IMDb RATING
6.4/10
372
YOUR RATING
Frank "women in prison" story that sympathetically tracks several inmates through their imprisonment and subsequent return to society. Some are successfully rehabilitated; some are not.Frank "women in prison" story that sympathetically tracks several inmates through their imprisonment and subsequent return to society. Some are successfully rehabilitated; some are not.Frank "women in prison" story that sympathetically tracks several inmates through their imprisonment and subsequent return to society. Some are successfully rehabilitated; some are not.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJoan Henry's original novel 'Who Lie In Gaol' was based on her own experiences of prison. In debt from gambling, she took a forged cheque from a friend as a loan, and was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1951. Sentenced to twelve months, she served eight, primarily in Holloway Prison of which she was very critical, and later at Askham Grange Open Prison. The Glynis Johns character is based on her, although Henry thought her "a bit goody-goody".
- GoofsDuring the entire length of her prison term, Diana Dors maintains her artificially bleached and obviously waved hair style; Glynis Johns also maintains a more casual, but still very professionally maintained style from start to finish.
- Quotes
Jean Raymond: No one wants to give a girl with no talent a job.
- ConnectionsFeatured in A Bit of Scarlet (1997)
Featured review
Glynis Johns gets sent down
A peculiar mixture this, with an attempt to portray something of the reality of contemporary womens' prisons on one hand, combined with comedy flashbacks and a fictional approach to crime on the other.
The story centres around Jean Raymond (Glynis Johns) who is the subject of an elaborate frame when she can't pay her gambling debts. In reality, a half competent barrister could have destroyed the case against her, should it have ever come to court in the first place, but here she's sent down for twelve months. There follows her experiences in the grim Blackdown Jail and then The Grange, a progressive 'prison without bars'. Many of the usual clichés of such films are avoided and the staff are shown as being very strict, but fair. One of the comedy episodes features a comical family of shoplifters headed by Sid James and Olive Sloane; Sid's prominent position in the cast list, despite a relatively brief appearance, is notable even at this stage of his career. Another piece of nonsense has a wooden Sybil Thorndike attempting to murder her husband, and then framing Athene Seyler for blackmail. By contrast the scenes in the prison hospital are more realistic, with Jane Hylton giving perhaps the best performance as Babs, haunted by the death of the baby she had neglected. Though third billed, Diana Dors is not very memorable in what is little more than a supporting role. A couple of years or so later she was to give her finest performance for the same director in YIELD TO THE NIGHT.
The finale, with the orchestra in full flow, is as contrived and sentimental as anything that Hollywood could produce. Despite or because of its various eccentricities, I quite enjoyed this.
The story centres around Jean Raymond (Glynis Johns) who is the subject of an elaborate frame when she can't pay her gambling debts. In reality, a half competent barrister could have destroyed the case against her, should it have ever come to court in the first place, but here she's sent down for twelve months. There follows her experiences in the grim Blackdown Jail and then The Grange, a progressive 'prison without bars'. Many of the usual clichés of such films are avoided and the staff are shown as being very strict, but fair. One of the comedy episodes features a comical family of shoplifters headed by Sid James and Olive Sloane; Sid's prominent position in the cast list, despite a relatively brief appearance, is notable even at this stage of his career. Another piece of nonsense has a wooden Sybil Thorndike attempting to murder her husband, and then framing Athene Seyler for blackmail. By contrast the scenes in the prison hospital are more realistic, with Jane Hylton giving perhaps the best performance as Babs, haunted by the death of the baby she had neglected. Though third billed, Diana Dors is not very memorable in what is little more than a supporting role. A couple of years or so later she was to give her finest performance for the same director in YIELD TO THE NIGHT.
The finale, with the orchestra in full flow, is as contrived and sentimental as anything that Hollywood could produce. Despite or because of its various eccentricities, I quite enjoyed this.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Weak and the Wicked
- Filming locations
- Wilton Place, Knightsbridge, London, England, UK(dress shop where Jean worked - exterior of The Berkeley Hotel.)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 12 minutes
- Color
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