Fri 11 Dec 2009
CONVICTED WOMAN. Columbia Pictures, 1940. Rochelle Hudson, Frieda Inescort, June Lang, Lola Lane, Glenn Ford, Iris Meredith, Lorna Gray, Esther Dale. Director: Nick Grinde.
Following Walter Albert’s review of Women’s Prison (Columbia, 1955) reviewed here not too long ago, Walker Martin pointed out that there is a whole subgenre of WIP movies, where for the uninitiated (me) WIP is an acronym for “Women In Prison.”
I have no idea what the first movie in the category was, but I’m sure someone can easily tell me. At the moment, I’m assuming that this was an early one, but perhaps I’m wrong.
And I do and I don’t know exactly what the attraction is, and I think that is all that I am going to say about that. I suppose there may even have been entire articles and perhaps even books dedicated to the subject, and if there are, someone can tell me about those also.
Rochelle Hudson plays Betty Andrews, a young woman who’s sent to prison for a crime she didn’t do, and with a wrong attitude from the get-go (well, wouldn’t you?), she starts out badly and (nearly) ends up worse. Chief Matron Brackett (Esther Dale) does not believe in coddling her prisoners, and for a couple of inmates (June Lang and Lorna Gray), her wishes are their commands.
But after one girl, tormented too long, commits suicide, reform comes, but the former regime does not intend to go down without a fight. Luckily Betty has help on the outside in the form of an impossibly young Glenn Ford, a reporter who’s been working on her behalf from the beginning.
Even though it’s short, just over an hour long, I found no difficulty in watching this movie in two or even three installments, which tells you one thing, but the fact that I came back to watch it all the way through, that may tell you something else.
Naturally it all ends well, but real prison reform is nothing but a pipe dream that never seems to last very long. Why else would there be a whole category of movies just like this one that came along later, with Ida Lupino in at least two of them?
December 11th, 2009 at 2:00 am
Ladies They Talk About from 1933 is one of the early ones with Barbara Stanwyck and Preston Foster. Stanwyck is terrific, but the film has some silly moments.
I’m not sure if that is the earliest WIP or not. There may even be a silent one for all I know. It’s a sub genre I was never fond of, but responsible for some classic cult nonsense like Jesus Franco’s 99 Women.
Ida Lupino is damn near stereotyped in these — about like Sybil Danning later. For the most part I avoid these, but then I’m not big on prison pics in general and only a few of the best like Brute Force or I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang make my list.
December 11th, 2009 at 6:20 am
Caged (1950) is often mentioned by so called WIP experts as being the first “quality” Women In Prison film. There were earlier movies but not as well done as Caged and usually not really showing some of the horrible prison practices. Often these “practices” are not performed by the prison officials but by the inmates on each other.
If you want to really take a bath in sleaze, go to Google and type in “WIP Women In Prison”. As Steve said concerning Wade Miller, you will find more, much more, about the subject.
When I used to attend drive-in triple features back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, one of the favorite themes loved by all late night drive-in attendees was the Women In Prison film. For some reason most viewers preferred women over men. No matter how serious the scene might in these movies, most viewers howled with laughter.
December 11th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Steve, you need to check out Steve Stilwell’s favorite website:
The Encyclopedia of Women in Prison Films.
December 11th, 2009 at 9:17 am
According to the link above provided by Jeff, The Encyclopedia of Women in Prison Films, the earliest women in prison film is probably William Seiter’s 1929 Prisoners.
As for the appeal of these it is and always has been the suggestion of lesbian sex and the whole thing of women in bondage and helpless. Not that most of the early ones delivered on those promises in any way, but that has always been at the heart of the thing.
Also from the thirties through the fifties prison reform was always a popular theme with no skimping on the brutality and unfairness to make the point about the need for reform.
December 11th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Re the WIP website. In a word: awesome. Is there a superlative form for the word overwhelming?
PS. As eye-staggering as the site is, I have to admit that once past the 1950s, there’s less than a chance in a hundred that I’ll actually watch any of these films…
December 11th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Of the ones I’ve seen (not nearly as many as outlined on the WIP website), “Caged” with Eleanor Parker gets my vote. She gives a great performance and the movie tries for realism, avoiding all the moralizing and “reform” clamoring that marked most prison movies of that era.
December 11th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Glad you liked it, Steve. They really did do an awesome job on it.
Of course, I am a fan of the Linda Blair-John Vernon classic, among others.
December 11th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
The movie that Jeff Meyerson mentions above is Chained Heat and it’s a classic WIP. Not only starring Linda Blair in one of her best roles but John Vernon is great. Also stars Sybil Danning and Stella Stevens.
Back in the days when I had the misfortune to work for a living, I managed an office that had a lady who was on probation for unemployment insurance fraud, meaning she collected benefits while employed. She made the blunder of doing it again and this time received a jail term. One day she was working in the office and the very next day she was reporting to the Clinton Reformatory for Women. After 30 or so days she was terminated as abandoning her job; she was in a jail cell.