leads them to a Carnival celebration by the beach. There, Hanna is harassed on the dance floor, and Wheeler steps in to protect her. As Wheeler fights Hanna’s harasser, another man tries to steal Hanna’s necklace. Her dress is torn, exposing her breasts.

Otto tries to cover Hanna up, but she yells at him to look at her. Wheeler ushers Otto, Hanna, and Emily back into the limousine. They ride in silence until Hanna starts to cover her breasts. Wheeler stops her, expressing his desire to look at Hanna’s body. He compliments Hanna’s breasts and torso, and suspects that Otto’s anger toward her must stem from a past infidelity. Wheeler encourages Otto to admire Hanna, and places the man’s hand on Hanna’s thigh. He watches as they begin to make love. Emily becomes uncomfortable and asks Wheeler to stop them. Wheeler claims he cannot, and wonders if Emily has ever given in to primal urges.

Wild Orchid is a 1989 American erotic film directed by Zalman King and starring Mickey Rourke, Jacqueline Bisset, Carré Otis, Assumpta Serna, Bruce Greenwood, Oleg Vidov, Milton Gonçalves, Jens Peter, Bernardo Jablonski, Luiz Lobo and Lester Berman. Wild Orchid had its world premiere on December 21, 1989 in Rome, Italy. The film opened in Los Angeles on April 27, 1990 and New York on April 28, 1990. A sequel, Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue, was released in 1991.

The film was shot in Salvador, Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[4] King’s original version of the film was deemed too sexually graphic for an R-rating and the MPAA threatened to release it with an X-rating, limiting its commercial potential. King reluctantly removed part of a love scene between Otis and Rourke to comply with the R-rating. The scene was widely rumored in the media to have shown the two actors—who had become romantically involved during production of the film—actually having intercourse. Both actors denied this but the director was ambiguous.

Wild Orchid Movie Poster (1990)

Wild Orchid (1990)

Directed by: Zalman King
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Jacqueline Bisset, Carré Otis, Assumpta Serna, Bruce Greenwood, Oleg Vidov, Milton Gonçalves, Jens Peter, Bernardo Jablonski, Luiz Lobo, Lester Berman
Screenplay by: Patricia Louisiana Knopp, Zalman King
Production Design by: Carlos Conti
Cinematography by: Gale Tattersall
Film Editing by: Marc Grossman, Glenn Morgan
Costume Design by: Ileane Meltzer, Marlene Stewart
Set Decoration by: Leonardo Haertling
Art Direction by: Yeda Lewinsohn, Alexander A. Mayer
Music by: Simon Goldenberg, Geoff MacCormack
Distributed by: Entertainment Film Distributors
Release Date: April 27, 1990

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