The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington

Director William Levy's film based upon the exploits of Xaviera Hollander and from an insightful script by screen veteran Robert Kaufman. A cultural touchstone of America's Sexual Revolution, this film features an all star cast, including George Hamilton and Ray Walston in excellent supporting roles. It is, however, Joey Heatherton who gives what is nothing less than the performance of a lifetime as The Happy Hooker. She is superb in the role, funny, bright, engaging, and stunningly sexy. There is also subtle pathos in her work, reflecting a certain existential uncertainty that she artfully brings to her portrayal. This is indeed Ms. Heatherton's film and certainly her talent that overall sustains it. It also is an important statement regarding profound changes in the moral view of a nation and an incisive look into a time of massive societal transformations. An under-appreciated and often overlooked film, this remains one of the landmark motion pictures of the era.

In THE HAPPY HOOKER GOES TO WASHINGTON, the title character, Xaviera Hollander (Joey Heatherton) is going about her daily work, unaware that senate hearings are being convened to look into "sexual excesses in America".

Meanwhile, photographer, Rip Taylor, in his best fiberglass wig, takes pictures of call girls.

Next, we're off to an extremely bland orgy, where Ms. Hollander is subpoenaed to testify before the senate. Much 1970's-style, very creaky humor follows. When Xaviera struts onto Capitol Hill, she finds herself up against the self-righteous, hypocritical perverts who turn the wheels of government.

Cue the naked flashbacks.

Not that this movie has to have an actual point to it, but just what the hell is going on? Watching this is like having been slipped a drug that causes sensuality to be insufferably dull!

FACTS LEARNED FROM THIS FILM: #1- Joey Heatherton is hot enough to boil the Mediterranean Sea! #2- The disco era must not have been as fun as it's purported to have been!

WARNING: Watching this movie may cause your skull to splinter outwards like a grenade!...

The first "Happy Hooker" movie was actually watchable. It kept your interest fairly evenly. As for this piece of trash, it was not all that interesting, and was very horribly acted. You can't even value it for the camp value, or write it off as "well it was made in 1977". Cheesy story, and as I said the acting was less than amateur. The scenes with "The Shiek" were embarrassing, and the perpetually tanned George Hamilton as Xaviera Hollander's lawyer was awful. Billy Barty as a vertically-challanged CIA agent was just wrong. Harold Sakata was billed as Harold "Odd Job" Sakata, and his character was just as the credit suggests. Joey Heatherton looked great, but that's about it. For a film with the words "Happy Hooker" in the title, one would expect to see more nudity. Minor titilation wrapped around one badly-made movie. 0 stars out of 5.

I'm not sure how this gets such a low rating. Only 2.1? I've seen a LOT of worse movies. This one actually has a plot, some lighthearted humour, and (if you like them) lots of breasts. Not a great film, but not bad either. And I think it has a lot to say about our current times, not just the era it is from. This movie could not be made today because nobody with a recognizable name would dare be in it. I recognize there are serious films today that even go so far as to include actual sex to make their points, but nothing is as satirical as this, nothing pokes fun at those who need to be poked at. There are also films like A Dirty Shame which try to be funny, but they all seem to fail because they don't really believe in their own premise, and pull back. Anyway, I found this film enjoyable and refreshing.

Who thought the world needed a sequel to the original "Happy Hooker" film? Was the first one really that popular? Guess you had to be there. History tells us this movie was made at the tail end of the sexual revolution, ground zero in the disco era, and it shows--I can't imagine anyone being shocked by this turkey. It's also a true bridge between the first film, which was sexless TV-movie camp, and the third one, which was mindlessly dull soft-core.

Xaviera Hollander, famous hooker and now magazine magnate (oh sure) gets summoned to Washington for a trial about indecency involving...well, does it really matter? I've seen this film about 20 times since I was a kid and it would play on cable and I still couldn't tell you what it's "about." The first half is best and I usually turn it off about the time Xaviera gets kidnapped by Billy Barty (don't ask). The draw of the first half makes it all worthwhile to me, it's just berserk: Rip Taylor screaming and throwing fake snow around while photographing a topless extra from "Jesus Christ Superstar." Joey Heatherton looking beautiful and probably stoned out of her gourd, trying to act sexy and free but appearing a tad confused as to what she's accomplishing by being in this film (doesn't look like it helped her career much). A host of has-been 50's and 60's TV stars with bloodshot eyes doing cameos (Ray Walston? George Hamilton??). Bad 70's costumes and set designs, strange editing/foleying choices and enough teen-age-humor sex puns to fill a blow-up sex doll. Which is not to say it isn't entertaining--it is, I still laugh at the commercial parodies and the ding-bat sexpot stenographer who has trouble spelling a certain very naughty word (by the way...DO you hyphenate it, I wonder?)

But it's not sexy, just fyi. Despite a preponderance of exposed breasts, it's very like the first film, all innocent fun, the sex is at the level of a geeky teenager, which I was when I saw this, so it suited me fine. The second half is dull and disjointed; Xaviera has to seduce a stereo-typed Middle Eastern character and everything falls apart--they either ran out of money or everyone was zonked on drugs by the time they wrapped shooting. It just literally runs out of steam and simply stops at about the 90 minute mark.

I will always have a fond place in my heart (or somewhere) for Xaviera and her filmed exploits and so I'm glad this dumb film exists, but if you want titillation or even good exploitation you'll have to keep looking. Oh, and the new DVD transfer is absolutely stunning--talk about polishing a...well, never-mind...