Streetwalkin' (1985)

Academy Award®–winning actress Melissa Leo (The Fighter, Treme) stars as Cookie, a teen runaway who escapes her abusive stepfather and heads for the Big Apple along with her younger brother. When she arrives at the Port Authority bus terminal, Cookie meets a charming but sadistic pimp named Duke (Dale Midkiff, Pet Sematary). With nowhere to go, Cookie is soon working for Duke, who introduces her to the harsh, brutal life of a prostitute. Also starring Antonio Fargas (Starsky And Hutch), Julie Newmar (Batman), Leon (Cliffhanger), Randall Batinkoff (Kick-Ass) and Khandi Alexander (Treme).

Here's a slice of nonjudgmental pie for you. With what I surely thought would be a film about a runaway kid getting "turned out" against her will by some sleazeball pimp, turned into a rather refreshing look into "life" & what it takes to survive in a world such as New York. You see, even though she's a hooker she conducts her life outside of the bizz with all the day to day trappings that a office worker would endure. She's the mom to her brother & in many ways she mom to the other"girls" in which she rooms with. She doesn't take drugs or any of the other trappings that many a whore find themselves doing, she does have a psycho pimp DUKE however, but I'll flesh him out later. It was nice to see that the ladies of the night & the other street urchin's form a somewhat scummy community where they all know one another, have loose ties & to a certain degree care for each other, in other words street life is shown as just another way of life.

The cast of streetwalkers is pretty fantastic. First off we have Julie Newmar, the lady who played one of the Catwoman roles in the 60's TV show Batman, playing the older hard edged lot lizard that teaches all newcomers what to watch out for. Looking at her grizzled appearance you gain background into a life that's been a very hard slug but one that put her on top of her world. She's even free of a pimp, she's her own boss & you get she would like to take the girls under her wing if she could. Julie gives a very credible performance here, I don't know much about her in real life, but I'm guessing the hard slug at life isn't to far removed from the woman. Khandi Alexander is a woman I'm only familiar with through CSI Miami, maybe the odd movie here & there but can't remember her from them, she provides a great performance of a woman torn between two sides. She enjoys what she does for a living but has deep fantasies about living a "normal" life, getting married, having a family...ect. Her pimp, played to the hilt by Antonio Fargas, is a rather small time & rather week individual. He has 2 woman in his stable, one is drug addicted & the other, Khandi, has eyes for DUKE. When the heat gets turned on, she's all for numero uno & is quick to drop you as a friend if it saves her ass. Lastly we have Melissa Leo, I don't know this actress at all. I've looked through her resume & a few films I've seen, but don't recall her in them. Man-o-Man is she a stunner. Very hot & plays the roll of "lost" girl very well. The majority of female flesh we see in this film belongs to her & I dare say you needn't any other. Her acting on the whole is very good, given this was one of her first films. She is very believable & when she throws herself into her character, as she does is a few scene's, you can clearly see how she would years later wind up winning an Oscar, quite fearless.

This brings me to the (almost) ultimate badass, DUKE, played bat-shit crazily by Dale Midkiff. The only other person to play a pimp so badass is Wings Hauser in Vice Squad (1982) & is the sole reason Dale hasn't got top honors IMO. Dale brings to the table an unrestrained performance worthy of Oscar glory. You might say it was over the top but I'd have to argue. This is a man in a world most don't know & his struggle to survive is not only day to day, but hour to hour & this reflects in Dale's performance. He's walking the knife's edge & is seconds away dying. When he's in a life or death situation, he acts just like anybody else would, fight or die...just brilliant. When the fight turns to revenge, again you can see his misguided logic, you may not agree with it, but Dale's performance grounds the dealings.

What might be a hard to believe turn of events is that this little sleaze shocker was directed by a woman. Anybody familiar with exploitation films knows there is a long (ok not SO long) list of female directors that have cut their teeth doing films like these & to their utmost credit, they deliver films that are sometimes far superior to their male counterparts, as they know what men like to see & aren't afraid to push it to the edge. Joan Freeman has only one other film to her credit & that was the abysmal SATISFACTION(1988) the Justine Bateman/Julia Roberts vehicle, but it is my understanding she worked for PBS & other before doing this film, she should do a follow up feature called Streetwalkin' 2 as I would pay to see it.

Fantastic film 9/10