Ladies They Talk About (1933)

A woman (Barbara Stanwyck) is sent to prison for her part in a bank robbery but she refuses to name her accomplices. Meanwhile, a reformer and evangelist (Preston Foster) falls in love with her and attempts to rehabilitate her. Based on the play by Dorothy Mackaye and Carlton Miles and directed by William Keighley (ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD) and Howard Bretherton. The play's author Dorothy MacKaye had actually served time in San Quentin prison so she knew of what she wrote. I'm not a big fan of prison movies but I do have a fondness of its distaff side, the women behind bars movies like CAGED (1950). This tough talking Warner Brothers pre-code entry is a lot of fun. There's not much sentiment here. These prison babes are no innocents, they're hard as nails and you wouldn't want to run across one of them in a dark alley! Murderesses, prostitutes, gun molls etc., they're a colorful lot and the movie snaps when it concentrates on them. Less so when the do gooders like Foster's reformer tries to butt in. Stanwyck, of course, takes to these roles like a duck to water. Remade in 1942 with Faye Emerson. With Lillian Roth (who gets to sing), Lyle Talbot, Ruth Donnelly, Dorothy Burgess and Harold Huber.