Melissa Leo turned heads last Oscar season when she went out of her way to prove she was attractive and didn’t look like her rugged mom character in The Fighter. Even though she’d been in many high profile projects over the last decade, she achieved her first leading actress credit on a Roger Corman production; Streetwalkin’. She’s the teenage girl who takes to prostitution. There’s plenty of high profile talent on the screen including Julie Newmar (Batman‘s Catwoman) and Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear). Now Streetwalkin’ can be rediscovered as part of the Roger Corman’s Cult Classics series on August 2. Here’s the press release from Shout! Factory:
ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER MELISSA LEO HEADLINES IN THIS GRITTY, EMOTIONAL ROLLER-COASTER OF A TEEN PROSTITUTE ON THE SLEAZY STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY
STREETWALKIN’
Starring Melissa Leo, Dale Midkiff, Leon Robinson, Antonio Fargas and Julie Newmar
Strutting onto Home Entertainment Shelves August 2, 2011 From Shout! Factory
“Fact paced … vicious … full of surprises.” New York Times
Long before her star turns in Homicide: Life on the Street, Frozen River, Welcome to the Rileys, HBO’s Treme or The Fighter, Oscar®- winner Melissa Leo delivers a tour-de-force performance in the 1985 motion picture Streetwalkin’ as a teen runaway seduced into the sleazy world of Times Square hookers, pimps, gangsters and lowlifes. There’s plenty of action — on and off the mean streets of New York City, in the bars, cars, apartments, hotel rooms and back alleys — that turns good girls bad, bad girls badder and repays kindness with death.
Directed by Joan Freeman (Satisfaction), who co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, Robert Alden, Streetwalkin’ is a time capsule that captures the sights and sounds of the underbelly of 1980s Times Square, with it’s streetwalkers, gunsels, transvestites, S&M freaks and assorted dope fiends and outcasts. Featuring newly re-mastered anamorphic widescreen movie presentation, Streetwalkin’ is a must-have for fans of Roger Corman’s Cult Classics, Melissa Leo, and cult film buffs — available August 2 on DVD ($14.93) from Shout! Factory, in association with New Horizons Picture Corporation. Pre-order now on Amazon.com, ShoutFactoryStore.com and major retailers.
Synopsis
Melissa Leo stars as Cookie, a teen runaway who escapes her abusive stepfather and heads for the Big Apple along with her younger brother (Randall Batinkoff, Kick-Ass). When she arrives at the Port Authority bus terminal, she meets a charming but psychopathically violent pimp named Duke (Dale Midkiff, Pet Sematary). With nowhere to go, Cookie is soon working for Duke, who introduces her to the harsh, brutal life of a prostitute. Also stars Antonio Fargas (Starsky and Hutch) as Finesse, an over-the-hill pimp; Julie Newmar (TV’s Batman) as Queen Bee, a hooker/madam who takes no guff from any man; and Leon Robinson (Cliffhanger), Khandi Alexander (Treme), Deborah Offner (Black Swan) and Greg Germann (Ally McBeal).
DVD Special Features:
* New anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.78:1)
* Commentary with director-writer Joan Freeman and producer-writer Robert Alden
* Reversible DVD cover with original ’80s theatrical poster key art on the other side
* Trailers
Rated R
Running time: 86 minutes
Special features are not rated
Shout! Factory will continue to present Roger Corman’s Cult Classics home entertainment releases in 2011. Upcoming highlights include The Ron Howard Action Pack, The Women in Cages Collection, Battle Beyond the Stars and many others.
Independent filmmaker-producer Roger Corman’s illustrious career ranks as one of Hollywood’s most amazing and legendary success stories. Having produced more than 350 films and directed 50 others, his influence on American film goes far beyond his own energetic, creative low-budget movies. He is arguably one of Hollywood’s most gifted and masterful filmmakers, and he chronicled his incredible true-life story in the best-selling, award-winning autobiography How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, written with Jim Jerome in 1998. In 2009 he was the recipient of an honorary Academy Award® for his contribution to the medium of film.
Noted for his keen ability to spot young talent, Corman’s most lasting legacy will undoubtedly be the legion of producers, directors, writers and actors he has fostered, among them: Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Ron Howard, Peter Fonda, Jonathan Demme, Robert Towne, Gale Anne Hurd, Diane Ladd, Tommy Lee Jones, Sandra Bullock, Bruce Dern, Talia Shire, Charles Bronson, Joe Dante, Peter Bogdanovich, Dennis Hopper, Bill Paxton, Monte Hellman, Carl Franklin and Sally Kirkland.
