Young and Willing

Original title: The Weak and the Wicked

1954
Approved
1h 12m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

371

YOUR RATING

Diana Dors and Glynis Johns in Young and Willing (1954)

Crime Drama

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.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

371

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Joan 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".

Goofs
During 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.

Connections
Featured in A Bit of Scarlet (1997)

User reviews15

Review

Featured review

6/10

a couple of good flashbacks

Aka The Weak and the Wicked. Socialite Jean Raymond is sentenced to 12 months for fraud. In flashback, she is revealed to be in gambling debts and refused to pay. The casino threatens unknown retribution and soon, she is framed for her fraud charge. In prison, she meets other prisoners who reveal their lives before prison in other flashbacks.

I find the prison drama rather rambling and non-dramatic. Some of the characters are interesting and the most interesting parts of the movie are a couple of the flashbacks. The structure of the movie may be problematic in maintaining dramatic drive for the central narrative. All in all, there are a few intriguing bits but the overall effect is less than expected.