THE WEAK AND THE WICKED

 

With a title like THE WEAK AND THE WICKED, I expected something entirely different from what I ultimately got when I sat down to watch this film this afternoon. This 1954 British women-in-prison picture looks like it should contain lots of pulpy, trashy material, you know, like the majority of women-in-prison pictures deliver (and why I bother to watch such films in the first place.) 

Instead, director J. Lee Thompson orchestrates a straight forward drama in which tawdry thrills (despite the title and one-sheet pictured above) are not to be found. WEAK opens with the trial, conviction and imprisonment of young Jean Raymond (Glynis Johns), who is sent to prison for a twelve-month sentence for fraud. She's actually innocent of the crime, a victim of a neat frame-up, but nonetheless, she has a stretch to do in a British penitentiary.

It's there she meets and befriends the brassy blonde Betty Brown (Diana Dors). The two become fast friends and are eventually transferred to an "open" prison (more like a college campus), to serve their final months. Here, the prisoners are given meaningful work to do and live in dorm like facilities. It's all very progressive and forward thinking. But Jean and Betty are tested near the end of the film with a taste of freedom that momentarily goes awry.

The narrative switches attention from Jean and Betty several times throughout the film as we see illuminating vignettes about a shoplifter, a mother convicted of infanticide and an older woman convicted of blackmail. They're interesting little stories that provide additional characterization but ultimately contribute little to the overall story.

Nothing much really happens in THE WEAK AND THE WICKED. Jean is ultimately released into the arms of her lover while Betty (jilted by her beau), remains behind to serve out the remainder of her sentence.

Much is made of the presence of Diana Dors, the British Marilyn Monroe of the '50s. But with her platinum blonde hair and Spock like eyebrows, Dors looks more freakish than alluring. She does prove herself to be a capable actress however, holding her own against the more seasoned Johns.

THE WEAK AND THE WICKED is a sincere film that offers a semi-documentary look inside British women's prisons. It's not bad but it's no CAGED HEAT.