Walk on the Wild Side

Production: Columbia. Director Edward Dmytryk; Producer Charles K. Feldman; Screenplay John Fante, Edmund Morris; Camera Joe MacDonald; Editor Harry Gerstad; Music Elmer Bernstein; Art Director Richard Sylbert
Crew: (B&W) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1962. Running time: 114 MIN.
With: Laurence Harvey Capucine Jane Fonda Anne Baxter Barbara Stanwyck Joanna Moore

It's obvious that in their treating of prostitution and lesbianism the filmmakers did not want to be offensive to anyone. The result is a somewhat watered-downing of the Nelson Algren story of the Doll House in New Orleans and the madame's affection for one of the girls.

It’s obvious that in their treating of prostitution and lesbianism the filmmakers did not want to be offensive to anyone. The result is a somewhat watered-downing of the Nelson Algren story of the Doll House in New Orleans and the madame’s affection for one of the girls.

Laurence Harvey plays a drifter in search of his lady, Capucine. He does it well but not strikingly. Capucine, it turns out, is a member of the Doll House, showing a classic, Garbo-type beauty but somehow limited as to range in emotionality via script and/or direction.

Jane Fonda cops the show with her hoydenish behavior as another member of the House and Just-Lucky-I-Guess Alumnus of the freighter transportation circuit. Barbara Stanwyck is steely as the madame who looks to Capucine for the ‘affection’ she cannot find in her maimed husband.

Dmytryk maintains a nice pace in direction – that is, a steady pace – but more forcefulness in both his direction and the writing might have provided more dramatic impact.

1962: Nomination: Best Song (‘Walk on the Wild Side’)