TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Jeffrey Young I watched parts of this television mini-series long ago. I did like Lesley Ann Warren's role as Marja, later as Madame Marianne. Lesley Ann Warren is in fact the real one main character throughout the tv mini-series. The part I remember most is of Marianne as a young woman trying to make it on her own during the Great Depression. Jobs and opportunities for women are scant. Despite her best efforts, Marianne will find herself on the long road to becoming an escort agency madam. In the early days, Marianne takes up with a couple, the husband being the manager and his wife a burlesque dancer. For a while Marianne and the wife make a living doing burlesque dance shows as a team, from place to place. One day the couple suggest to Marianne that they make the burlesque dance routine more risqué which Marianne rejects. The morning after one of their nightly burlesque dance shows, Marianne awakes in their shared downtown hotel room to find that her partners have quietly deserted her, taking everything, including her clothing. All that's left is the red, cotton robe Marianne slept in and the unpaid hotel bill. The hotel manager shows up at the hotel room door to inform Marianne that her partners departed, leaving the room bill unpaid. Worse, Marianne learns that her male partner had lied about pre-paying the room bill. Marianne informs him of her misfortune and lack of money. The hotel manager, to his credit or maybe not, remains calm and cool, doesn't threaten her and doesn't force anything on Marianne, clearly she's broke and calling the police won't help anything. But Marianne is a beautiful shapely woman so the dodgy hotel manager offers her a deal. He'll overlook the unpaid hotel room bill and even give $20 to Marianne for sex. It takes Marianne but few seconds to understand her predicament has only one way out. She drops her red bath robe (she's naked underneath) and tells him, "You're the boss." The dodgy hotel manager rushes forward and hugs Marianne, kissing her on the side of the neck, as Marianne struggles to restrain her repulsion and humiliation. You may find yourself grossed out watching that scene. But I felt pity for the Marianne character. She had no other options and it was the only one she could take. It solves her predicament and in the next scene she's back home visiting her ailing mother. The $20 - a lot of money for the 1930 - allowed her to purchase a decent dress to wear.

triad-2 79 Park Avenue is a skillful if romanticized version of a Prostitute with a Heart of Gold. Leslie Ann Warren was great casting as was the rest of the other actors, in particular a young 18 year old actress Maria Grimm who plays the role of the one who initiates Marja into stripping. My father was an extra in the audience when they taped that sequence and though Leslie Anne had years of Broadway training as a hoofer, it was Miss Grimm's intense, rhythmically mesmerizing yet innocent 'Strip' that took his, and all our breaths away. It's a good thing we never met her as we might have fought over her. She is HOT and SWEET. Miss Grimm, more than anyone in the series, captured the essence of what a 'Woman-Child' should be, someone who could fit in your heart's pocket but send you to the Moon with her sweet Sass. I'd like to see the entire series, not the cut up version currently occasionally seen on T.V. as the Series is timeless, and the story compelling, and the acting wonderful.

roghache It's been three decades since I saw this mini series, but recall how much I loved it at the time. The story is set back in the 1930's Depression Era and revolves around a poor New York tenement girl named Marja, accused of murdering her drunken step father who had in fact raped her. Through circumstance, she is forced into teenage prostitution and eventually becomes a famous, high priced Park Avenue madam, now know as Marianne. She is also a mob mistress, involved with a gangster named Ross, a Las Vegas high roller.Lesley Ann Warren is absolutely wonderful, both as the lovely young, abused Marja and later the gorgeous, elegant, sophisticated high class madam, Marianne. I note that she, quite deservedly, won a Golden Globe Award for her role. However, my favorite character and the one that has remained with me through these many years is Mike, the idealistic man of integrity and the cop who loves her. I fell a little in love with him myself back then! Mike is compellingly portrayed here by actor David Dukes. I don't recall much about Ross's role, I was so besotted with Mike, though seem to remember him as a fairly sympathetic character.It's been a long time, and I never read Harold Robbins' book, so have forgotten most of the details but I highly recommend this mini series about enduring love in the New York underworld of vice and prostitution. Personally, I would dearly love to see it again myself.

sharonkaymarin I loved this mini-series and in my opinion it ranks right up there with the Thornbirds. I think it would be a hit if it came out on DVD. Lesley Ann Warren was superb as Marja. With her beauty and high class demeanor she adds another dimension to the character. Marc Singer was also great casting as Ross. He brought a sense of vulnerability and passion to the role of the gangster. And what better choice for Mike than David Dukes who conveyed the qualities of integrity and idealism. The characters played off one another beautifully and created an nostalgic atmosphere of real romance and heartfelt love. In this era of graphic sexuality I find it ironic that I would find a movie about a prostitute to be such a sensational love story but I do.