Condemned Women (1938) User Reviews

Wanted!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 29 November 2012]

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.

Yet another womens' prison film...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 14 October 2023]

... from B unit director Lew Landers and RKO Radio Pictures, this time in the production code era, so it tries to entertain without gritty reality encroaching. Bitter Sally Eilers is in the slammer and making enemies of everyone in sight except for sweet and stupid Anne Shirley, who took the rap so her thief boyfriend could finish law school! On the "inside," Eilers immediately tangles with tough head babe Lee Patrick as well as head matron Esther Dale. The warden (George Irving) is a dope, the doctor (Louis Hayward) is kindly, and then there's the old broad (Leona Roberts) who drops dead because the matron refuses to follow the doctor's orders. It all seems so familiar, yet it's a feast for actors who didn't always get good roles. Eilers, Patrick, and Dale win the acting honors here.

No Peek Show Here

[dougdoepke · 25 July 2012]

This is no babes behind bars peek show. Get a load of the shapeless sacks the inmates parade around in, while they busily plot one thing or another. No titillation there. And just count inmate Wilson's (Eilers) smiles. It's like her lips are glued together. But then, what's she got to smile about. Just when she pairs up with the handsome Doc (Hayward), her conscience takes over, and now she's up for an even longer stretch. Good thing sweet innocent Millie (Shirley) is there to break up all the tough cookie types, including head matron (Dale).

It's a pretty good screws vs. cons flick, without being anything special. I like the twist with boss con Big Annie (Patrick). Having seen a ton of these prison flicks, I wasn't expecting that. Too bad headliner Eilers is now largely forgotten. She reminds me of a poor man's Joan Crawford, both in looks and intensity. No surprises, however, from director Landers who, unfortunately, made a career of no surprises in dozens of workman-like B-films. Well, maybe with one exception here—the boiler room scene with the Doc and Wilson. How appropriate they're in a hot place, and with a dull roar of menace in the background.

Okay, this programmer may not equal a Cagney or Bogart bighouse flick. After all, Columbia was a budget studio. But the movie does manage a few minor virtues, especially the underrated Sally Eilers and a lively young Louis Hayward.

This women's prison movie is never really convincing.

[Art-22 · 4/10 · 8 November 1998]

Try as they may, the women prisoners are never really convincing criminals. Top-billed Sally Eilers and Anne Shirley are suited to the roles, because they are the ones you root for and they are not criminals at heart. In fact, Shirley is taking the rap for a theft her boyfriend committed, so that he may continue with his studies. But Lee Patrick, the tough convict who supposedly "runs" the prisoners, and who plans an escape with some vague, half-baked ideas, is just miscast. Perhaps I'm just used to her roles as a congenial best friend to the stars. The one woman who scores well is Esther Dale, as the vindictive head matron, resentful and threatened by the new young doctor, Louis Hayward, ordering tests she's opposed to on inmates, and paying much attention to Eilers. Hayward is always pleasant to watch even though here he is a bit unprofessional in his actions. As for the escape, whoever heard of women escaping from prison? Perhaps they are more apt to accept their lot rather than scheme to get out. In any case, the escape sequence showed a poorly thought out, haphazard plan. The only time I got involved in the women's plight involved unfairness, such as when the women gang up on Eilers thinking she was a stoolie, or when Patrick plants stolen drugs on her (for which she gets two weeks of solitary) because she would not cooperate with her plan to escape. I also was upset when poor innocent Shirley gets shot and killed in the escape and riot that followed. And the ending was pretty hokey and very unrealistic.

Too bad cliches weren't condemned.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 24 March 2024]

With a big frame and humorless demeanor, it's no surprise that veteran character actress Esther Dale would play a women's prison matron, and unlike Hope Emerson in "Caged", there's no subtle humor about her. She's just a cold lump, going up against young doctor Louis Hayward when typhoid is discovered in the water and inmates start dying being of no help, heartless and icy. It's obvious that her actions are going above the head of warden George Irving and will lead to violence.

The film focuses on two newcomers, Sally Eilers and Anne Shirley, rather inexperienced when dealing with tough bullying inmate Lee Patrick who is basically playing the same part she would twelve years later in "Caged". Every time she's on screen she's either whispering conspiracies with Gail Patrick or accusing someone of stealing from her, and in that case, with kleptomaniac old actress Leona Roberts around, she's usually right.

It's ridiculous that a romance grows between Eilers and Hayward, stealing kisses in the boiler room, and overheard by Dale's assistant, prickly Kathryn Sheldon. This isn't exactly realistic, and nor is it camp, so it's hardly comparable to "Caged" or the very funny "Women's Prison" or "House of Women", and can't escape from the obvious exploitation that it is rather than a realistic report on poor prison conditions. The earlier "Ladies They Talk About" is certainly much better too.

Condemned film

[AAdaSC · 4/10 · 4 June 2023]

We start the film with a group of 4 condemned women in a boat to prison under the watchful eye of Jack Carson of all people! He doesn't even get a mention in the credits. The most interesting of these 4 women are the 2 that they don't concentrate on - the ageing actress and the other one. Instead, we concentrate on soppy Anne Shirley (Millie) and suicidal Sally Eilers (Linda) who has given up on life. How is that possibly an interesting duo to follow! Anyway, they get to prison and we meet top dog Lee Patrick (Annie) who is a way more interesting character, and she is intent on carrying out an escape plan for which she needs the help of Eilers.

This offering started out with an interesting setting - a women's prison instead of a man's prison - and the usual things happen. It's just that there aren't really any suspenseful incidents and we get a ludicrous romance that blossoms between Eilers and the doctor Louis Hayward (Philip). We also have an unrealistic breakout that has women screaming and falling over each other for way too long and we don't concentrate long enough on the ones that get away to provide more tension, before we are thrown into a court case where the film just totally loses interest and actually becomes stupid. It doesn't matter that you may drift off and miss the reason for how the film ends in the way that it does but it is a ludicrous end and who cares. The film has now finished.

There is no hanky-panky between female inmates and we needed a bigger butch girls presence in the joint. Lee Patrick has a cool look and your eye is drawn to her but they all should have just stayed and served their proper time. Breaking out with 3 months to go? Idiots.