For a programme often derided for being light and fluffy, Charlie's Angels does sometimes delve into social comment, probably more than it's given credit for, and none more so when dealing with the subject of prostitution, a recurring theme throughout all the series (1976 to 1981), normally with one, sometimes all, of the Angels, going undercover as a sex worker.
And it's interesting that, overall, the Charlie's Angels scripts are quite sympathetic towards the women, generally painting them as victims of their circumstances.
In this episode, the Angels actually openly discuss the subject, on the car journey to Las Vegas, with Bosley present in the back seat. "With her parents dead, and the money gone, I dunno, in her place, maybe I could almost con myself into doing it", says Sabrina (Kate Jackson) refering to Mrs Mallin (played by Carla Borelli) who's being blackmailed, and who has confessed to the Angels, when they pressured her to tell the truth, that she was once so desperately broke that she slept one night with a 'high roller' for money. It had taken Mrs Mallin months with a psychiatrist for her to come to terms with what she did, "when the sun came up in the morning I had 500 dollars in my purse...and feeling so dirty I couldn't wash it off" - she remembered 'every rotten detail', even the room number at the hotel.
"Let's hope none of us gets put in a position where we have to find out what we'd do", replies Jill (Farah Fawcett) to Sabrina in the car (note that she doesn't say, "I'd never do it").
We then meet Elizabeth (played by Brooke Bundy), one of the Las Vegas chorus line girls. She tearfully tells Kelly and Sabrina her life story, how she got married at 18, "and when I was 19 he put me in a short skirt and sent me out to the street, then for my 20th birthday he sent me back onto the street with a fat lip and black eye, and told me not to come back with anything less than 100 bucks".
That Elizabeth has been deprived of love all her life is underlined when Bosley drives her home and she asks him to do her a favour and kiss her goodnight as nobody's done that at her front door before, and she wanted to know what it was like. However, this does become a bit of a loose end as the relationship between the pair never develops beyond that.
In 'Consenting Adults', seven episodes before this one, the prostitute was a high school student, funding an extravagant lifestyle; a cold unsympathetic character who was also robbing her clients in cahoots with the boss of the escort Agency she worked for, so to balance things out, this episode deals with women who go into this line of work out of desperation.
This time it's Kelly's (Jacklyn Smith) turn to be the prostitute, but, as in Consulting Adults, the client is none other than Bosley, who has now fully developed his impersonation of a sex client into the character of a rich brash Texan (an undercover accent that Bosley would repeat many a time in episodes to come).
Cass Harper played by Michael Callen makes for a convincing blackmailer, although the necktie he wears in the final scenes gives him the look of an avant garde artist, or painter. He's genuinely confused when he's falsely accused of stealing from the hotel, and even more so when a Rolls Royce is delivered in his name - all set up by the Angels, of course.
Kate Jackson is beautiful in a red track-suit in the opening scenes,."Mrs Mallin just went into the poker palace", she says in her trademark husky voice in her opening line.
Farah Fawcett with her hair unusually tied up, sports a quasi-hippy look, in a long brown skirt, purple blouse with sequins, and matching shawl, and has a great car chase around the casino car park played out to the familiar Charlie's Angels funky action music.
And Jaclyn Smith changes clothes and character from wearing a leotard for the chorus line audition, to a smart white silk blouse and trouser outfit when she's the high class prostitute, and then hot-pants and high thigh-length boots when playing the role of the showroom girl who delivers the Rolls Royce.
Overall, it's another strong episode in this groundbreaking first series, which by now, February 1977, was topping the TV rankings.
And by the way, the giant signs on the Las Vegas strip advertise that Tom Jones is playing at the Caesar's Palace, as indeed he did exactly at this time.
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