PRETTY WOMAN, say you’ll stay with me ’cause I need you.

Imagine a version of Pygmalion where Henry Higgins hires Elisa Doolittle to have sex with him and go to parties on his dime. That’s more-or-less the concept for Garry Marshall’s Pretty Woman, a punchy romantic comedy whose surprise popularity revitalized the ailing romantic comedy genre and made Julia Roberts Julia Roberts. Roberts plays an idillic prostitute with a heart of gold who winds up in the company of a love shy moneybags played by Richard Gere. Their business arrangement soon blossoms into romance as the two of them get a whirlwind lesson in society, love, money and sex.

Part of Nitehawk’s February I CHOO-CHOO-CHOOSE YOU brunch series.