Prison Without Bars


Prison Without Bars is a 1938 British black-and-white crime film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Corinne Luchaire, Edna Best and Barry K. Barnes. It is set in a girl's reform school, and was based on a play by Gina Kaus, previously filmed in France as Prison sans Barreaux. Corinne Luchaire 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

In The [New York Times], 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 selected it as one of their ten best films of the year.