The Happy Hooker chronicles the evolution of Xaviera Hollander
from a Dutch bride-to-be to a notorious New York madam. The film begins with Xaviera and her girls
being booked, then her story is told in flashback, while they are in
a tank with a group of black streetwalkers.
Xaviera moved to New
York to marry, but discovered that her intended was a hopeless mamma's boy.
She took a job in an embassy that she was terrible at, and decided
to screw anything that appealed to her, It wasn't long before she
figured out that there was a living in that, but when a cop ripped
her off for all of her money, she joined a regular house. She ended
up buying it.
The
subject called for sex and nudity, and there was almost none. Believe it or
not, this film wasn't even sexy enough for Roger Ebert. The only
nudity comes from Anita Morris who, as one of Xaviera's girls, shows her breasts in two scenes.
In the first, she is turned into an ice cream sundae; in the
second, she gets a whipped cream wedding dress, then has it washed
off with champagne.
Even if one ignores the inappropriate timidity of the erotic content,
The Happy Hooker is not
a good movie. It is
not exactly a "girl makes good" story, and doesn't really introduce
the Xaviera Hollander who wrote a sex advice column for Penthouse
and had to live in Canada as she was wanted in the US. Lynn Redgrave, in
the title role, was one part cute, one part horny, and eight parts
ruthless businesswoman. For those
of you keeping score at home, the real Xaviera is now married, and operates a B&B in Holland.
D on our scale. The slow-paced film has minor interest only as a
time capsule and for the very occasional humorous moment.
Neither the critics nor audiences appreciated it. IMDb readers
score it a bottom-dwelling 2.0, and Roger Ebert awarded one star.
