Yield To The Night (1956)

Before the movie's opening credits begin, the film opens with a blonde (Diana Dors) shooting a woman (Mercia Shaw) in cold blood several times in front of her home. The rest of the film is devoted to the monotonous day to day existence awaiting her execution while she recollects her past and the events leading up to the murder. If the film seems tedious and slow moving at times, it's just being real and eschewing the melodramatic cliches of prison movies. Dors' character is hard to read. She doesn't seem to have any remorse over her murder yet she's not a brazen, cold blooded killer either which makes it more difficult to condemn her but we can't quite shed any tears over her either. For those who only know Dors as a blonde bombshell, Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe, her performance is a revelation and a pity that she didn't get more roles that taxed her as an actress. This was her last English film before she left to conquer Hollywood which emphasized her sex symbol status rather than her talents as an actress. Directed by J. Lee Thompson (GUNS OF NAVARONE) and based on the book by Joan Henry who also co-wrote the screenplay. With Michael Craig as Dors' lover and the reason for her fall, Yvonne Mitchell as a sympathetic prison matron, Geoffrey Keen, Marjorie Rhodes, Mona Washbourne, Athene Seyler, Dandy Nichols and Marianne Stone.