Ladies They Talk About (1933)

Ladies They Talk About
Directed by Howard Bretherton and William Keighley
Written by Brown Holmes, William McGrath and Sidney Sutherland from a play by Dorothy Mackaye and Carlton Miles
1933/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Collection

Susie: Listen. Don’t think you can walk in here and take over this joint. There’s a lot of big sharks in here that just live on fresh fish like you.
Nan Taylor: Yeah, when they add you up what do you spell?

What could be more fun than a pre-Code women’s prison movie starring Barbara Stanwyck at her seductive bad girl best?  Not much, according to me.

Nan Taylor works with a bank robbing gang as sort of a shill and a watchdog. Although she is disguised as a blonde, she is easily recognized by a policeman as somebody he picked up before and the cops make short work of their investigation.

Dan Slade is both a prosecutor and an evangelist. He instantly falls for Barbara but also convicts her for her crime. She serves her sentence in the women’s prison at San Quentin, where she is as tough as any of the other girls .  She hates Dan and refuses his many requests to visit … at least until she can use him for her gang’s escape attempt.   With Lillian Roth as a fellow inmate and Ruth Donnelly as a guard.

I thought this was ultra fun. Stanwyck is absolutely gorgeous and beautifully dressed by Orry Kelly. The script is sharp and her delivery is spot on. This is the seductive bad Stanwyck we have learned to love. The women’s prison is a hoot! The prisoners spend most of their time in a common area when they aren’t smoking in the bathroom. Stanwyck’s cell looks exactly like a bedroom. Each prisoner has a distinctive uniform with lace etc. And they are all expert wisecrackers. My favorite scene from the film is when Lillian Roth sings “If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)” to a pin-up of Joe E. Brown. IMO, one of the essential Stanwyck pre-code films.  Recommended.

Even though it’s a cockatoo and the scene isn’t politically correct, this really made me laugh.