Movies are often accused of sugarcoating the realities of the world’s oldest profession. Here are 13 examples.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
If you’re saying “Breakfast at Tiffany’s?,” yes! Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Though the film glosses over the rougher elements of Truman Capote’s novella, it makes clear that Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), an enduring symbol of glamour and elegance, is doing sneaky things on the side.
Capote said that Holly Golightly was not “precisely” a sex worker, but was more like an “American geisha”: “She had no job but accompanied expense-account men to the best restaurants and night clubs, with the understanding that her escort was obligated to give her some sort of gift, perhaps jewelry or a check … if she felt like it, she might take her escort home for the night.”
At one point she explains that “any gentleman with the slightest chic will give a girl a $50 bill for the powder room.” That’s about $500 in today’s money.
Never on Sunday (1960)
This Greek film stars Melina Mercouri as Ilya, a free-spirited woman of the night who finds her way of life challenged by classical scholar Homer (Jules Dassin, who also wrote and directed the film). He tries to steer her toward his version of morality as she tries to loosen him up.
Oh, and that thing she never does on Sunday?
You guessed it.
Irma la Douce (1963)
The Apartment stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, director Billy Wilder and screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond reunited for this farcical rom-com in which Lemmon plays a policeman who becomes infatuated with lovable lady of the evening Irma (MacLaine), and resolves to rescue her via a comedically complex series of misrepresentations.
The film goes for laughs more than The Apartment, a classic that explored some similar themes.
Belle de Jour (1967)
This French romantic drama stars the impossibly glamorous Catherine Deneuve as Séverine, a married woman who begins working at a high-class brothel to investigate her own curiosity.
After initial reluctance, she begins to find excitement and thrills in her new life, and even her relationship with her husband improves.
This being a movie made in 1967, of course bad things happen — but not necessarily because of her new line of work. Problems arise when Marcel (Pierre Clémenti), with whom she initially has an exciting affair, turns jealous and violent.
The Happy Hooker (1975)
The title says it all. Based on Xaviera Hollander’s bestselling memoir, this comedy stars Lynn Redgrave as a worker in the Dutch consulate who quits to pursue a much more lucrative line of work.
New York Times critic Vincent Canby called it “a cheerfully amoral New York comedy about greed and lust in the land of opportunity” and “a witty work.”
The lead character runs into lots of problems, sure, but she charms her way out of all of them. The film spawned two sequels.
Dolemite (1975)
Dolemite is very much focused on Rudy Ray Moore’s titular character, a fresh-out-of-prison pimp on the warpath.
The woman just stare at him adoringly — when they aren’t working on his behalf with some slick martial-arts moves — and seem grateful to be in his presence.
Night Shift (1982)
Night Shift is another movie that uses prostitution as a metaphor for capitalism, this Ron Howard comedy features Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton as Chuck and Bill, two likable New York City morgue workers. But they’re soon turned on to exciting new opportunities by Belinda (Shelly Long), Chuck’s prostitute neighbor. Soon they’ve turned the morgue into a party pad/brothel.
The movie presents sex work as a good arrangement for everyone — until cops and rival pimps take offense. And Shelly doesn’t want to quit her job, and points out to Chuck that being a pimp is in no way superior to being a sex worker.
The film also makes the case that there’s nothing innately wrong with sex work — it’s the cops and violence that are the problem. Which brings us to the convenient solution in the next film on our list.
The Best Little Warehouse in Texas (1982)
We know: That’s not the title. We had to change it to appease the standards of some of the sites that syndicate this gallery you’re reading.
This very sex-positive Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton film portrays an idyllic relationship between a madame (Dolly Parton) and sheriff (Burt Reynolds.) He allows her business to flourish, seeing her version of sex work as a victimless crime. Things only get messy when some local do-gooding opportunists start protesting.
The film offers a version of sex work in which police would protect, rather than prosecute, sex workers, who would control their own fates. That’s pretty forward-thinking for 1982.
Trading Places (1983)
Jamie Lee Curtis’ sex worker character, Ophelia, is maybe the most likable character in Trading Places, a rags-to-riches/riches-to-rags comedy based on Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.
Though the film pulls no punches about the rough life led by Ophelia, it ultimately presents an optimistic vision of the world — like that of Pretty Woman — in which a random encounter on the mean streets can eventually lead to a life of luxury.
By the end of the movie, Ophelia is living the good life in a tropical paradise with Louis (Dan Aykroyd) and Billy Ray (Eddie Murphy).
Doctor Detroit (1983)
Doctor Detroit is Dan Aykroyd’s other 1983 movie that prominently features the world’s oldest profession.
Dan Aykroyd plays a nerdy professor who, through a comedic chain of events, replaces Howard Hessman’s pimp character, to the delight of his glamorous employees.
Soon he adopts the persona of a metal-fisted weirdo named Doctor Detroit who will do anything to protect the ladies — and even leads them in a show-stopping dance number with James Brown.
One of the ladies is played by Donna Dixon (to the right of Aykroyd, above). After she and Aykroyd met onset, they were married for decades. But in the movie, Aykroyd’s character marries another of the women in his crew, played by Fran Drescher.
Risky Business (1983)
A great capitalism-metaphor movie, Risky Business suggests that the wholesome-looking Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) is very much in control of her destiny, and even has real feelings for her young client, Joel (Tom Cruise, not a bad-looking guy) — with whom she starts a pop-up brothel.
Of course, it’s complicated. Though initially presented as an object of desire, Lana is a compelling and very smart character.
“I wanted to maintain her dignity, regardless if she’s having sex for money,” De Mornay said in a recent interview with TheWrap. “She maintained some source of integrity and soul… I wanted to present the underdog who was reduced to having to be a prostitute, exploited in our capitalist system, trying to get by as best she could without the cushion of having a family of money and connections.”
If you just remember Risky Business for Tom Cruise dancing to Bob Seger in his underwear, you might want to give it a second watch. It’s an excellent movie.
Pretty Woman (1990)
No movie sugarcoats the realities of sex work more than Pretty Woman, in which Julia Robert’s lovable Vivian is rescued from a street corner by the very wealthy Edward (Richard Gere) for a few days of no-strings-attached fun that of course turn into a life-changing love affair for both of them.
Obviously, that’s not how it always works out. Even the writer of the movie, J.F. Lawton, had planned for it to be a much grittier story before director Garry Marshall gave it a Disney makeover. (The original version was called $3,000, which is of course the amount Edward offers to pay Viv for her company for the week.)
“There are no Vivians,” Marian Hatcher, a sex-trafficking survivor who now works at the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, told Time. “There are no women who are being rescued by a Prince Charming like Richard Gere.”
True Romance (1993)
We love True Romance, written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott, but at least one element of it is pure Hollywood fantasy: After just four days on the job, Alabama (Patricia Arquette) meets and falls in love with her third customer, the sweet and handsome Clarence (Christian Slater).
Better still, an apparition of Elvis Presley (Val Kilmer) appears — and instructs Clarence to go confront Alabama’s evil, racially confused pimp (Gary Oldman) — and Clarence ends up killing him. Thus begins a true romance.
Is this the most realistic movie? Maybe not, but we’re truly in love with it.
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Main image: Risky Business.