Filles sans joie

As far as women's prison pictures go, this one is far from bad, thanks primarily to fine performances by its British cast. Glynis Johns, who is great throughout, plays a compulsive gambler who's framed by a vengeful casino owner for writing a bad check. That part of the plot doesn't ring entirely true, nor does her romance with her faithful boyfriend, but the assortment of Dickensian criminals she meets in jail are an entertaining lot. Especially wonderful is Sidney James and his family of shoplifters. Compared to some of the overwrought American pictures that have been made on this subject about "caged" women, this one is a real treat.

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.

Glynis Johns is railroaded into prison for insurance fraud, where she initially despairs. However, the knowledge that her young man is waiting for her and the kindly prison warden buck her up. Eventually she is transferred to a 'prison with bars', where she meets, in the words of Anna Russell, all sorts of terribly interesting people, including Diana Dors and Olive Sloan.

It's directed by J. Lee Thompson from a book by Joan Henry, who was one of his wives; it was based on her prison experiences, and she called the Johns character "a bit goody-goody". Indeed she is. Except for one impassioned speech at the end, she's largely a sounding board for others. She's also rather heavy-set and middle-aged looking to add to her anonymity. Miss Dors gets the better role, and does a good job with it. Thompson would work with her later.

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.

This film concerns itself mainly with two women, "Jean Raymond" (Glynis Johns) and "Betty Brown" (Diana Dors) who are sent to prison on the same day. Jean is sentenced to one year in prison for fraud. Betty, on the other hand, is given two years in prison because she chose to take the rap for her conniving boyfriend. Naturally, there are other female convicts as well and we get to see some of their stories in a series of flashbacks. I found a couple of these stories were interesting but I will leave it to the viewer to decide for themselves which ones they may or may not find entertaining. One thing I will say, however, is that this film is very British. At least it seemed that way to me. Also, this movie is not the standard women-in-prison film one might expect to find these days. There is no sex, violence, foul language or nudity of any kind. But both Glynis Johns and Diana Dors performed in a decent manner. I also thought both ladies looked quite nice with Glynis Johns appearing the more elegant of the two. Anyway, although not necessarily a great movie it wasn't bad either and I rate it as about average all things considered.