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Bolero (1984)
In Svengali husband John Derek's overwrought
tale of sexual awakening that was released unrated, due to its rampant
and lengthy sexual content and nudity. After Fantasies
(1981) and Tarzan,
the Ape Man (1981), this was the third film (and vanity project)
featuring his blonde-haired, blue-eyed 27 year-old wife Bo Derek
(originally named Kathleen Collins). Their fourth and final collaboration
was for Ghosts
Can't Do It (1989).
The film's title was derivative
of two connections or double-entendres: a veiled reference to her own
name BO - lero, and a reference
to Maurice Ravel's 'Bolero' - played during a love-sequence in her
previous hit film 10 (1979) directed by Blake Edwards, although
there was no reoccurrence of 'Bolero' in his film. It was supposedly
a remake of the romantic musical drama Bolero
(1934),
starring Carole Lombard and George Raft (as nightclub dancer Raoul
- a Rudolph Valentino surrogate).
From its nine Golden Raspberry (Razzie) nominations,
the controversial and embarrassing stinker from Cannon Films (and
Golan-Globus Productions) won six awards (including Worst Actress,
Worst Picture, and Worst Director). Its domestic gross was about
$8.9 million, on a budget of $7 million. The film was also nominated
as one of the Worst Pictures of the Decade. Its taglines were: "An
adventure in eXtasy," and "The Hottest Erotic
Film of the Century."
- in the 1920s, "overeducated" Scottish
lass Lida MacGillivery (aka "Mac") (Bo Derek), an
avid Rudolph Valentino fan, had just graduated from
a strict all-girls English boarding school; she confessed
to her schoolmate - Spanish girlfriend Catalina (aka "Cat")
Terry (Ana Obregon): "But in the ways of love, we're kindergarten toddlers"; both agreed
that they wished to "wallow" in "eXtasy" on
the hot sands of Morocco - 'Mac' was on a quest to find an ideal
lover, after having obtained her inheritance from her father as a "rich bitch"
- to celebrate receiving the inheritance
and graduating as an 18 year-old, "Mac" stripped down
topless to her underwear and streaked about in the school's garden
and campus, amazing her father's chauffeur/guardian Cotton (George
Kennedy) about how much she had "grown well" since childhood,
although he protectively covered her with a blanket
- Catalina ("Cat")
and "Mac" - with their chauffeur/pimp Cotton, traveled to N. Africa (Morocco),
where "Mac" forwardly
introduced herself to a "real Sheik" (Greg Bensen) - London-educated
(with nods to Rudolf Valentino's 'sheik' character); she boldly offered
herself: "I have come all this way to give you something you may not even want.
My virginity...Will you take the gift?"
- the next day, after
arriving at the Arab sheik's ocean-side sand-dune encampment by aeroplane, "Mac" received
a lesson in sensual belly-dancing before she was stripped of her
clothing in his tent; old-style title cards described: "And
now...the gift is without a wrapper"
"Mac" with Moroccan Sheik - and Thick
Honey
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"And now...the gift is without a wrapper"
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- the Sheik asked in another title card: "Where
is the milk and honey?"; in the infamous scene, he dripped honey
onto her naked breasts and body and began licking the sweet substance,
causing her to be tickled; he asked: "What's the matter with
you?"; as she recalled just
before impending intercourse with the Sheik: "When it should
have happened...", her male partner/lover fell asleep (from
hookah-smoking): "The
sleep was from the magic smoke, not me." She was upset for being
denied sex - and for being covered in thick honey, and complained: "I'm
all dressed up with no place to go!"
- the next stop for "Cat" and "Mac" was
Spain, where "Mac" flirted with dark-eyed, sexy Angel Sacristan
(Andrea Occhipinti) - a bullfighter, vineyard owner and cattler herder;
but she had to compete with two others, at an outdoor
hot-tub:
- Paloma (under-aged 15 year-old Olivia
d'Abo), matador Angel's young almost 14 year-old "gypsy
child"
- Natty (Corinne Russell), Angel's jealous,
red-headed girlfriend
- Paloma bragged about her ripe feminine shape as
she was rinsed off by "Mac" after her sudsy bath: "I
am woman ready. Juicy, too"
Gypsy Child Paloma (Olivia d'Abo) In a Sudsy Bath-tub
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'Mac' In a Steam Spa with Paloma
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Natty (Corinne Russell) With the Matador
Angel
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- soon, "Mac" gave
herself to acclaimed matador Angel at sunrise, as she predicted:
("Fruit's about to fall from the tree"), although she first
had to give him a lengthy and wet tongue kiss in his ear! Before
a roaring fire, she then asked before offering her maidenhood: "Right
now, will you show me everything? Do everything to me? Show me everything
I can do to you? Am I too greedy?...Is there enough that I can give to
you? So that you can give ecstasy to me?"
- after being painfully penetrated during intercourse,
she told him: "I'm not a virgin anymore"
- shortly
later, she received the gift of a honey-colored horse and the acquisition
of his wine business; but their love and the possibility of marriage
was tested when he was gored in the genitals by a bull, although
she was certain he wouldn't be permanently impotent: "That
thing is going to work. I guarantee you this."
- meanwhile, "Cat"
lost her virginity to Scottish solicitor Robert Stewart (Ian Cochrane),
assuring him: "This is unbelievable. I love it.
And the hurt - I love the hurt"
- to arouse the
impaled Angel, "Mac" took a
brief nude and bareback horseback ride (Lady Godiva style), but was
disappointed in his reaction: ("You're a hard man to seduce")
- before attempting love-making, she urged: "You say that we never
found ecstasy. That it was like quicksilver, always promising next
time. Angel, I want ecstasy. Let's find it"; he cried out: "Make
me whole again," and
she accepted his challenge to be seduced ("I guaranteed it");
she assured him after he said that he loved her: "Well,
my dreams take me beyond infinity. What love you must have for me.
I guaranteed it"
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Final Successful and Climactic Attempt at Love-Making
and 'Extasy'
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- soon after, she was
straddled atop him, applauding his firmness ("Bravo!")
and they fulfilled making love in a smoke-filled Heaven, in front
of a neon sign reading: Extasy.
She exclaimed: "Look! 'X.' I was right"; they
were soon married in a church ceremony, as the film abruptly ended
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"Mac" (Bo Derek) - Stripping Down After
Graduation
Bullfighter Angel (Andrea Occhipinti) in Hot-Tub With Red-Headed
Girlfriend Natty (Corinne Russell)
"Mac" With Matador-BullFighter Angel -
Loss of Her Virginity
"Mac's" Nude 'Lady Godiva' Brief Bareback
Horseback Ride to Impress Crotch-Impaled Angel
Last Attempt at Love-Making and Finding Extasy
Church Wedding
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