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Best Classic Movies About Prostitution?


Never on Sunday
Klute

I'm busy now, but all of them pre-1980 were good movies. Thanks!

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The tawdry, pre-code BABY FACE (1933) has Barbara Stanwyck being prostituted by her father, then she moves to the big city to "use men to get the things she wants."

SEE: http://youtu.be/_NkcRllnmFo

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Butterfield8, with Elizabeth Taylor as the working girl.

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Supposedly the book by John O'Hara is much better than the movie. I know Elizabeth Taylor won an Oscar for this...but I don't think she's usually a very good actress. (except in a few OTHER things!)

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Irma La Douce or is that too modern?

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When I was little I pronounced this "Irma la Douche" by mistake : o

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LOL

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😛

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Both of Louise Brooks's famous movies w/ Pabst, Pandora's Box and Diary of A Lost Girl, have her as a prostitute (at least some of the time).
Marlene Dietrich is the most exalted/notorious prostitute in China, 'Shanghai Lily', in Shanghai Express (1932).
Both Waterloo Bridge's (1930, 1941 IIRC) have an important supporting character who has to be saved from prostitution.
Bresson's early masterpiece, Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne, has a fiendish revenge plot about fooling an ex into unknowingly marrying a (former) prostitute.
Several Ophuls films, e.g., La Ronde and Le Plaisir have major prostitution sub-plots.
Nights of Cabiria has already been mentioned
Anna Magnani is a salt-of-the-earth ex-Prostitute whose past costs her her son in Pasolini's Mama Roma (1962)
Godard's Vivre sa vie has already been mentioned.
Janet Munro is a classic 'falling into prostitution and drugs' cautionary tale in Bitter Harvest (1963)
Catherine Deneuve is a bored rich woman who works at a brothel during the day for kinky kicks in Bunuel's Belle de jour (1967).

All of these films are very good to excellent.

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Risky bussiness (1983) was about a girl named Lana who starts off as only a prostitute for Joel and they both fall in love.

The girl next door (2004) was about Danielle who was in the porn industry and also by the end falls in love with Matt.

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Leaving Las Vegas

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Night Shift!

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Night Shift was fun!

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Breakfast at Tiffanys

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wow, i saw that in high school -- must have been hidden (or maybe i was sick that day, lol, it was a 2 parter)

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Yes to Klute!

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