| Walk on the Wild Side | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Walk_on_the_Wild_Side_poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster inspired by Saul Bass's opening title sequence | |
| Directed by | Edward Dmytryk |
| Written by | John Fante Edmund Morris Ben Hecht (uncredited) |
| Based on | A Walk on the Wild Side 1956 novel by Nelson Algren |
| Produced by | Charles K. Feldman |
| Starring | Laurence Harvey Capucine Jane Fonda Anne Baxter Barbara Stanwyck |
| Cinematography | Joseph MacDonald |
| Edited by | Harry Gerstad |
| Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 114 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2 million[1] or $4.5 million[2] |
| Box office | $3 million (US/Canada)[3] |
Walk on the Wild Side is a 1962 American drama film directed by Edward Dmytryk, and starring Laurence Harvey, Capucine, Jane Fonda, Anne Baxter and Barbara Stanwyck. It was adapted from the 1956 novel A Walk on the Wild Side by American author Nelson Algren. The film was scripted by John Fante.
While it passed its censors, it was an adult film noir with explicit overtones and subject matter. It walks its audience through the lives and relationships between adults (mostly women) engaged in the "business" of commercial prostitution at a stylish New Orleans brothel. The "boss" is Madam Jo (Stanwyck), who combines toughness with a motherly tenderness toward her "girls".
Life wrote "Jane Fonda portrays a grubby, footloose prostitute...just arrived in New Orleans to live in a fancy house where much of the action takes place...to get approval by the Code Authority and Legion of Decency, the movie changes some of the most evil characters into good ones, and at the end justice triumphs, not Jane."[4]
- ^ JANET MASLIN, Screen: "Five Anecdotes About Puerto Rico," New York Times, 19 Mar 1983: 11
- ^ "Serene Capucine: Photog's Delight", Los Angeles Times, 30 July 1961: O10.
- ^ "Big Rental Pictures of 1962". Variety. 9 Jan 1963. p. 13. Please note these are rentals and not gross figures
- ^ "Walk on the Wild Side." LIFE, 23 February 1962, 101.