Peine capitale

In the best tradition of black and white, this film starts with a bang. After a pair of shapely legs get out of a classic 56 T-Bird in England somewhere, a gun shot is fired, without ever seeing who did it. The idea of making an anti- capital punishment movie in the mid-fifties right after the McCarthy era was ahead of it's time. Never preachy or blatantly left winged, this great unknown sleeper carries on the classic female incarcerated films of THE SNAKE PIT to the era of fins. Even the female prison guards show compassion, and the movie never uses bitch-slapping gimmicks for thrill effects. A quiet study that still touches the heart. Diana Dors shines in a smart role choice that added to her credits away from her necessary frothy pointed bra-B flicks. No wonder people loved her right up to her death.

Mesmerizing from beginning to end. Black and white photography, impeccable, giving you the feeling of the scene just by placing the camera in a position that exactly will tell you before hand what's coming. Amazing.

And then there is the actress.

She, unlike ANY actress of that period, appears most of the time with her face washed up and her hair with 4 inches of black roots, totally unconcerned with her looks for the camera, but she is ACTING. She is acting a storm, what an excellent actress!!

In the flash backs the actress becomes DIANA DORS... Fully done with platinum hair, made up to kill and slipped into a dress too tight to believe, it could be painted on her naked body.

The story takes its time to develop and little by little it starts building up the tension of her character. The timing is perfect, we get more and more involved with her suffering and waiting as anxiously as herself about her destiny.

I don't have words to tell you what a superb movie this is, a film that I think will be impossible to produce nowadays, maybe Charlize Theron came close to this type of character in "Monster", but the feeling of the movie is totally different, the results of the 50s are the results of a civilization gone with the wind.

To me, this movie is a masterpiece.

Yield to the Night finds the character of Mary Price Hilton shoot her boyfriend's lover and then spending her time in prison awaiting her execution by hanging. Her story is told in flashback during this stay.

On the 7th day God created Diana Dors. From her TV appearances on The Two Ronnies (playing the head of a female army who wish to take over and make all men subservient) through to her appearance in the Adam and the Ants video for Prince Charming and Ms Dors was a regular part of my childhood.

I then discovered the TV series of Queenie's Castle from the 70's (filmed here in Leeds) which fully exuded Dors' abilities as a great actress.

Yield to the Night was the only worthwhile foray into film for Diana with subsequent vehicles being a complete waste of her talents. This film is amazing. The flashback sequences which show how a sultry goddess could be driven to murder are fully rounded, believable and achingly painful. As are the sequences in which she is in captivity. Check out the internal monologues we're privileged to partake in and how she is far from a blonde bimbo. These observations about her plight and her fate are reminiscent of Travis Bickle's musings in Taxi Driver.

A strong case is made for the brutality of capital punishment in a 'civilised' society and how wrong it is. Thankfully since the film's release and now this has been rectified. You will think of this film when someone comments 'They should bring back hanging' in response to a news story.

I came to this film with pretty superficial view of Diana Dors. I couldn't have been more wrong. She gives a career best performance. On so many levels it stands head and shoulders above mid 50s Brit cinema. Truly international standard. Great ensemble acting; strong direction; and some lovely cinematography. It was clearly a powerful piece in its time - dramatically as well as a piece of social agitprop. It's still worthy of your attention more than 60 years on. What a shame this part didn't lead to the acting opportunities Diana deserved.

France made "nous sommes tous des assassins " (André Cayatte, 1951) The US made "I want to live" (Robert Wise ,1958) The UK made "yield to the night " (the ridiculous alternate title "blonde sinner" should be forgotten )

The three movies were candid indictment against death penalty ; Diana Dors, cast against type, compares favourably with Susan Hayward in the American movie. The luminous blond sex symbol in the flashbacks becomes a broken woman , with a premature aged face in jail: a stunning metamorphosis .

These flashbacks are kept to the minimum ,but well introduced into the story ; most of the time is given over to a convict who got the capital punishment in her cell in which she's never left alone (for fear she might take her own life?)and where they never turn off the light (hence the deeply moving title ). Lots of voice over make sense ; the waiting is the hardest time ,when the prison governor can any hour now bring you your pardon or your hanging ("I can recognize her steps ".In France, condemned men would never know which day they would be guillotined and in the small hours,they were listening closely by the door the steps , all this is shown in Cayatte's movie which was the first attempt in the world to rebel against the horrible death ceremony .

What's the point of healing your ankle , catching a cold or learning to play chess when your days are numbered? The wardens are compassionate ,but except for one of them who's just lost her mom , they are not able to relate to such a horrible fate .What's the point of eating ? of having a good night sleep? What's the point of anything?All is pathetic, the only real thing is that door , behind which....

It's not Jack Lee Thompson's usual style ,and I was skeptic about his treatment of an intimate subject ;but I 've got to make amends ;He brilliantly succeeds :the very last scene, notably ,is a model of simplicity and restrained emotion.

Based on a true story ;a must,as the two other movies I mention are.