American actor Ricardo Cortez played the leading male role in the French production The Orchid Dancer (La Danseuse Orchide). Louise Legrange stars as Luicha, who returns from Paris to her home village in the Pyrenees. Luicha has told her friends and family that she has been working as a governess, but her childhood sweetheart Yoanes (Cortez) discovers to his horror that the girl has been supporting herself as an exotic dancer known as "The Orchid." Worse still, Luicha is the kept woman of a wealthy wine salesman. Thoroughly disillusioned, Yoanes drifts from job to job, finally ending up as a movie-studio extra. Here he befriends gorgeous film star Marise (Xenia Desni), who enables Yoanes to become a top cinema leading man under the nom de film of Jean Barliave. Now in love with Marise, Yoanes/Jean doesn't quite know how to react when he crosses paths with Luicha again. The story goes off on a melodramatic tangent when Yoanes is seriously injured in a nightclub fire then nursed to back to health by the repentant Luicha. Despite all indications to the contrary, the film closes on an upbeat note. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi