This films is to New Orleans bordellos what "The Best of Everything" was to advertisement agencies and "Valley of the Dolls" was to Broadway hopefuls. Unlike those two "A" grade Technicolor soap operas, this film doesn't hide its garbage, and lacks the unintentional humor of those pot-boilers.
The story surrounds a drifter (Laurence Harvey) who encounters the tough-talking Jane Fonda (as "Kitty Twist", a drag name if I ever heard one...) on his way out of Texas to New Orleans to locate his former lover (Capucine) and on the way, they encounter kindly Mexican diner owner Anne Baxter (!) who takes Harvey on as a hired hand after Fonda tries to rip her off. Capucine turns up in the "dollhouse", a bordello owned by the tough Jo (Barbara Stanwyck) who has more of an interest on her than a madame/whore business relationship. Jo is so cruel that she can't even buy her legless husband a wheelchair, content to see him maneuver his way around on a wheeled plank instead. Harvey, determined to win his old love back, utilizes Kitty (convienantly now one of Jo's "girls") and Baxter for help to predictable results.
You may need a shower after watching this perverse examination of degradation. Even with engrossing performances (although Baxter's casting as a Mexican lady is a bit eye-raising) this film never rises above its filthy bottom. Stanwyck's Jo certainly garners the most attention, unashamed to be playing an extremely vicious and possessive lesbian, only revealing tenderness in her character a few brief scenes with Capucine and her distaste for men in a dramatic explosion with her pathetic husband. The reason for his missing legs is never explained, only inferred. The 25 year old Fonda's character (supposedly under-aged) is not fully developed, while Capucine gives an appropriately restrained performance as a character pretty much dead in everything but flesh. Hero Harvey seems out of sorts in a role which required more subtle brooding. Somehow, he comes off as a gentleman on the opposite side of the tracks who decided to experiment with life by slumming.
The story surrounds a drifter (Laurence Harvey) who encounters the tough-talking Jane Fonda (as "Kitty Twist", a drag name if I ever heard one...) on his way out of Texas to New Orleans to locate his former lover (Capucine) and on the way, they encounter kindly Mexican diner owner Anne Baxter (!) who takes Harvey on as a hired hand after Fonda tries to rip her off. Capucine turns up in the "dollhouse", a bordello owned by the tough Jo (Barbara Stanwyck) who has more of an interest on her than a madame/whore business relationship. Jo is so cruel that she can't even buy her legless husband a wheelchair, content to see him maneuver his way around on a wheeled plank instead. Harvey, determined to win his old love back, utilizes Kitty (convienantly now one of Jo's "girls") and Baxter for help to predictable results.
You may need a shower after watching this perverse examination of degradation. Even with engrossing performances (although Baxter's casting as a Mexican lady is a bit eye-raising) this film never rises above its filthy bottom. Stanwyck's Jo certainly garners the most attention, unashamed to be playing an extremely vicious and possessive lesbian, only revealing tenderness in her character a few brief scenes with Capucine and her distaste for men in a dramatic explosion with her pathetic husband. The reason for his missing legs is never explained, only inferred. The 25 year old Fonda's character (supposedly under-aged) is not fully developed, while Capucine gives an appropriately restrained performance as a character pretty much dead in everything but flesh. Hero Harvey seems out of sorts in a role which required more subtle brooding. Somehow, he comes off as a gentleman on the opposite side of the tracks who decided to experiment with life by slumming.