In the film "BUtterfield 8," which was released on November 4, 1960, Elizabeth Taylor portrayed a woman of very loose morals, Gloria Wandrous, who was not very far away from being an actual call girl. Based on a 1935 novel by John O'Hara, the film revealed the woman's inner shame, as well as her subsequent visits to a psychiatrist to understand her own behavior. The movie ended tragically for Gloria but nevertheless managed to cop a Best Actress Oscar for its leading lady. But the very next week, another, albeit smaller, film would open, on November 11, that depicted a very similar story but in even more realistic fashion. That film was "Girl of the Night," starring Anne Francis in the role that she would later go on to proclaim was her very favorite of all her many performances. Based on the best-selling clinical expose volume of 1958 entitled "The Call Girl: A Social and Analytic Study" by Dr. Harold Greenwald, the film is a wonderfully adult and realistic account of a true call girl, and shows the depths to which she sinks as well as her tentative attempts to pull herself back to self-respect.
When we first encounter beautiful Bobbie Williams in the film, she is running through the Manhattan streets to her Upper East Side apartment, sobbing after having been brutally beaten by her latest john. A friendly cab driver steers her into the office of a doctor in her building, one Dr. Mitchell (very sympathetically portrayed by Lloyd Nolan), and even though he is not an M.D., but rather a psychotherapist, the two begin seeing each other professionally. Thus, we get to learn something of Bobbie's miserable background, her abandoned childhood, her early molestation, and her descent into prostitution. During the course of the film, we also get to witness the nature of her relationship with her pimp, Larry Taylor (a nicely slimy performance by John Kerr, who had also costarred with Francis in that same year's "The Crowded Sky"), a controlling and manipulative leech of a human being if ever there were one. And we get to also know the madame who is steering business their way, one Rowena Claiborne, played with steely verve by the veteran actress Kay Medford (who was also simultaneously appearing on screen in "BUtterfield 8"!). Ultimately, Dr. Mitchell convinces Bobbie to give up the business and try her hand at independence, and so we get to see the young woman attempting to hold down an office job while simultaneously keeping her past a secret from her female coworkers. But, realistically, Larry's manipulations prove too much to resist, and Bobbie is once again drawn back into the sleazy fold. Still, the film DOES manage to hold out some hope by the time the final credits roll....
"Girl of the Night" has been finely directed, in noirish B&W, by Joseph Cates, who would go on to impress, five years later, with another seedy urban shocker, "Who Killed Teddy Bear?" He gives his leading lady many beautiful close-ups and incorporates any number of stylish touches into his film. But the picture most certainly belongs to the great Anne Francis, who is simply marvelous in the title role. She is given any number of scenes in which to shine and offers up a performance here that is every bit as Oscar worthy as Ms. Taylor's; perhaps more so. Bobbie is hardly a likable character, weak willed and completely lacking in self-respect as she is, but Francis--a very undersung performer, I have always felt--makes us sympathize with her anyway. The actress, 30 years old here and still five years away from what I consider her physical peak (1965's "Honey West," the TV character who, as I have often said, jump-started my puberty!), still looks absolutely gorgeous here. The film also features terrific use of NYC locales, and thus we get to see Bobbie strolling along the East River, walking down the steps of the Met, and strolling around any number of locales in Central Park. (Personally, I love to sit on the exact bench, by the Park's Conservatory Water, where Bobbie once sat and contemplated her future!) "Girl of the Night" offers up any number of impressive scenes, such as the one in which Bobbie and a novice call girl go on a "double date," with disastrous consequences; the one in which Bobbie lays sobbing on Dr. Mitchell's couch while recounting the events of her recent date with a man who happened NOT to be a john; and, of course, the final showdown between Bobbie and Larry, before she walks off into what will hopefully be her new and better life. As compared to "BUtterfield 8," "Girl of the Night" is surely the smaller film, produced on a smaller budget, even though it is a product of the Warners Studio. Still, to my mind, it is the superior picture; not just because it is more honest, realistic and adult, but because it is more stylish, and features a leading-lady performance that really does manage to stun the viewer. I do not begrudge Liz her Oscar for "Who's Afraid of Viriginia Woolf?," but that statuette in 1960 was surely more well deserved by Anne Francis....
When we first encounter beautiful Bobbie Williams in the film, she is running through the Manhattan streets to her Upper East Side apartment, sobbing after having been brutally beaten by her latest john. A friendly cab driver steers her into the office of a doctor in her building, one Dr. Mitchell (very sympathetically portrayed by Lloyd Nolan), and even though he is not an M.D., but rather a psychotherapist, the two begin seeing each other professionally. Thus, we get to learn something of Bobbie's miserable background, her abandoned childhood, her early molestation, and her descent into prostitution. During the course of the film, we also get to witness the nature of her relationship with her pimp, Larry Taylor (a nicely slimy performance by John Kerr, who had also costarred with Francis in that same year's "The Crowded Sky"), a controlling and manipulative leech of a human being if ever there were one. And we get to also know the madame who is steering business their way, one Rowena Claiborne, played with steely verve by the veteran actress Kay Medford (who was also simultaneously appearing on screen in "BUtterfield 8"!). Ultimately, Dr. Mitchell convinces Bobbie to give up the business and try her hand at independence, and so we get to see the young woman attempting to hold down an office job while simultaneously keeping her past a secret from her female coworkers. But, realistically, Larry's manipulations prove too much to resist, and Bobbie is once again drawn back into the sleazy fold. Still, the film DOES manage to hold out some hope by the time the final credits roll....
"Girl of the Night" has been finely directed, in noirish B&W, by Joseph Cates, who would go on to impress, five years later, with another seedy urban shocker, "Who Killed Teddy Bear?" He gives his leading lady many beautiful close-ups and incorporates any number of stylish touches into his film. But the picture most certainly belongs to the great Anne Francis, who is simply marvelous in the title role. She is given any number of scenes in which to shine and offers up a performance here that is every bit as Oscar worthy as Ms. Taylor's; perhaps more so. Bobbie is hardly a likable character, weak willed and completely lacking in self-respect as she is, but Francis--a very undersung performer, I have always felt--makes us sympathize with her anyway. The actress, 30 years old here and still five years away from what I consider her physical peak (1965's "Honey West," the TV character who, as I have often said, jump-started my puberty!), still looks absolutely gorgeous here. The film also features terrific use of NYC locales, and thus we get to see Bobbie strolling along the East River, walking down the steps of the Met, and strolling around any number of locales in Central Park. (Personally, I love to sit on the exact bench, by the Park's Conservatory Water, where Bobbie once sat and contemplated her future!) "Girl of the Night" offers up any number of impressive scenes, such as the one in which Bobbie and a novice call girl go on a "double date," with disastrous consequences; the one in which Bobbie lays sobbing on Dr. Mitchell's couch while recounting the events of her recent date with a man who happened NOT to be a john; and, of course, the final showdown between Bobbie and Larry, before she walks off into what will hopefully be her new and better life. As compared to "BUtterfield 8," "Girl of the Night" is surely the smaller film, produced on a smaller budget, even though it is a product of the Warners Studio. Still, to my mind, it is the superior picture; not just because it is more honest, realistic and adult, but because it is more stylish, and features a leading-lady performance that really does manage to stun the viewer. I do not begrudge Liz her Oscar for "Who's Afraid of Viriginia Woolf?," but that statuette in 1960 was surely more well deserved by Anne Francis....