Condemned Women (1938)

What makes it different from others?

Touches You

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

After the success of "Stella Dallas" Anne Shirley blossomed into an independent person - she became more out spoken, changed her hairstyle and had married a young actor, John Payne. RKO, even though worried whether she would now be difficult to manage, decided to renew her contract. They wanted to rematch her with Barbara Stanwyck who still had another picture commitment with the studio and decided on "Condemned Women" but by the time it was ready to roll Stanwyck was filming "The Mad Miss Manton". So Anne was once again in support and Sally Eilers did not have the box office allure of Stanwyck. Eilers had had her moment of stardom with "Bad Girl" and her forte was playing tough girls with a heart of gold. In amongst her low budget movies was this interesting prison movie which tried to find something different to say about women behind bars but got a bit bogged down in a romantic sub plot.Poor Anne seemed like a fish out of water even though she was playing sweet Millie, a young girl confessing to a crime she did not commit to protect the real criminal, her boyfriend, who was studying to be an attorney. For me, Anne's most telling scene is when she meets a prison patron and realises that she is a neighbour from her girlhood. Innocent Millie reminiscences about back home but it is obvious the woman doesn't want to know. Anne's role was swamped by a couple of tougher inmates, including Sally Eilers as Linda Wilson who is in for shoplifting. They are gathered on a ferry (Jack Carson has a small role as a prison officer) and Linda is down and desperate. She tries to escape through an open window but is "saved" by a helpful doctor Phillip Duncan (Louis Hayward) who also, unknown to her, is starting a post as a prison doctor and, as in all these sort of movies, wants to make sweeping changes but is constantly thwarted by the matron (Esther Dale of course).A typhoid epidemic brings them closer together but when she is told (by the warden) to forget him as she will be detrimental to his career advancement, she is co-erced into a jail break organized by the "head girl", "Big Annie" (Lee Patrick). Poor Millie is a casualty, caught in the crossfire but strangely Linda doesn't go back to her and she isn't mentioned again. Linda is caught but is then part of a conspiracy where all the inmates are forced to lie, saying she was the ringleader - all so she can receive a stiff sentence and not look forward to a life with Phillip. Pretty implausible considering Phillip unmasks the culprit as the kindly warden. An okay movie, very short on characterization - I don't think Barbara Stanwyck could have made anything better of it.

This is no babes behind bars peek show. Get a load of the shapeless sacks the inmates parade around in, while they busily plot one thing or another. No titillation there. And just count inmate Wilson's (Eilers) smiles. It's like her lips are glued together. But then, what's she got to smile about. Just when she pairs up with the handsome Doc (Hayward), her conscience takes over, and now she's up for an even longer stretch. Good thing sweet innocent Millie (Shirley) is there to break up all the tough cookie types, including head matron (Dale).It's a pretty good screws vs. cons flick, without being anything special. I like the twist with boss con Big Annie (Patrick). Having seen a ton of these prison flicks, I wasn't expecting that. Too bad headliner Eilers is now largely forgotten. She reminds me of a poor man's Joan Crawford, both in looks and intensity. No surprises, however, from director Landers who, unfortunately, made a career of no surprises in dozens of workman-like B-films. Well, maybe with one exception here—the boiler room scene with the Doc and Wilson. How appropriate they're in a hot place, and with a dull roar of menace in the background. Okay, this programmer may not equal a Cagney or Bogart bighouse flick. After all, Columbia was a budget studio. But the movie does manage a few minor virtues, especially the underrated Sally Eilers and a lively young Louis Hayward.

Try as they may, the women prisoners are never really convincing criminals. Top-billed Sally Eilers and Anne Shirley are suited to the roles, because they are the ones you root for and they are not criminals at heart. In fact, Shirley is taking the rap for a theft her boyfriend committed, so that he may continue with his studies. But Lee Patrick, the tough convict who supposedly "runs" the prisoners, and who plans an escape with some vague, half-baked ideas, is just miscast. Perhaps I'm just used to her roles as a congenial best friend to the stars. The one woman who scores well is Esther Dale, as the vindictive head matron, resentful and threatened by the new young doctor, Louis Hayward, ordering tests she's opposed to on inmates, and paying much attention to Eilers. Hayward is always pleasant to watch even though here he is a bit unprofessional in his actions. As for the escape, whoever heard of women escaping from prison? Perhaps they are more apt to accept their lot rather than scheme to get out. In any case, the escape sequence showed a poorly thought out, haphazard plan. The only time I got involved in the women's plight involved unfairness, such as when the women gang up on Eilers thinking she was a stoolie, or when Patrick plants stolen drugs on her (for which she gets two weeks of solitary) because she would not cooperate with her plan to escape. I also was upset when poor innocent Shirley gets shot and killed in the escape and riot that followed. And the ending was pretty hokey and very unrealistic.