[Ads-l] "prostitute/whore with a heart of gold"

victor steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Mon Apr 27 18:51:02 UTC 2015


This is a review of 1956 French version of Crime and Punishment.
Vlady's character (Lily) feeds the whole family through her earnings.
The film is sort of a cross between Crime and Punishment and Les
Miserables.

VS-)

On 4/26/15, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> OED has "with a heart of gold" only from the 19th c., though "heart of
> gold," n., as "a noble-hearted person" goes all the way back to the 16th.
>
> But what of the cliche' "a whore with a heart of gold"?  It seemed to me
> that it is chiefly a drama critic's phrase.  GB supports this view. All the
> exx. appear to describe fictional characters. (Well, duh!).
>
...
>
> 1958 _Commonweal_ [GB snippet: original not seen]: Marina Vlady [is] the
> heart-of-gold prostitute who convinces the student of the evil of his
> crime.

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