The Weak and the Wicked

{{More plot|date=September 2024}}

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; the upper-class Jean, the brash Betty, and the pregnant Pat.

Jean has a gambling habit and owes money to a gambling den. Her friend Pam frames her.

The film follows the inmates' progress behind bars; Jean's ordeal improves after some sympathetic bonding with her fellow inmates, followed by a move to an experimental open prison.

{{castlist|

• Glynis Johns as Jean Raymond
• Diana Dors as Betty Brown
• John Gregson as Dr. Michael Hale
• Olive Sloane as Nellie Baden, inmate
• Rachel Roberts as Pat, pregnant inmate
• Jane Hylton as Babs Peters, inmate
• Athene Seyler as Millie Williams, inmate
• Jean Taylor Smith as Prison Governor (Grange)
• Cecil Trouncer as Presiding Judge
• Ursula Howells as Pam Vickers
• Edwin Styles as Seymour
• Sid James as Syd Baden
• Eliot Makeham as Grandad Baden
• Joan Haythorne as Prison Governor (Blackdown)
• Joyce Heron as Prison Matron Arnold
• Anthony Nicholls as Prison Chaplain
• Josephine Stuart as Andy, pregnant inmate
• Paul Carpenter as Joe, Bab's boyfriend
• Sybil Thorndike as Mabel Wicks, Millie's friend
• A. E. Matthews as Harry Wicks, Mabel's beau
• Barbara Couper as Prison Doctor
• Mary Merrall as Mrs. Skinner
• Marjorie Rhodes as Suzie, bigamist inmate
• Josephine Griffin as Miriam
• Simone Silva as Tina
• Thea Gregory as Nancy
• Tom Gill as shop assistant
• Herbert C. Walton as Blue Eyes, the gardener
• Irene Handl as waitress
• Sandra Dorne as Stella
• Bessie Love as prisoner
• Marjorie Stewart as prisoner
• Marianne Stone as prisoner
• Hannah Watt as Prison Matron
• Margaret Diamond as Prison Matron
• Maureen Pryor as Prison Matron
• Ruth Dunning as Prison Matron
• Kathleen Michael as Prison Matron
• Jean Anderson as Policewoman in court
• Ballard Berkeley as Police Detective
• Anthony Newley as Bob

}}

Joan Henry was a writer who had connections in society.{{cite news |date=30 September 1952 |title=Goal Paid |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47424866 |accessdate=7 July 2020 |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=95 |issue=29,319}} She had a gambling problem, and was sentenced to twelve months in prison for passing a fraudulent cheque (she claimed she was framed). Henry served eight months at Holloway and the more liberal Askham Grange open prison. At the latter she came under the care of Mary Size. Henry wrote the 1952 best-selling book Who Lie in Gaol about her experience.Chibnall p 60-61{{cite news |date=Jan 1, 2001 |title=Obituary of Joan Henry Debutante who went to jail for fraud but made a new life after writing a sensational bestseller about her experiences in prison |work=The Daily Telegraph |page=23}}

The book was read by writer-director J. Lee Thompson, who wanted to turn it into a film. He received backing from Robert Clark, head of production at Associated British.Chibnall p 57 Thompson wound up falling in love with Henry and leaving his wife and two children to marry her.

The British Home Office refused co operation with the making the film because they were unhappy with its depiction of prison.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230221150 |title=Film on women's prisons |newspaper=The Sun |issue=13587 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=27 August 1953 |accessdate=7 July 2020 |page=38|edition=LATE FINAL EXTRA |via=National Library of Australia}}

Diana Dors was cast only a few weeks after having been convicted in real life of stealing alcohol from a friend's house. The role marked a significant change of pace for Dors, who was better known for comedic roles.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230220790 |title=Blonde Diana Dors goes to jail--in new film |newspaper=The Sun |issue=2624 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=9 August 1953 |accessdate=7 July 2020 |page=61 |via=National Library of Australia}} Simone Silva was another member of the cast better known for glamour roles.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75796237 |title=HOW TO LOSE YOUR OWN MAN |newspaper=The Mirror |volume=32 |issue=1761 |location=Western Australia |date=26 February 1955 |accessdate=7 July 2020 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The film was shot at Elstree Studios and on location in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, filming starting on 10 August 1953 under the title Women Behind Bars.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety191-1953-07/page/n269/mode/1up?q=%22lee+thompson%22|page=12|date=29 July 1953|title=London Film Notes}} Mary Size and Joan Henry were on set as advisers.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article249248355 |title=STAGE AND SCREEN |newspaper=The Herald |issue=23,780 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=13 August 1953 |accessdate=7 July 2020 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Henry thought Johns was a good actor but "a bit goody-goody".Chibnall p 64

The Monthly Film Bulletin said "The treatment of this story provides an unfortunate example of the malaise with which so much British script-writing is afflicted nowadays. The basic situation is promising" but "against these back-grounds are paraded a prize collection of familiar feminine character types (alternately comic, sad and hysterical) – two-dimensional creatures, observed without insight or real compassion."{{cite magazine|magazine=Monthly Film Bulletin|title=The Weak and the Wicked|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/media/mfb/1378870/index.html|date=February 1954|page=21}}

The New York Times called it "a lukewarm drama".{{cite news|title=At the Globe|author=H. H. T.|work=New York Times|date=Aug 21, 1954|page=10}}

Variety called it "a safe formula for a box office meller."meller, melodrama– professional slangage[https://variety.com/static-pages/slanguage-dictionary/#m][https://archive.org/details/variety193-1954-02/page/n157/mode/1up?q=%22joan+henry%22 Review of film] at Variety

In The Radio Times Guide to Films Sue Heal gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "This is one of those riveting women's prison pictures full of sneering warders and snarling, sulky inmates that alternates alarmingly between enlightening social comment and overloaded melodrama. A robust cast that contains all the usual suspects (there's a fine performance from Diana Dors) acts out the story, which provides a meaty glimpse behind the clanging doors."{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=Immediate Media Company |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=1008}}

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Familiar types in rose-coloured view of prison life."{{Cite book |last=Quinlan |first=David |title=British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 |publisher=B.T. Batsford Ltd. |year=1984 |isbn=0-7134-1874-5 |location=London |pages=397}}

Leslie Halliwell wrote "Predictable portmanteau drama with stalwart performances."{{Cite book |last=Halliwell |first=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |publisher=Paladin |year=1989 |isbn=0586088946 |edition=7th |location=London |pages=1098}}

According to Steven Vagg in Filmink, the film changed perceptions of Diana Dors.{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|title=A Tale of Two Blondes: Diana Dors and Belinda Lee|date=September 7, 2020|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/a-tale-of-two-blondes-diana-dors-and-belinda-lee/}}

According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was a "money maker" at the British box office in 1954.{{cite magazine|first=Josh|last=Billings|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|title=Other monkey makers|date=16 December 1954|page=9}} The National Film Finance Corporation stated the film made a comfortable profit.{{cite news|title=U.S. Money Behind 30% of British Films: Problems for the Board of Trade|work=The Manchester Guardian |location=Manchester (UK)|date=4 May 1956|page=7}}

It was estimated to earn between $75,000 and $100,000 for Associated British in the US.{{Cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety196-1954-11/page/n155/mode/1up?q=%22weak+and+the+wicked%22|title=Gear to US Market|page=20|date=17 November 1954}}

Joan Henry later wrote the 1954 novel Yield to the Night, which Thompson filmed with Dors in 1956. Henry and Thompson were later married.{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/joan-henry-the-jailbird-muse/?fbclid=IwAR1Q4HUCJS_qdkaoQqOU9VayFf8SgLKCu9TQRuTlxDVXyrHvUnQfRr6LVqw|magazine=Filmink|title=Joan Henry: The Jailbird Muse|date=August 30, 2020}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{IMDb title|0046535|The Weak and the Wicked}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20171121174353/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ba50e9c The Weak and the Wicked] at BFI
• [https://archive.org/details/variety193-1954–02/page/n157/mode/1up?q=%22diana+dors%22 Review of film] at Variety

{{J. Lee Thompson}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Weak And The Wicked, The}}

Category:1954 films

Category:1950s prison films

Category:1954 drama films

Category:British prison drama films

Category:Films shot at Associated British Studios

Category:Films directed by J. Lee Thompson

Category:British black-and-white films

Category:Films with screenplays by J. Lee Thompson

Category:Films based on autobiographical novels

Category:Women in prison films

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:1950s British films

Category:Films scored by Leighton Lucas

Category:English-language crime films