''Prison Without Bars'' is a 1938 British

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

crime film directed by

Brian Desmond Hurst Brian Desmond Hurst (12 February 1895 – 26 September 1986) was a Belfast-born film director. With over thirty films in his filmography, Hurst has been hailed as Northern Ireland's best film director.Screening will honour 'NI's best film ...

and starring

Corinne Luchaire Corinne Luchaire (11 February 1921 – 22 January 1950) was a French film actress who was a star of French cinema on the eve of World War II. Her association with the German occupation led her to be sentenced to "national indignity" after the wa ...

Edna Best Edna Clara Best (3 March 1900 – 18 September 1974) was a British actress. Early life Born in Hove, Sussex, England, she was educated in Brighton and later studied dramatic acting under Miss Kate Rorke who was the first professor of Drama at ...

and Barry K. Barnes. It is set in a girl's reform school, and was based on a play by

Gina Kaus Gina Kaus (born Regina Wiener; 21 October 1893, Vienna, Austria – 23 December 1985, Los Angeles, California) was an Austrian-American novelist and screenwriter. Life and career Regina Wiener, the daughter of money broker Max Wiener, attended ...

, previously filmed in France as '' Prison sans Barreaux'' (1938).

starred in both versions.

Synopsis

A young progressive thinking woman becomes superintendent at a French girl's reformatory dominated by the harsh previous head. A young girl is blackmailed by her acquaintance over her love for the superintendent's fiancé, but is released to join him in the end, when all is revealed.

Cast

*Suzanne Duplat -

*Yvonne Chanel -

*Dr George Marechal - Barry K. Barnes *Renee -

Mary Morris Mary Lilian Agnes Morris (13 December 1915 – 14 October 1988) was a Fijian born British actress. Life and career Morris was the daughter of Herbert Stanley Morris, a botanist, and his wife, Sylvia Ena de Creft-Harford. She trained at the Roy ...

*Alice - Lorraine Clewes *Julie Picard - Sally Wisher *Mme Appel -

Martita Hunt Martita Edith Hunt (30 January 190013 June 1969) was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havi ...

*Mlle Arthemise -

Margaret Yarde Margaret Yarde (2 April 1878 – 11 March 1944) was a British actress. Initially training to be an opera singer, she made her London stage debut in 1907. She often played domestics, landladies and mothers. Filmography * '' A Cigarette-Maker's ...

*Mme Remy - Elsie Shelton *Nina -

Glynis Johns Glynis Margaret Payne Johns (born 5 October 1923) is a South African-born British former actress, dancer, musician and singer. Recognised as a film and Broadway icon, Johns has a career spanning eight decades, in which she appeared in more than ...

*Mlle Renard - Enid Lindsey *Mlle Pauline - Phyllis Morris *Mlle Dupont - Nancy Roberts

Critical reception

In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Frank S. Nugent dismissed the film as "another prison picture, and while we would not want to pass too harsh a sentence upon it, neither can we fairly pretend that it is innocent": whereas, in December 1938, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' selected it as one of their ten best films of the year.

References

External links

* * *
''Prison Without Bars''
at the website dedicated to

1938 films 1938 crime drama films 1938 romantic drama films British prison drama films British romantic drama films British black-and-white films Films produced by Alexander Korda Films directed by Brian Desmond Hurst British multilingual films 1938 multilingual films 1930s prison films 1930s English-language films 1930s British films {{1930s-romantic-drama-film-stub