The Weak and the Wicked

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The Weak and the Wicked is a 1953 film directed be J. Lee Thompson based on the book by Joan Henry, starring Glynis Johns and Diana Dors.

Based on a best-selling book and prison experiences of author Joan Henry, director J. Lee Thompson’s prison saga explores the life of inmates behind bars where innocence is lost in the world of vice. Despite its pulpy pot-boiler title, the film settles for earnest social drama over trashy melodrama but looks very dated today. The performances are strong given the limited and predictable material.

[edit] Plot

Frank "women in prison" story that sympathetically tracks several inmates through their imprisonment and subsequent return to society. Some are successfully rehabilitated; some are not.

Female prisoners talk about the events that brought them there and each of their stories is detailed in a series of flashbacks; notably the upper-class Jean (Glynis Johns), the brash Betty (Diana Dors) and the pregnant Pat (Rachel Roberts). The Weak and the Wicked follows the inmate’s progress behind bars; Jean’s ordeal improves after some sympathetic bonding with her fellow inmates, followed by a move to an experimental open prison.