A House Is Not A Home is based on the autobiography of New York madam Polly Adler, and surprisingly, the story and the film make no effort to glamorize the world's oldest profession. It ends up being a novel twist on the old Hollywood story of "girl seeks fame and fortune but loses true love in the process," but it also depicts the hopelessness and drudgery of a prostitute's life.
The movie is clearly trying to be edgy in many places - there is frank discussion of rape, of drug abuse and of the slow erosion of self-esteem in the prostitutes that ultimately leads one to suicide. Polly's romantic relationship with a musician in most films would have been "happily ever after"; in this one, she waves goodbye on the advice of her bootlegger protege, played by Robert Taylor. He reminds her that "No matter where you live or what you do, you'll know what you are and so will he." The moral of the story is that despite the posh living, fancy dresses, high rolling associates and jewelry, she was in a prison of her own making thanks to her lifestyle choices and it wasn't one that made her very happy.
There is the subplot as well that involves Lucky Luciano (Cesar Romero) buying influence into the longshoreman's union by introducing the union boss (Broderick Crawford) to Polly and her girls.
Sadly, the movie itself wasn't as engaging as it could have been. Whoever translated the book into a screenplay failed to find a coherent story line, so the movie feels like a series of anecdotes strung together rather than a story with a beginning, middle and end. In addition, there isn't a lot of insight into what makes Polly Adler tick.
The movie is clearly trying to be edgy in many places - there is frank discussion of rape, of drug abuse and of the slow erosion of self-esteem in the prostitutes that ultimately leads one to suicide. Polly's romantic relationship with a musician in most films would have been "happily ever after"; in this one, she waves goodbye on the advice of her bootlegger protege, played by Robert Taylor. He reminds her that "No matter where you live or what you do, you'll know what you are and so will he." The moral of the story is that despite the posh living, fancy dresses, high rolling associates and jewelry, she was in a prison of her own making thanks to her lifestyle choices and it wasn't one that made her very happy.
There is the subplot as well that involves Lucky Luciano (Cesar Romero) buying influence into the longshoreman's union by introducing the union boss (Broderick Crawford) to Polly and her girls.
Sadly, the movie itself wasn't as engaging as it could have been. Whoever translated the book into a screenplay failed to find a coherent story line, so the movie feels like a series of anecdotes strung together rather than a story with a beginning, middle and end. In addition, there isn't a lot of insight into what makes Polly Adler tick.