The Weak and The Wicked

This film is based on the book ‘Who Lie In Gaol’ by Joan Henry, and directed by her husband and is derived from Henry’s real-life experience behind bars. The author was jailed in the early 50’s for passing a dud cheque.

Jean Raymond (Glynis Johns) character is clearly very close to Henry’s and like her has a bit of a gambling problem. After giving the proprietor of a gambling casino a worthless cheque he, slippery sod as he is, sets her up for insurance fraud and our heroine finds herself going down for twelve WHOLE months! These days one can not imagine what life was like in a women’s prison in the early 50’s: apparently you got your own cell, and even your own private bathroom! Within no time Jean strikes up a friendship with Betty Brown (Diana Dors) who couldn’t be more different in character and background. Pretty soon Jean is floating around the jail like Florence Nightingale – a model prisoner and a proverbial angel. Doing everything within her power to help her fellow inmates, Jean even prevents another hot-tempered prisoner from stabbing a wardress with a pair of scissors in the sewing room. It should be pointed out that our prisoners are subjected to a rigorous regime of menial tasks (sewing, scrubbing etc). In short, Jean usually brings calm and harmony to every situation that looks as it will get slightly out of hand.

Within the context of the film, we see the stories in flashback of some of the other inmates. Some of them are quite amusing, in particular Nellie Baden (Olive Sloan), herself from an entire family of thieves. Her daughter is in prison with her, and her husband Syd (the ubiquitous Sid James) in a man’s prison with their son. In a hilarious sequence we witness Nellie attempting to pinch a radio attached to her shoplifters belt, but HELP! she cannot turn it off… Meanwhile, hubby Syd makes off with an entire dinner outfit off a tailor’s dummy! Nevertheless, the jolly Nellie remains good-humoured throughout her confinement, as prison is no deterrent to this family!
Courtesy of their model behaviour, Jean and Betty are soon transferred to an open prison. There they make the acquaintance of dotty old Millie Williams (Athene Seyler) who tells them a highly entertaining anecdote involving murder and weed-killer in a small village. A riot of a piece played out with Dame Sybil Thorndike (in the role of Millie’s friend Mabel Wicks) – a nice double-act for the pair of old stagers, and possibly the highlight of the film!

Was prison life really like this in the 1950’s? Not one person that our Jean meets is actually nasty or even that unpleasant. No Myra Hindleys or Rose Wests – or was that because we’re not talking a maximum-security prison here? It’s all rather twee and syrupy… Prisoner Cell Block H it ain’t! That said, it would appear that Henry’s book was nearer the truth as to what actually occurred in a female prison (no, not tweet and syrupy!) but this was the British film industry in 1952).

It should also be mentioned that Jean has a loving boyfriend, the respectable Dr. Michael Hale (John Gregson) – now do you think he will accept an offer of a brilliant job working abroad for three years (the condition being he has to be a bachelor), or marry a jailbird?

The squeaky-voiced Glynis Johns is fine as Jean ‘Flo Nightingale’ Raymond, and there is able support from a young Diana Dors who later went on to star in the much heavier Yield To The Night (‘The Ruth Ellis Story’, also based on Henry’s writing). The film is competently directed by J. Lee Thompson, but it could have done with a mega kick up the pants!

SPECIAL FEATURES on this DVD release include:

• Original trailer
• Image Gallery
• Promo material in PDF format