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A Walk on the Wild Side (book)

Author	Nelson Algren
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Spearman
Publication date	1956
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	346 p. (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 1-84195-680-5 (paperback edition)

Walk on the Wild Side (film)
Directed by	Edward Dmytryk
Produced by	Charles K. Feldman
Written by	John Fante Edmund Morris
Starring	Laurence Harvey Capucine Jane Fonda Anne Baxter Barbara Stanwyck.
Cinematography	Joseph MacDonald
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	1962
Running time	114 minutes
IMDb profile

A Walk on the Wild Side is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, most often quoted as the source for Algren's "three rules of life": "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own." Algren noted, "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives."

Set in New Orleans, the story centers on a naive young man (Dove Linkhorn, played in the film by Laurence Harvey) who finds himself in a milieu of far more sophisticated women, including Hallie Gerard (played in the film by Capucine). Hallie is a prostitute. When Dove becomes aware of this, he decides it is his mission to "rescue" her.

In 1970, Lou Reed was approached about a project to turn "Walk on the Wild Side" into a musical. The project never materialized, but Reed used the title for a popular song, "Walk on the Wild Side", describing the lives of the transexuals and tranvestites he saw with Andy Warhol at The Factory. The novel was also loosely adapted into a 1962 film directed by Edward Dmytryk. Despite Walk on the Wild Side's scandalous story, the film adaptation's title song has become something of a gospel standard.

The title of the Munsters episode "A Walk on the Mild Side" makes an obvious reference to this novel's title.

The film, produced in 1962, had a star-studded cast, including Harvey, Capucine, Jane Fonda (in one of her first roles, age 24), Anne Baxter, and Barbara Stanwyck and was scripted by John Fante. Nonetheless, it was not well-received at the time. When it premiered, Bosley Crowther of the New York Times called it a "lurid, tawdry, and sleazy melodrama."

It is said neither Harvey nor Capucine found the other at all appealing. IMDB reports that "Capucine objected to filming kissing scenes with Laurence Harvey, feeling that he was not manly enough for her. Harvey reportedly replied, 'Perhaps if you were more of a woman, I would be more of a man. Honey, kissing you is like kissing the side of a beer bottle.'"

• Walk on the Wild Side at the Internet Movie Database