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Released by: MGM Limited Edition Collection
Released on: April 30, 2012.
Director: Steven Hillard Stern
Cast: Tony Bill, Susan Aspach
Year: 1980
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The Movie:
This 1980 made for TV movie was directed by Steven Hillard Stern, the Canadian director known for a few low budget/cult titles like Rolling Vengeance but who mostly worked on TV projects. Remember Breaking The Surface: The Greg Louganis Story? He made it. He also made The Park Is Mine, which was kind of cool. At any rate, yeah, Portrait Of An Escort - it's really not very good.
The movie follows Jordan West (Susan Aspach), a moderately attractive recently divorced woman who makes some extra cash working nights as an escort for a profession dating service, a rather odd second job that she took on the recommendation of her friend, Sandy (Mary Fran). She seems to like her job well enough and does well at it but when word gets out it causes some of the people she comes into contact with to look down on her. At the real estate firm where she works during the day, things start to get a little tense when word gets out about her second life, but she soldiers on - she's got bills to pay and a teenage daughter named Jessica (Debbie Lytton) to support, though her daughter has no idea what she does at night. Jordan shows concern when Jessica announces to her that she met a nice man at the park one day, a man who just so happens to be about the same age as Jordan.
Eventually Jordan decides she's had enough of the 'professional dating circuit' and decides to call her career as an escort over and done with, but this doesn't sit well with her agent, Mrs. Kennedy (Edie Adams), who doesn't want to let one of her best employees go. The shining light in Jordan's life, however, comes in the form of a man she strikes up a warm relationship with named Beau (Tony Bill). As Jordan tries to put it all behind her, she soon finds herself being stalked by one of her former clients who wants more out of Jordan than she's willing to offer.
While the synopsis sounds ripe with the potential for sleaze, working within the confines of an eighties era TV movie pretty much eliminates that opportunity for that right from the start. This one plays it safe from start to finish and winds up having very little to offer. It's formulaic and predictable and while not completely devoid of suspense, doesn't have much to offer in terms of thrills until the finale, which again is played very much by the numbers. There's not much style to the camerawork and the whole thing looks very plain. The movie does occasionally capture some decent eighties era Los Angeles locations, and the cast are all believable enough in their respective roles but it's hard to recommend this one based almost entirely on the fact that it's dull and fairly predictable.
Video/Audio/Extras:
MGM's 1.33.1 fullframe transfer looks right and given the movie's TV origins it probably is. Quality of the image is alright, it's a bit soft in spots but completely watchable showing average detail, acceptable black levels and decent color reproduction.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 mix offers up clear dialogue and properly balanced levels. It's pretty average, no serious complaints here and we can safely assume this represents the intended sound mix for the feature.
There are no extras but a static menu with chapters set up on the disc in ten minute intervals.
The Final Word:
Portrait Of An Escort is fairly well acted but otherwise completely unremarkable and fairly dull. It's hard to imagine anyone but the most ardent thriller fan wanting to revisit this one, and you can sleep soundly at without ever needing to own it.
