Walk
on the Wild Side (1962, 114 min, US)
Barbara Stanwyck became an icon for "the
girls" by playing the lesbian bordello madam Jo in this
enjoyably trashy '60s psychodrama. Laurence Harvey is a drifter
who, accompanied by pal Jane Fonda, arrives at The Doll's House, a
posh New Orleans whorehouse run by the tough but sexy Stanwyck.
The scene soon becomes a pitched battle between him and Jo over
the affections of Capucine, his ex-lover and her "special
friend."
Starring: Laurence Harvey, Capucine,
Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Fonda.
Diector: Edward Dmytryk
What's
New Pussycat? (1965, 108 min, US)
Allen's first screenplay and first screen
appearance is a comic free-for-all about a fashion editor
(O'Toole) and his obsession with beautiful women. Sellers is
hilarious as the psychiatrist who's even crazier than his
patients. Tom Jones sings the title tune.
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Peter Sellers,
Capucine, Romy Schneider, Paula Prentiss, Ursula Andress, Woody
Allen
Director: Clive Donner
Hollywood
Lesbians by Boze Hadleigh
Positioned as a sequel of sorts to Hadleigh's
earlier collection of interviews with gay men in Hollywood, Conversations
with My Elders (1987), this volume is both less and more than
it seems. It's less because the subjects of Hadleigh's
interviews--Marjorie Main, Nancy Kulp, Barbara Stanwyck, and
Capucine, among them--were almost uniformly reluctant to discuss
their sexuality. Only comedienne Patsy Kelly speaks openly of her
life as a lesbian. It's not surprising, in fact, that Hadleigh
waited until all his subjects were dead to publish this
collection; almost certainly, many of them would have objected to
being included. On the other hand, the book is more than it seems
because these women are great talkers--about subjects other than
sex. Marjorie ("Ma Kettle") Main, for example, though
never admitting to being Spring Byington's lover, does tell some
great stories about her life as a contract player in Hollywood's
heyday. Similarly, costume designer Edith Head isn't saying a
thing about whom Dietrich slept with, but she says plenty about
the horrors of miniskirts. A fun book, but not in that dishy way
we expect from the title. Ilene Cooper from Booklist
