Main Cast: Joey Heatherton, George Hamilton, Rip Torn, Ray Walston, Jack Carter, Phil Foster
Release Year: 1977
Country: US
Run Time: 89 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
When a sex scandal threatens to blow the top off Washington politics, celebrated madame and advice columnist Xaviera Hollander (Joey Heatherton) is drawn into the fray. The hooker at the center of the controversy is a friend, and when the girl conveniently disappears, Xaviera is outraged. Meanwhile, a group of senators attempts to deflect public attention from themselves by holding a series of hearings on sexual excesses in American society. They decide to scapegoat "The Happy Hooker" for her well-publicized exploits, and she is subpoenaed as a hostile witness in their crusade against loose values. Though Xaviera isn’t concerned, her attorney (George Hamilton) warns her that vital issues of censorship and personal freedom are at stake. They fly to Washington D.C., where Xaviera’s irreverent testimony breathes some life into the stuffy proceedings. She tweaks the sensibilities of the senators (David White, Phil Foster, Jack Carter and Ray Walston) and holds their hypocrisy up to the daylight. Halfway through the hearings, Xaviera is kidnapped by an undercover CIA agent (Billy Barty) and pressed into service for her country. She is secretly sent to Miami to seduce a politically important (and impotent) Arabian sheik (Jerry Fischer), and while doing her duty discovers the missing hooker among his harem. Xaviera returns to Washington and triumphantly discredits the senate sub-committee by exposing its members as perverts and white slavers, thus saving erotic freedom for Americans everywhere. Joe E. Ross, Larry Storch and Rip Taylor are among the celebrities who make cameos in this mild ribaldry. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
Review
The second installment in the "Happy Hooker" cinematic trilogy stars leggy former bombshell Joey Heatherton as the titular heroine (replacing Lynn Redgrave), plus a cast that features nearly every working character actor of the era who had a free afternoon. Familiar faces and names abound, but The Happy Hooker Goes To Washington is noisy and unfunny, a limp apolitical farce with an adolescent sexuality. Heatherton has a certain amount of sparkle but never enough to steal the show; the script doesn’t help her much, since more than half of her dialogue consists of juvenile one-liners that turn her into a third rate Mae West impersonator. William A. Levey’s direction has improved since the maddening clumsiness of early work like Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman and Blackenstein, so the film is presentable enough, but the story is riddled with flashbacks and and extraneous action, ensuring a ragged pace. The level of political sophistication never rises above the level of the average Tonight Show monologue, and the film’s Benny Hill-style bawdiness belies the image of Xaviera Hollander as a crusader for sexual enlightenment. Approach only as a period piece from the years of gas shortages and wide lapels, perhaps as a double bill with the even more execrable Linda Lovelace For President. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
B.B. Neel - Art Director, Robin Royce - Art Director, Gail Viola - Costume Designer, John David Ridge - Costume Designer, William A. Levey - Director, Lawrence Marinelli - Editor, Beala Neel - Production Designer, Robert Caramico - Cinematographer, William A. Levey - Producer, Richard Wagner - Sound/Sound Designer, Bob Kaufman - Screenwriter
