Whore (1991) Hooker Reality Neo Noir

"I must be some use to somebody. I mean, there must be a reason for me, right?"
Appropriately Whore begins with streetwalker Liz (Theresa Russell) strutting her stuff. in a Madona-ish get up, at the entrance of a tunnel. It's not subliminal. Hookers. Streetwalkers. Prostitutes. Whores and a tunnel all got something in common, a hole. The typically unrestrained Ken Russell shoves it right in your face. Bravo!

The "tunnel: is a Classic Film Noir iconic location, one of The City Of Angels tunnels of "love." Specifically the 3rd St. Tunnel. It's also one of the few remaining artifacts of Bunker Hill, a long gone scenically sleazy rundown Los Angeles slum dating back to the turn of the last century. It was made up of Queen Anne mansions that were sheet rocked into retiree cribs, with neighborhood bars and businesses, along with residence hotels, and hot sheet flops. It was all attached like a looming genital wart to L.A.'s old downtown by way of Angels Flight and long concrete steps.  The area was deemed by the L.A.P.D. as a "high frequency crime area." The Health department of L.A. also called the area a health hazard.

3rd Street Tunnel

In the 1960s Bunker Hill's houses and businesses were demolished and the area was regraded, dozed down about a hundred feet. The new skyscrapers that sprouted up are Bunker Hill's tombstones only the 2nd and 3rd Street tunnels remain in place. If you go to visit  Los Angeles, there is where you go to pay your respects to Bunker Hill. They also saved Angels Flight but moved it half a block South of the 3rd Street and Hill intersection.

Madonna-ish

Liz (Theresa Russell)

Whore is Ken Russell's satirical reality check to the fairytale Cinderella fantasy of chick flick Pretty Woman. It's almost a docudrama. The film's screenplay by Ken Russell and Deborah Dalton (Dalton produced a radio series on hookers and prostitution BTW) was based on former part time taxi driver David Hines' famous monologue called Bondage. It was inspired by the conversations he had with real prostitutes while running them around to their various tricks. Bondage was a sort of an amalgamation into a night in the life of a London Kings Cross hooker. It was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and throughout Europe.

Once you get your head around the fact that this isn't a cutesy treatment a la Pretty Woman, The Cheyenne Social Club, Irma la Douce, or The Owl and the Pussycat and more in the serious vein of Pretty Baby and Fellini's The Nights of Cabiria you'll see if for what it is, an unglamourous view of "the life."

Liz breaking the fourth wall, gives us an on and off running monologue of the "ins and outs" of her life on the streets. The dangers and the kinks. Flashbacks illustrate the various vignettes, some are humorous others terrifying. Some of these are juxtaposed with the monologues of her pimp Blake played by Benjamin Mouton. He's all for keeping prostitution illegal and himself in business.

breaking the fourth wall

Blake the pimp (Benjamin Mouton)

If prostitution was legal and protected the women would be more empowered. Gone would be the pimps, the payoffs, the underworld connections if the women controlled the sex trade.

Liz throughout the film tells us her sad tale. She goes back to the beginning. How she got married to a cute guy she met in a bar, who, no surprise, turned out to be an alcoholic. He can't stay sober and can't keep a job. She leaves him passed out on the floor, and with her infant son in tow and takes off for her mothers.

Liz finds a job in a greasy spoon diner and sweats out a living as a graveyard shift waitress. All is jake until a customer starts laying twenty dollar bills on the counter. He wants to go on a "date." It's more money than she makes in a week. She goes out on "the date" and finds out that it's pretty easy money.

But with the money comes danger, STDs, commodification of and desensitivity to sex. Liz tells us that she's had more sex partners than she can remember and while she used to enjoy sex she doesn't anymore. She meets up with Blake to takes her to L.A. To be part of his stable of hookers. She also confesses that once she was in, she couldn't escape from the control of her pimp.

The dialog, humorous, gritty, and probably shocking to some ears. It sounds real because it is real and right out of the mouths of David Himes' prostitute cab passengers. Theresa Russell does a wonderful and highly believable job with the material. She plays Liz one of the hookers in the stable of Blake the pimp. She works L.A.'s Main Street downtown and the re-developed steel and glass Bunker Hill.

Noirsville

Jack Nance

Antonio Fargas as Rasta

Danny Trejo

The story of how Whore came about was, as related by Ken Russell, that Himes recognizing Russell jumped out of his cab and asked him to write a screenplay. When Russell couldn't get financed in the UK he came to the US for the dough. The prostitutes venue was changed from London to Los Angeles.

Cinematography by Amir Mokri is a bit light on visual style for the most part. but that could be a result of budget restraints. Its subject matter is quite Noir-ish to overcome its lack. Music by Michael Gibbs with some interesting soundtrack selections.

Theresa Russell (Bad Timing (1980), Black Widow (1987), Impulse (1990) as prostitute Liz, Benjamin
Moulton (Basic Instinct (1992), Falling Down (1993)) as the pimp as Blake, Antonio Fargas (Shaft (1971), Across 110th Street (1972), Pretty Baby (1978)) as Rasta, Elizabeth Morehead as Katie, Sanjay Chandani as Indian, Jered Barclay as the Dead Trick in Car and Ken Russell himself as the snooty waiter in the French Restaurant..

Screencaps from an online streaming version. An intelligent, realistic, tongue-in-cheek look at prostitution. Café au lait Neo Noir. 7/10.