The Happy Hooker (film)

The Happy Hooker is a 1975 American biographical comedy film directed by Nicholas Sgarro[2][3] and starring Lynn Redgrave.[2] It was adapted from the best-selling memoir by Xaviera Hollander.[1]

The Happy Hooker
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNicholas Sgarro
Produced byFred C. Caruso[1]
Dennis Friedland[1]
Marlene Hess[1]
Screenplay byWilliam Richert[1]
Based onThe Happy Hooker
by Xaviera Hollander with
Yvonne Dunleavy and
Robin Moore
StarringLynn Redgrave
Jean-Pierre Aumont
Conrad Janis
Music byDon Elliott
CinematographyRichard C. Kratina
Edited byGerald B. Greenberg
Distributed byCannon Films
Release date
  • May 8, 1975 (1975-05-08)
Running time
96 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

As prostitutes are arrested in New York, a flashback begins to the life of one of them, a Dutch secretary Xaviera Hollander who moved to New York in hopes of marrying her fiancé Carl, whom she met whilst visiting her sister in South Africa.

Observing how Carl does not help her take her bags off the airplane and his increasingly long morning routine and primping, Xaviera grows concerned he is not the man she thought he was. Her suspicions are confirmed when his mother insults her over dinner. Xaviera offers him a choice of her or his mother and he picks his mother.

Xaviera finds work at the Dutch Embassy as a translator and secretary. She is asked on a date by Frenchman Yves and quickly falls in love with him and his extravagant lifestyle, as Yves has made a small fortune as a consultant for large corporations and even small countries.

Yves announces that he must leave as he has been summoned by the king of a Middle Eastern country. Xaviera breaks down crying. He hands her a large envelope containing cash. Although it makes her feel like a prostitute, she realizes quickly that this may be her calling in life because she loves sex and money. She starts meeting up with Yves' friends.

Xaviera prospers as a prostitute until she is shaken down by a corrupt police officer who takes her money and tries to rape her. Instead of paying him off, she goes to work at a local bordello with a madam who offers her a 50/50 split. Xaviera decides that she can do better on her own, so she leaves to open her own bordello ten blocks away. After a while, she is the most successful madam in New York City and buys out her former madam's business as well.

All is well until the corrupt cop from earlier in the film sees her and instigates a raid, sending her to jail. Xaviera's attorney bails her out of jail and sets her up with a friend of his who is coming in from Montreal.

Principal cast
ActorRole
Lynn RedgraveXaviera Hollander
Jean-Pierre AumontYves St. Jacques
Tom PostonJ. Arthur Conrad
Lovelady PowellMadelaine
Nicholas PryorCarl Gordon
Elizabeth WilsonMrs. Gordon
Conrad JanisFred
Richard LynchThe Cop
Vincent SchiavelliMG
Anita MorrisMay Smith

Critical reception

Vincent Canby of The New York Times enjoyed the film:

The movie is a cheerily amoral New York comedy about greed and lust in the land of opportunity... Having been derived from such unlikely subject matter, The Happy Hooker is doubley surprising. It's a witty work.[4]

On the other hand, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it one star out of four and wrote:

If Horatio Alger were alive today, he would no doubt be appalled by The Happy Hooker, the story of a girl who gets started off on the right foot in life but, through pluck and endurance, makes bad... What all of this is supposed to prove is beyond me.[5]

See also

References
  1. "The Happy Hooker Details". The New York Times.
  2. "The Happy Hooker Overview". The New York Times.
  3. "The Happy Hooker". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
  4. Canby, Vincent (May 9, 1975). "The Happy Hooker (1975) Witty Lynn Redgrave Spices 'Happy Hooker'". The New York Times.
  5. Ebert, Roger (January 1, 1975). "The Happy Hooker". Chicago Sun-Times. Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
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