Le schiave della metropoli

It's interesting that the British film "The Flesh is Weak" never uses the word prostitute...or any other euphemism for that line of work. It reminds me of a lot of Pre-Code films in Hollywood that dealt with abortion, prostitution, adultery and the like. The adult audience members knew what was going on...but the film never directly used these terms...perhaps so if there were kids in the audience they'd be oblivious to the subtext.

When the story begins, Marissa is new to London and is in need of work. Considering she's from Italy, has no family in the UK and is a bit dim, she's a perfect recruit for Toni Giani (John Derek). But he's clever and subtle. He doesn't approach her and say "how about becoming a ho?" but instead befriends her and she falls in love with him. Only then does he trap her into turning her first trick for him, as he tells her he's in financial trouble and will go to jail unless he can quickly raise some money! The rest of the film is about Marissa's time working for Tony as well as after she leaves him, as Tony's not about to allow any of his 'property' to get away scot free!

This is a very good film though I really wish Marissa had been a smarter and more likable character. As it is, you may find yourself annoyed with her, as I did. Still, it's a good film about a man who would do anything...even ask his beloved to morally debase herself for him.

Producer Raymond Stross, whose company was named Eros Films, specialized in making movies with sexual subjects of all sorts (usually starring his wife Anne Heywood), and this one is all about prostitution in London.

Milly Vitale is quite impressive as an innocent Italian girl, just arrived in London who soon is lured into a degrading world of selling her flesh. She's naive in the extreme, and takes only four days to fall madly in love with a low-life pimp, well-played by Hollywood heartthrob John Derek (long before he became famous for his series of actress wives Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Bo Derek), and soon become a hardened, disillusioned woman.

Script by Leigh Vance charts the inner-workings of small-time gangsters and everything seems hopeless until the final reel when Milly finally sees the light and is poised to testify in court against Derek.

Best scene comes when Derek finally blows up against the heroine he's been mistreating, and with his eyes bugging out in closeup he reads her the riot act in a terrifically negative outburst of pure misogyny.

One or two performances in this story of prostitution and the pimps behind it made this an interesting film. The United States hadn't seen such a blatant tale with such a good cast before; this is why this film caught the attention of the viewers. The writing was terse and pointed; the black-and-white cinematography made the picture riveting in much of its running time. The direction of the film is excellent and always tasteful.

Certainly, nothing in John Derek's film history gave a hint that he even knew what a pimp was, nor had he played a villain before. His performance was slick and believable. Milly Vitale had played completely sympathetic roles in the films for which U.S. audience knew her -- "War and Peace" and "The Seven Little Foys" -- but roles that amounted to nothing, so her performance in this small, dark film was a welcome surprise.

The remainder of the company -- Martin Benson, Freda Jackson, Patricia Jessel, Shirley Ann Field, and others -- were slightly known here at this time, later to make their superior talents known both on stage and screen; in this film, their contributions are very welcome!

A good British film and a better use of these actors' talents than American cinema gave them!

Milly Vitale comes to London to see what she can make of herself. She meets John Derek and it's love, love love..... until one evening, she realizes he's a pimp who's been grooming her as a streetwalker.

It's a rough film to sit through. Can anyone be that naive? Can anyone be that coldly manipulative? Derek plays it like Dirk Bogarde; there's something soft about him, compared with his hard, mobster brother, Martin Benson, that makes the whole thing make sense of sorts.

The movie takes its time, but I find the conclusion, with its statement that there are some things you can come back from, that society will forgive, to be unbelievable; or perhaps it's a wish that the world will forgive.

This drama is set in Soho and is a shocking presentation of the prostitution problem, showing in detail how it works for an innocent girl suspecting nothing to get caught in a web of ruthless pimps. John Derek had just before played the role of Joshua in "The Ten Commandments" and then plunged into this swamp of ruthless criminality, showing his great versatility. The other actors are good as well, but the main thing of the film is the thorough almost documentarily meticulous analysis of how the prostitution business works - and shocking, for being so highly developed already in the mid fifties.