Taglines: Playboys on the town!… Mobsters on the run!… Babes on the make!…
A House Is Not a Home movie storyline. Polly Adler (Shelley Winters) 8is a poor Polish immigrant who works in a sweatshop. She loses her job after she is sexually assaulted by her boss, for which her housemates blames her. She then is forced to move out. Her next apartment is in a building owned by Frank Costigan (Robert Taylor), a gangster. Frank approves of Polly’s attractive girlfriends and pays her to have the ladies go out socially with his friends.
One thing leads to another, and soon Polly is the madam of a bordello. She has genuine feelings for musician Casey Booth, but does not reveal her true occupation to him. Costigan becomes the top enforcer for mob boss Lucky Luciano and backs Polly’s business, which ends up on Park Avenue offering high-class call girls. Casey proposes marriage, so Polly finally confesses what she does for a living. He is willing to overlook it, but Polly feels it is for the best if they part.
Based on Polly Adler’s best-selling autobiography about her life in the Roaring Twenties as a legendary Madam. The movie follows Polly’s (Shelley Winters’) life from an immigrant worker to becoming friend and confidante of underworld bigwigs, social leaders, businessmen, politicians, writers, and artists.
A House Is Not a Home is a 1964 drama film loosely based on the 1953 autobiography by madam Polly Adler. The film stars Shelley Winters, Robert Taylor, Cesar Romero, and Kaye Ballard. Raquel Welch made her film debut in a small role as a call girl. The song written for the film by Burt Bacharach and Hal David has become a standard.
A House Is Not a Home (1964)
Directed by: Russell Rouse
Starring: Shelley Winters, Robert Taylor, Cesar Romero, Ralph Taeger, Kaye Ballard, Broderick Crawford, Mickey Shaughnessy, Lisa Seagram, Meri Welles, Connie Gilchrist, Allyson Ames
Screenplay by: Steve Jankowski
Production Design by: Lloyd Anderson, Frank Caffey
Cinematography by: Harold E. Stine
Film Editing by: Chester W. Schaeffer
Costume Design by: Edith Head
Set Decoration by: Sam Comer, James Roach
Art Direction by: Hal Pereira, Al Roelofs
Music by: Joseph Weiss
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Embassy Pictures Corporation
Release Date: August 12, 1964 (San Francisco, California)
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