Claim: John Fante is a writer.

Walk on the Wild Side is a 1962 film directed by Edward Dmytryk , adapted from the 1956 novel A Walk on the Wild Side by American author Nelson Algren . The film had a star-studded cast , including Laurence Harvey , Capucine , Jane Fonda , Anne Baxter , and Barbara Stanwyck , and was scripted by John Fante .   It was not well received at the time ; Bosley Crowther of the New York Times described it as a `` lurid , tawdry , and sleazy melodrama . '' While it passed its censors , it was an adult film noir with quite explicit overtones and subject matter . It walks its audience through the lives and relationships between adults -LRB- mostly women -RRB- engaged in the `` business '' of commercial prostitution at a stylish New Orleans brothel . The `` boss '' is a beautiful , stylish Madam -LRB- Stanwyck -RRB- whose combination of toughness and , a motherly -LRB- or sisterly ? -RRB- intimate tenderness toward her `` girls ' '' real lives is as disturbing as it is entertaining to watch .