After the success of "Stella Dallas" Anne Shirley blossomed into an independent person - she became more out spoken, changed her hairstyle and had married a young actor, John Payne. RKO, even though worried whether she would now be difficult to manage, decided to renew her contract. They wanted to rematch her with Barbara Stanwyck who still had another picture commitment with the studio and decided on "Condemned Women" but by the time it was ready to roll Stanwyck was filming "The Mad Miss Manton". So Anne was once again in support and Sally Eilers did not have the box office allure of Stanwyck. Eilers had had her moment of stardom with "Bad Girl" and her forte was playing tough girls with a heart of gold. In amongst her low budget movies was this interesting prison movie which tried to find something different to say about women behind bars but got a bit bogged down in a romantic sub plot.
Poor Anne seemed like a fish out of water even though she was playing sweet Millie, a young girl confessing to a crime she did not commit to protect the real criminal, her boyfriend, who was studying to be an attorney. For me, Anne's most telling scene is when she meets a prison patron and realises that she is a neighbour from her girlhood. Innocent Millie reminiscences about back home but it is obvious the woman doesn't want to know. Anne's role was swamped by a couple of tougher inmates, including Sally Eilers as Linda Wilson who is in for shoplifting. They are gathered on a ferry (Jack Carson has a small role as a prison officer) and Linda is down and desperate. She tries to escape through an open window but is "saved" by a helpful doctor Phillip Duncan (Louis Hayward) who also, unknown to her, is starting a post as a prison doctor and, as in all these sort of movies, wants to make sweeping changes but is constantly thwarted by the matron (Esther Dale of course).
A typhoid epidemic brings them closer together but when she is told (by the warden) to forget him as she will be detrimental to his career advancement, she is co-erced into a jail break organized by the "head girl", "Big Annie" (Lee Patrick). Poor Millie is a casualty, caught in the crossfire but strangely Linda doesn't go back to her and she isn't mentioned again. Linda is caught but is then part of a conspiracy where all the inmates are forced to lie, saying she was the ringleader - all so she can receive a stiff sentence and not look forward to a life with Phillip. Pretty implausible considering Phillip unmasks the culprit as the kindly warden.
An okay movie, very short on characterization - I don't think Barbara Stanwyck could have made anything better of it.
Poor Anne seemed like a fish out of water even though she was playing sweet Millie, a young girl confessing to a crime she did not commit to protect the real criminal, her boyfriend, who was studying to be an attorney. For me, Anne's most telling scene is when she meets a prison patron and realises that she is a neighbour from her girlhood. Innocent Millie reminiscences about back home but it is obvious the woman doesn't want to know. Anne's role was swamped by a couple of tougher inmates, including Sally Eilers as Linda Wilson who is in for shoplifting. They are gathered on a ferry (Jack Carson has a small role as a prison officer) and Linda is down and desperate. She tries to escape through an open window but is "saved" by a helpful doctor Phillip Duncan (Louis Hayward) who also, unknown to her, is starting a post as a prison doctor and, as in all these sort of movies, wants to make sweeping changes but is constantly thwarted by the matron (Esther Dale of course).
A typhoid epidemic brings them closer together but when she is told (by the warden) to forget him as she will be detrimental to his career advancement, she is co-erced into a jail break organized by the "head girl", "Big Annie" (Lee Patrick). Poor Millie is a casualty, caught in the crossfire but strangely Linda doesn't go back to her and she isn't mentioned again. Linda is caught but is then part of a conspiracy where all the inmates are forced to lie, saying she was the ringleader - all so she can receive a stiff sentence and not look forward to a life with Phillip. Pretty implausible considering Phillip unmasks the culprit as the kindly warden.
An okay movie, very short on characterization - I don't think Barbara Stanwyck could have made anything better of it.