Here’s Burl! Yes, it’s me, here to review an odd picture
from many years ago! This one is called The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood, and it
was the third and last in a series of Happy Hooker movies that were based on
the autobiographical book by Xaviera Hollander! Ha ha, she was apparently a
jolly pros'tute herself, but just what her specific adventures were I do not
know, as I’ve never read the book and this is the only Happy Hooker picture
I’ve seen!
But based on the plot synopses I’ve read, it sounds like the
most interesting of them! The first one tells of her arrival in New York and
the setting up of her first brothel; in the second she travels to Washington and
testifies before a Senate subcommittee (ha ha, yaw-w-wn!); and in this one she
descends upon Hollywood and supervises the filming of what I guess is meant to
be the first movie in the series! Ha ha, the snake eats its tail yet again! And
another interesting thing is that she’s played by different actresses in each
movie: Lynn Redgrave in the first one, Joey Heatherton in the second, and
Sister Hyde herself, Martine Beswick, in the third! Martine is my favourite of
the three, so again, I’m glad this is the one I watched!
After a tender scene at the beginning of the movie between
Xaviera and a New York cop played by none other than super-thespian Dick "Sorority Girl"
Miller, Martine hies to Hollywood and gets mixed up with a movie studio run by
mogul Phil Silvers, well-known from The Chicken Chronicles! And guess who works
for Phil? A guy who looks just like him except a bit younger, plus the best of
the Bat-Men, Adam West! Adam plays the sleaziest guy seen on cinema screens
since the yachtsman from Summer Night
Fever, or maybe the songwriter guy from Goin’ All the
Way! Anyway, he’s pretty sleazy!
Once Xaviera has been disappointed in love by Adam West and
in business by Phil Silvers (or maybe it was the other way around!), she hooks
up with Phil’s grandson, played by Jack Lemmon’s son Chris, and goes the
independent route to get her film produced! Her stable of prostitutes lie down
and get to work raising the budget for the picture, and it all looks promising
until Phil Silvers pulls a dirty trick and gets them all busted! But Xaviera
gets her revenge, working it so that Adam West and the guy who looks like a
younger Phil Silvers end up making sweet love with one another by mistake in the
dark, and then dressing up as ladies! Ha ha! Then she makes a bet with Phil
that she can finish her movie in time to meet an arbitrary deadline!
The climax involves a car chase and lots of goofy humour,
and while most of it is pretty dumb, believe it or not there are a couple of
funny parts! At least one of them is thanks to Adam West and his fine
performance! There are also quite a few naked ladies, and of course the tender
surprise appearance by Dick Miller! Altogether, when you take into account its
cast, its severely late-70s atmosphere, its clever satirizing of the movie
business (on a par with Hollywood Boulevard, I’d say!) and its general
entertainment value, The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood is good for at least two
and a half special appearances by Army Archerd!
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