Ladies They Talk About

Don't expect much in the way of pre-Code titillation with this simple film adapted from a play. What you do get is a starring vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck, who plays the moll of a gang who robs banks.

After being apprehended, she is sent to San Quentin, where she learns to live with prison rules and the social structure there. She's a tough cookie, always looking to assert herself, even on her first day of captivity.

Except for the presence of guards, life as depicted in the women's prison is much like "Stage Door", with a leisurely, genial attitude. Comic touches abound in this film, like the scene where one inmate sings to a headshot of Joe E. Brown, of all people.

While Stanwyck is strong in her role and Preston Foster is solid in his briefer portrayal of the revivalist who never gives up on her, "Ladies They Talk About" has a story too simple to challenge the viewer or, for that matter, the actors themselves. And the drama is minimal.

But it's fun to see Stanwyck in one of her earlier films.

Barbara Stanwyck is a front for bank robbers who winds up in San Quentin in "Ladies They Talk About," a pre-code drama. The film is badly dated with very melodramatic acting, the exceptions being Stanwyck and Lillian Roth. Not to mention, it's an absurd story. A popular reformer, "Brother David Slade" falls for Barbara the minute he sees her, believes her innocent, and wants to help her. He arranges for her release from jail, and then, brimming with confidence, she confesses that she was indeed part of the bank robbery. Shattered, he sends her up the river to San Quentin.

Once there, Stanwyck becomes a popular inmate with the exception of Sister Susie who's in love with Slade and hates her guts. Stanwyck helps her old buddies from the bank robbery escape by tunneling to her cell. The story goes on from there.

Lillian Roth is great as a young woman who befriends Stanwyck, and she gets to sing. Stanwyck is fabulous with her wavy hair and tough talk. Preston Foster mainly looks pious and sincere.

The film is interesting because of Stanwyck and Roth, but the story isn't good. Happily this was at the beginning of Stanwyck's career, and she went on to better things.

Barbara Stanwyck as a beautiful gun moll who helps her gang commit an armed bank robbery, then gets herself arrested. A young reformer who speaks in front of an "old-fashioned revival" believes in her innocence and tries to help her as they both are from the same hometown and, well, she's not past using her looks to get what she wants. But when, for some reason that I couldn't quite figure out, she actually admits to him she was part of the hold-up, he then assists in sending her to San Quentin. Soon our gal is the "new fish" in prison, and this is a women's prison like no other - if it weren't for the appearance of some older women prisoners in the mix, this would almost look a private girl's school rather than the state Penn! Lounge rocking chairs, newspapers, card games, a "greenhouse" area, a hair stylist, manicures, the "ladies bird club", phonograph record players, and outside - "the sun yard", a regular garden spot. These women can wear their own slinky negligees at night and play records in their room - and one older inmate actually is allowed to keep her own little "lap dog" - h'm.

This film is pretty good - the portrayal of the prison so far-fetched it's actually kind of a hoot to watch. I notice the male prisoners (on the other side of the prison) don't seem to have the same conditions as the women as they are shown in regular jail cells with bars. Anyway, Barbara Stanwyck, one of my favorite actresses from that era, gives her usual star performance and acts up a storm - just great as she plays the world-wise gal who'll play hard ball to get what she wants. A really fun film.

Early Barbara Stanwyck who is about as bad as they get. She participates in a bank robbery, manipulates men, lies, and gets sent up to the big house. Plot is somewhat far fetched with little character development other than for Barbara. Story revolves around whether Barbara will again allow Preston Foster to try to save her after trusting him once and having him fail to live up to her expectations. Stanwyck is patterned after the real life experiences and play by Dorothy Mackaye who repeats the formula in Lady Gangster (1942). This movie is worth watching to see the early Stanwyck or the depiction of woman's prison life. Apparently women inmates were allowed to fix up their rooms real nice and change from prison clothes into street clothes during visiting hours -- or so Hollywood would tell us. Sure would have made it easier to escape!

The hard-boiled dames locked up at San Quentin State Penitentiary are some of the LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT.

Barbara Stanwyck stars in this very enjoyable pre-Code crime drama which takes a Hollywood look at women's lives behind bars. The acting is strictly of the ham variety, with a few histrionics, some heart-string tugging and a surprisingly large dollop of comedy thrown in. Some of the plot developments are absolutely ludicrous, but the viewer should never get bored.

Stanwyck is terrific as the female member of a small-time gang of crooks. Prison gives her a chance to get really tough in order to deal with her situation, but the audience always knows that just a few moments with the right man will have her (rather unconvincingly) melting like butter. Whether brawling with a vicious inmate, assisting in an escape attempt, or going gunning for the guy she thinks betrayed her, Stanwyck is always right on the money for entertainment value.

Three female costars give Stanwyck some great support in the prison scenes. Lillian Roth, as the lighthearted inmate who befriends Barbara, nearly steals the show with her perky personality; she gives the movie one of its brightest moments when she croons 'If I Could Be With You' to a fan photo of comic Joe E. Brown. Frowzy Maude Eburne is a hoot as a bawdy former madam who likes to reminisce about her old 'beauty parlor' from the comfort of her rocking chair. Good-natured Ruth Donnelly is a nice addition, in a small role, as an Irish matron with a big white parrot.

Preston Foster, as a reform revivalist who remembers Stanwyck from their childhood together in Benicia, California, gives an earnest performance, stalwart & steady. Lyle Talbot and Harold Huber appear as members of Stanwyck's gang. Elderly Robert McWade makes the most of his performance as Los Angeles' wily District Attorney.

Movie mavens will spot some fine character actors appearing unbilled: rotund DeWitt Jennings as a cagey police detective; Helen Ware as the no-nonsense prison head matron; Madame Sul-Te-Wan as Mustard, the sassy prisoner who's terrified of parrots; Robert Warwick as San Quentin's stern warden. And that's dear Mary Gordon who appears for only a few scant seconds as a laughing white-haired inmate in the Visiting Room.