Walk on the Wild Side (film)

Walk on the Wild Side
Theatrical release poster inspired by Saul Bass's opening title sequence
Directed by	Edward Dmytryk
Written by	John Fante Edmund Morris Ben Hecht (uncredited)
Based on	A Walk on the Wild Side 1956 novel by Nelson Algren
Produced by	Charles K. Feldman
Starring	Laurence Harvey Capucine Jane Fonda Anne Baxter Barbara Stanwyck
Cinematography	Joseph MacDonald
Edited by	Harry Gerstad
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	February 21, 1962 (1962-02-21)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2 million[1] or $4.5 million[2]
Box office	$3 million (US/Canada)[3]

Walk on the Wild Side is a 1962 American drama film directed by Edward Dmytryk, and starring Laurence Harvey, Capucine, Jane Fonda, Anne Baxter and Barbara Stanwyck. It was adapted from the 1956 novel A Walk on the Wild Side by American author Nelson Algren. The film was scripted by John Fante.

While it passed its censors, it was an adult film noir with explicit overtones and subject matter. It walks its audience through the lives and relationships between adults (mostly women) engaged in the "business" of commercial prostitution at a stylish New Orleans brothel. The "boss" is Madam Jo (Stanwyck), who combines toughness with a motherly tenderness toward her "girls".

Life wrote "Jane Fonda portrays a grubby, footloose prostitute...just arrived in New Orleans to live in a fancy house where much of the action takes place...to get approval by the Code Authority and Legion of Decency, the movie changes some of the most evil characters into good ones, and at the end justice triumphs, not Jane."^[4]