Convicted Woman

In the 1930sand into the 40s, Hollywood made a lot of films similart to "Convicted Woman"....films that advocated prison reform, rehabilitation and humane treatment for the prisoners. While not as hard hitting as films like "Crime School", "20,000 Years in Sing Sing" and "I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang", "Convicted Woman" is well made and entertaining...particularly for a B-movie.

When the story begins, Betty (Rochelle Hudson) is going on a job interview and ends up being arrested for theft! While the evidence against her isn't clear and she has no record, the judge sentences her to a year in a women's prison. Once there, Betty ends up seeing just how cruel and awful the place can be...and she wants out...even if it means trying to escape. However, when a new warden is brought in, things improve...except for Betty's attitude...at least initially. By now, she's hardened, cynical and full of hate....thanks to the prison and its evil matron.

While this prison looks like paradise compared to men's prisons in movies, the movie did a good job of making you care about the women AND sympathize with them. Additionally, it's pretty well made for a B. I'd rate it hgher except for one minor problem...I've seen quite a few similar films...too many to list them all above. Still, it's better than just a time-passer....and it's a chance to see young Glenn Ford in one of his earliest roles.

I watched this film as I have set my self the goal of seeing every Glenn Ford movie before nukes, climate change or Coronavirus takes me, regardless of how superficial his role in them.

The film's plot is an exact cross between two James Cagney movies. Each Dawn I Die (wrongly convicted inmate becomes embittered and troublesome) and The Mayor of Hell (new prison governor appalled at the harsh treatment takes over and allows the prisoners to govern themselves).

Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination set in a Woman's prison and one that would have faired better had it been made in the pre code years as these movies need to be a bit seedier and risqué rather than sanitised as it is a very grim thing we're dealing with.

The usually solid and reliable Ford is wasted here, but Rochelle Hudson does a good turn as the innocent woman sent to stir. June Lang is great as the evil and conniving 'Duchess' but the stand out for me is Lola Lane as the streetwise but good hearted con with some great comic one liners.

An OK way to waste 65 minutes, but this Is a story that should have been made way back in 1932 with Barbara Stanwyck in the lead when she was at her most sassy.

Great to see a young Glenn Ford at the start of his career, but don't expect The Big Heat.

The best thing about this movie is Benjamin Kline's cinematography. Little noted, he was the DP of more than 300 films, including a lot of B westerns and Three Stooges shorts. Yet he always had a great eye and with a compliant director -- and that pretty much describes Nick Grinde -- he could shoot a handsome movie. This is one of them, with its early film noir prison photography. He even uses a couple of subdued iris shots very effectively. Notice how the heavy shadows disappear and the camera begins to move after the prison reforms begin.

Mr. Kline never won an award, but he always did a good job, whether shooting a Tom Mix western (take a look at the surviving prints of SKY HIGH and marvel at how well they have aged) or Moe poking Curly in the eye -- comedy calls for bright flat lighting. He worked for more than fifty years and ended his career behind the camera of some TV movies: westerns, of course.

The story is pretty much of a retread of those crusading reform-the-prisons movies, like 20,000 YEARS AT SING-SING and CASTLE ON THE HUDSON. It hews strictly to the Production Code and it would be another decade and a half before lesbianism began to creep into this sort of movie. Rochelle Hudson, a good actress who never got beyond the Bs does a fine job,. Yet while her performance is spot on, she always looks ready to slip out of that prison uniform she's been wearing all day working in the prison laundry and into an evening gown for a night on the town. Few of the other actors, including a very young Glenn Ford are particularly good, which I blame Nick Grinde for.

This was quite obviously intended as a major production for Columbia. There are no major actors, but a lot of them for the crowd scenes. Although the reworked plot and mediocre acting by the majority of the cast don't do a thing for this, the solid performance by Miss Hudson and brilliant camera-work by Mr. Kline make this a superior movie.

From Columbia Pictures, I don't know many pictures from this era, and especially about prison topics. Warner Bros, Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios were rather the lead companies speaking of this scheme. This one is not an escape story, but an interesting tale showing an unusual point of view about the penitentiary system in the USA. Young Glenn Ford doesn't really justifies by itself to see this one; just wait five or six years and you'll have a great Glenn Ford. It's better to enjoy the Rochelle Hudson's performance. The story offers nothing exceptional, not really great scenes, nothing to remember, just a good little prison film.

This is essentially a remake of the 1938 Dead End Kid/Humphrey Bogart movie "Crime School", except with women instead of the Dead End Kids. Rochelle Hudson plays the Billy Halop role and Frieda Inescort fills in for Bogart. Also borrows some of the plot from "Hell's Kitchen" with Ronald Reagan.

Very tame for a women's prison movie by today's standards. Not as entertaining as the Dead End Kid versions, but well done and easy viewing.