American Gigolo (1980)

Plot: Julian Kaye is a high end Los Angeles based male prostitute, his clientele comprised almost solely of older well appointed women. He does well financially with all the material trappings of wealth. He got his start working for Anne, who largely taught him the ropes of the business. While she still procures some of his clients on a 60/40 split, Julian drums up most of his own business on a 100 percent take, that business either by word of mouth or prowling the upscale hotel bars for lonely foreign female tourists, he fluent in six languages to be able to make those contacts. Despite Anne's objections to him going freelance, he went this route to have some control in what he still sees as a somewhat personal matter of with who he sleeps. He does not do gay business and stays away from quick tricks and kink, which is why he is so peeved upon finding the kink wants of clients the Rheimans, this job which he does as last minute replacement as a favor for a pimp acquaintance named Leon. It is during one of his cruises through a hotel bar that Julian meets Michelle Stratton. Despite she not being the potential client he thought she was as she is a married local waiting for a friend as opposed to a lonely foreign tourist, she nonetheless searches him out later for sex. They begin a relationship, for her he being someone to fill the physical and emotional void in her own marriage to her largely absent husband. Julian later discovers that her husband is Senator Charles Stratton, with the emotional void in their marriage being that he treats her more as a political prop than a wife. Julian's life starts to go sour when Judy Rheiman is found viciously murdered during what appears to be one of those rough sex acts the Rheimans requested from him. A suspect in the murder, Julian admits to one of the investigators, LAPD Vice Detective Joe Sunday, that he did have rough sex with Judy Rheiman in a previous encounter, but that he was with another client at the time of the murder. As discretion is part and parcel of the business, Julian's wealthy client, Lisa Williams, fails to corroborate his alibi, while Julian slowly begins to believe that someone is trying to frame him. With news spreading as to Julian's involvement in the murder, he becomes an untouchable property. While Julian goes on a desperate search for who is framing him and why so as to save not only his livelihood but his life, Michelle, who is beginning to have true feelings for him, has to decide how far she will go to help him at the risk of her own standing in the community, with Julian conversely having to decide how much he is willing to have her risk of her life to help him.

Alternative Plot: Julian (Richard Gere), a gigolo, commands high prices for his services, living a lavish and emotionally unattached lifestyle under the management of Anne (Nina van Pallandt). While secretly working for pimp Leon (Bill Duke), Julian is assigned to service Mr. Rheiman (Tom Stewart) and his wife, Judy (Patti Carr), but leaves when their violent requests make him nervous. When Mrs. Rheiman is found dead and no one is willing to testify on his behalf, Julian finds himself the primary suspect.

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