Little Ladies of the Night

Linda Purl is Hailey Atkins, a 14 year old runaway who becomes a prostitute in the stable of pimp Comfort (Clifton Davis). Hailey has left her parents because her mother Marilyn (Carolyn Jones) is jealous of the attention her husband Frank (Paul Burke) gives their daughter. Detective Russ Garfield (Lou Gosset) and Advisor Lyle ‘Stick' York (David Soul) try to help Hailey to get away from Comfort.

Purl looks too old to play a 14 year old and uses an inexpressiveness to convey youth. In comparison, she is easily out-performed by Kathleen Quinlan who plays the 15 year old experienced `lady' Karen Brodwick. However in one scene, where Hailey tells Lyle to stop helping her, there is a glimpse of the actress Purl is later to become.

The teleplay by Hal Sitowitz, suggested by an article by Ted Morgan, is presented as a morality tale, where Hailey resorts to prostitution when rejected by her mother, sought by the police as a minor who is a runaway which is against the law, and subjected to a pornography ring in a detection centre. Her mother describes Hailey's role as `another woman' to her husband, and prostitution is here given the slang `flatbacking'. The treatment also has Comfort's ladies represented by his number 1 Maureen (Lana Wood) rationalise his abuse as love, and in a perverse scene, when Hailey returns to him, he has his women seek physical revenge for her betrayal. However the one interesting touch is the unresolved future presented for Hailey.

Director Marvin J Chomsky gets a laugh from a policewoman role-calling Hailey after she tells Lyle her name, but regrettably makes Jones look unflattering.