I haven’t seen the movie The Last Showgirl yet, but I intend to! (It just recently opened in the UK). Alongside Demi Moore in The Substance, Pamela Anderson’s is the comeback story de nos jours.
But what I did revisit in preparation is the ABC 1973 made-for-TV Third Girl from the Left, which shares a virtually identical theme. Written by singer-songwriter Dory Previn, it’s a downbeat, wistful character study starring Kim Novak (in her television debut) as Gloria Joyce, a veteran showgirl (in New York this time rather than Vegas) hitting a crisis point in her life. At 36, after years of being centre stage in the line-up, she’s been asked to “move to the back” to make space for a new girl. Has Gloria “aged out” of her showbiz career? (Isn’t it wild to reflect that 36 was considered “past it” in 1973? Novak herself is 40 years-old here). In addition, Gloria’s 13-year relationship with lounge crooner Joey Jordan (Tony Curtis, clearly having a blast luxuriating in this sleazebag role) is fizzling out. Bruised and uncertain, she embarks on a tentative romance with a younger man (Michael Brandon).
Misty, ethereal and vulnerable,
Novak seems to be deliberately evoking her earlier performance as Polly the
Pistol in Billy Wilder’s Kiss Me, Stupid (1964). There are introspective songs
via Previn (the genius who wrote the anguished lyrics to the Beyond the Valley
of the Dolls theme, composed by her then-husband Andre Previn). In the striking opening credits, we watch Gloria in
close-up applying her stage make-up as Previn sings about her on the soundtrack
(“Gloria / Remember her? A flowered blouse, a ribbon bow, the night you had a
year ago … Her eyes were sad … you asked if you could see her place / A pale
perfume, a paler face / You stayed a while / She liked your smile …”). You’ll
notice the credit “Executive Producer: Hugh M Hefner”: Third Girl from the Left
is a Playboy Production (perhaps inevitably, his then-mistress Barbi Benton has
a supporting role. So does Anne Ramsay from Throw Mama from the Train!). Curtis
and Novak would reunite seven years later in The Mirror Crack'd (1980).
You can watch Third Girl from the Left on YouTube:
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