Cathouse (TV 2002)

Between March # April 2002 the HBO team went into the legal brothel that is the Bunny Ranch. We meet the owners and the staff as well as some of those coming to use the girls. With hidden ... See full summary »

Director:

Patti Kaplan

Writer:

George Ciccarone (conception)

Stars:

Madam Suzette, Kent Wallace, Karla

Cast

Credited cast:
Madam Suzette	...	Herself
Kent Wallace	...	Himself / Staff
Karla	...	Herself
Deanna	...	Herself
Sunset Thomas	...	Herself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Air Force Amy	...	Herself
Dennis Hof	...	Himself / Owner

Storyline

Between March # April 2002 the HBO team went into the legal brothel that is the Bunny Ranch. We meet the owners and the staff as well as some of those coming to use the girls. With hidden cameras we see the girls discussing what the visitors want to do and the prices. Guest include a mother who brings her 22 year old son to lose his virginity, an 18 year old looking for his first time, two brothers who want to share a girl, a couple who go to separate rooms with two different girls and a couple who want to have sex with the same girl.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

HBO

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 December 2002 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

By George Productions (II)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

70 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Followed by Cathouse 2: Back in the Saddle (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"
Written by Joseph M. Davis and Osvaldo Farrés
Recorded by Peter Fish

User Reviews

Really exploitative documentary of no value or interest. Even someone looking for a w*nk would be disappointed!

Between March - April 2002 the HBO team went into the legal brothel that is the Bunny Ranch. We meet the owners and the staff as well as some of those coming to use the girls. With hidden cameras we see the girls discussing what the visitors want to do and the prices. Guest include a mother who brings her 22 year old son to lose his virginity, an 18 year old looking for his first time, two brothers who want to share a girl, a couple who go to separate rooms with two different girls and a couple who want to have sex with the same girl.

In the UK we really only know HBO for the quality drama series of Sopranos, 6ft Under, Oz and the comedy Sex and the City. Even the made for cable movies only get shown occasionally. The seedier side of things tend to gravitate towards UK channel 5 and then get lost in the mix of their late night soft porn output. However this `documentary' arrived on channel 4 and I thought I'd give it a watch. I did expect the film would tend more titillation more than it would towards balanced reporting but I wasn't ready for just the degree that it would go to. No-one has a word to say about the negative aspect of the business and everyone is happy and full of joy. The women are all likeable but also very sexually driven - boasting of how they have masturbated 4 times already in one day, getting other girls to use vibrators on them as they come on camera - it is all very shameless stuff to try and get an audience share.

The hidden cameras only show the girls seducing their clients and talking about the things they will do once the deal is agreed (we don't see any of it happily). They don't add anything of interest - what did I learn from seeing a teenager shyly discussing what he wants? Nothing! All the talking captured on these cameras is simply a substitute for seeing the sex and again it is all just titillation with no value. All I learnt from this is that the girls all seem happy with their jobs and have no problems with what they do and that the owner thinks he is the luckiest man in the world! To call this a documentary is to do a real disservice to the word.

No, this is not a documentary but rather a bit of T&A for the masses. We have no alternative view points in the whole film, nothing that would even hint that there is a darker side to the business. Even the johns are all `normal' people, albeit a slightly high percentage of white, mulleted trailer trash! I'm not saying that the film needed to bring in the moral majority to moan but a more open view would have been useful. Surely there is more to the girls than the smiling, happy faces full of love for their job that we are allowed to see in their brief interviews.

The film's only value is to see T&A. Nothing else is of interest and the hidden cameras' only purpose seem to be to inspire envy in the audience over the explicit acts that are discussed but not seen. A really exploitative waste of time.