I would have to guess that movies being made for TV had really only started in the 70's. I've never thought of that before. The popularization and the acceptance of television was probably not enough in the 60's the justify a TV movie, at least not until the very late 60's. Quick moment of research goes by here....Wikipedia tells me the first true example was in 1964 with See How They Run. So, it started a bit earlier, but I can imagine it was still a novelty in 1975.
Lee Remick stars as Fran. She's a tough independent woman reporter working for the paper, at a time when journalism was still respected and these people had every right to do whatever they wanted. She notices, along with the general public, the amount of prostitutes that are now out there on the street in New York, and decides to write an article about it. At just that time, tough talking street walking Wanda has just been arrested, so Fran pays the bail and makes her an offer, $50 an hour to write about Wanda's life.
What we have is the story of the friendship between the two women, each outspoken and rebellious in their own way, each a tough soul just getting by in their own world where they don't make the rules but they can bend them a little sometimes. An exposé on the life of a prostitute is given- we see the seedy motels where they do their work, the characters they consort with, the places where they're unwelcome and the general bad vibes they get from people at times.
What I liked about this is that it's not directly about Wanda being saved, as such, and it's also not only about how "bad" prostitution is. Sure, they have Wanda get beaten and raped at one point. They have the usual conflicts with the pimp. They have the young plucky other prostitute who eventually commits suicides. But in all that, we also see the loves and challenges of any independent woman who controls her own fate, and we also understand that in her own way she is proud of what she does, accepts it, and makes peace with in and the people it effects.
While uncovering the work of a street walker, eventually Fran uncovers that with all the work someone like Wanda does, she should be making lots of money, but she's not. So eventually it comes out that other companies, other businesses are taking cuts. Whether its the landlord who owns the hotels they stay at or whatever, Fran discovers that the haughty aristocrats who look down on Wanda are a lot more involved in her life's work than they'd care to admit.
This one was fairly decent. It moved along pretty quickly, it made you think, and it even had a good point or two about the nature of prostitution. In my lifetime we have seen the start of legal prostitution in the United States, and we have seen the stigma of it change a bit, with large groups clamoring for the rights of what are now called "sex workers". Like so many things, it's a subject which has gradually made it's way towards dignity and acceptance, helped a bit by things like this movie and the article is was based on.
I could give it high marks for that, for sure, but honestly I'm looking at it as a film first, not a document of the state of America. I will give it 3.5 stars though, and recommend it.
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