Ladies They Talk About
| Ladies They Talk About | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Howard Bretherton William Keighley |
| Produced by | Raymond Griffith (Uncredited) |
| Written by | Dorothy Mackaye Carlton Miles Brown Holmes William McGrath Sidney Sutherland |
| Music by | Cliff Hess (Uncredited) |
| Cinematography | John Seitz |
| Editing by | Basil Wrangell |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | February 4, 1933 |
| Running time | 69 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Ladies They Talk About is a 1933 Pre-Code women in prison film about a woman sent to San Quentin. Based on the play Women in Prison by Dorothy Mackaye and Carlton Miles, the film stars Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster, and Lillian Roth.
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Plot [edit]
Nan Taylor (Stanwyck) is accused of helping her friends rob a bank. Reform-minded David Slade (Foster) falls in love with her and gets her released. However, when she confesses that she is guilty, he has her imprisoned. Inside, she meets fellow inmates Linda (Roth), "Sister Susie" (Dorothy Burgess) and Aunt Maggie (Maude Eburne), and prison matron Noonan (Ruth Donnelly). Unlike most films of the women in prison genre, her fellow inmates are criminals, rather than innocents in prison by mistake.[1] Taylor gets involved in a prison escape, has a year added to her sentence, and goes gunning for revenge when she is released.
Cast [edit]
- Barbara Stanwyck as Nan Taylor
- Preston Foster as David Slade
- Lyle Talbot as Gangster Don
- Dorothy Burgess as 'Sister' Susie
- Lillian Roth as Prisoner Linda
- Maude Eburne as Aunt Maggie
- Ruth Donnelly as Prison Matron
- Harold Huber as Lefty Simons
- Robert McWade as District Attorney Simpson
- unbilled players include Cecil Cunningham, Grace Cunard, and the director William Keighley
Reception [edit]
The New York Times said "When a reformer and a dashing female bank bandit fall in love, their home life may be somewhat as illustrated in the lingering finale of 'Ladies They Talk About,' [...] After a torrid argument in which Nan, the gun-girl, accuses her beloved of frustrating a jail-break in which two of her pals were killed, she loses her temper, draws a gun from her handbag and shoots him. 'I didn't mean to do that,' Nan remarks a moment later as David Slade falls to the floor with a bullet in his shoulder. 'Why, that's all right, Nan,' responds her husband-to-be. 'It's nothing.'" [...] "It is in the prison scenes that the film provides some interesting drama. 'Ladies They Talk About' is effective when it is describing the behavior of the prisoners, the variety of their misdemeanors, their positions in the social whirl outside, their ingenuity in giving an intimate domestic touch to the prison, and their frequently picturesque way of exhibiting pride, jealousy, vanity and other untrammeled feminine emotions."[2]
Remake [edit]
The film was remade in 1942 under the title Lady Gangster, starring Faye Emerson.
References [edit]
- ^ Basinger, Jeanine (1995). A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-1960. Middleton, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. p. 385. ISBN 0-8195-6291-2.
- ^ "Ladies They Talk About (1933) - A Woman Bandit.", New York Times, February 25, 1933.
External links [edit]
- Ladies They Talk About at the Internet Movie Database
- Ladies They Talk About at AllRovi
- Ladies They Talk About at Rotten Tomatoes
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