In WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, a drifter from Texas named Dove (Laurence Harvey) heads for New Orleans with attractive, fellow drifter Kitty (Jane Fonda). Once there he finds work with a good-hearted, Mexican café owner (Ann Baxter) who falls in love with him. Poor old Dove though, he'd rather hunt after the girl he's been carrying a torch for the last three years--a jaded sculptress named Hallie (Capucine), now working in a brothel run by tough lesbian Jo Courtenay (Barbara Stanwyck). When Dove finally tracks Hallie down, she hides her fallen status from his naive eyes and gradually lets his earnest simplicity win her over, with tragic results.

Helped along by beautiful black-and-white photography and a great Elmer Bernstein score, this Edward Dmytryk adaptation of the Nelson Algren novel is hampered by a lack of romantic chemistry between the two leads. Luckily, the rest of the women are amazing: Stanwyck is a great butch bitch, Baxter is superbly earthy, and Fonda is as dangerously gorgeous as the strutting black cat in the memorable Saul Bass designed opening credits.