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Beverly Hills Madam (1986)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 1/24

BHMad
1/24: Beverly Hills Madam is very close to the truth.

Three books were published during the 90's and the following decade: You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again and its two sequels. Prostitution is nothing new, and a madam running the business in Hollywood has gone for a long time. What's impressive is the film foretold the story of Heidi Fleiss who got started one year later. Before her, it was Madam Alex.

Because Beverly Hills Madam is a telefilm, it doesn't tell the full story. Many famous people such as actors, producers, musicians, and politicians were big-time customers. Think of Jack Nicholson, Rod Stewart, Don Henley, Sylvester Stallone, and Don Simpson. The Arabs, especially those who came from oil money, made up a great bulk of the clientele. The sex wasn't always straightforward as some customers liked to get rough. After a while, the nature of business inflicted a toll on the hookers who numbered in the hundreds, not just a handful, per madam.

Great-looking to begin with, the females came from broken homes and were often sexually molested by relatives. So, coming to the business for the first time isn't a shock to them. Drugs are often abused so they can numb themselves going through it. Eventually, they get broken just like how it happened to Claudia. Why they became hookers is it's so easy to make thousands of dollars when the minimum wage was like three to four bucks an hour at the time. They also received expensive jewelry and got to travel all over the world. A few paid their way through college by this manner. Surprised by how well they were doing, friends wanted to be referred for this line of work.

Faye Dunaway does an excellent job. It's all supply-and-demand to her character who likes to live well while feeling powerful. Yes, the bad stuff that her hookers go through...she's been there before. From time to time, they'll get confused if it's Pretty Woman time for them, but it never happens. Why? Their johns will remind them of exactly who they are: a whore.

All in all, despite holding back a lot of the bad stuff, Beverly Hills Madam is accurate for the most part.