The Harlots Handbook
- TV Movie
- 2007
- 1h
YOUR RATING
Photos
Storyline
Featured review
Enjoyable for what it does even though it doesn't really do as much as I would have liked given how easily it got my attention
Based on her own book "The Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack and the Extraordinary Story of Harris' List", Hallie Rubenhold presents this documentary looking back at the roots of the infamous "Harris's List". This list was written by Irish hack Samuel Derrick who adapted it from the notes kept by the "Pimp General" Jack Harris on the girls who would work on the streets of London, selling sex in the mid-eighteenth century.
Without any knowledge of prostitution in London and never having heard Rubenhold's book I was actually attracted by the title. However I did find the film surprisingly engaging as it briefly looked at this world in just about enough detail for someone like me (ie the casual viewer). The approach provides details around the list while also replicating the curiosity value of reading the descriptions by featuring several of them in silhouetted asides. This makes it quite jaunty and engaging but of course the downside is that anyone who has even a passing knowledge of the list or Rubenhold's own book will wonder what they got from the film.
You see it does run very short and never really goes into any detail perhaps working for me at the time but leaving the impression that I had only heard part of the story. That said though it is quite enjoyable for what it does even though it doesn't really do as much as I would have liked given how easily it got my attention.
Without any knowledge of prostitution in London and never having heard Rubenhold's book I was actually attracted by the title. However I did find the film surprisingly engaging as it briefly looked at this world in just about enough detail for someone like me (ie the casual viewer). The approach provides details around the list while also replicating the curiosity value of reading the descriptions by featuring several of them in silhouetted asides. This makes it quite jaunty and engaging but of course the downside is that anyone who has even a passing knowledge of the list or Rubenhold's own book will wonder what they got from the film.
You see it does run very short and never really goes into any detail perhaps working for me at the time but leaving the impression that I had only heard part of the story. That said though it is quite enjoyable for what it does even though it doesn't really do as much as I would have liked given how easily it got my attention.
helpful•00
- bob the moo
- Mar 9, 2007
Details
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
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