Film review: Ladies They Talk About (1933)

Another pre-code Stanwyck, which also has a review on "Pre-Code.Com".  This one's not as much fun as Night Nurse, but it is almost equally pre-code-ish as it's set in a women's prison.  The film starts with the bank robbery that will land our heroine (who is actually a bit of a hard case) in the slammer - she pretends to be posh and wheedles her way into the bank before opening ours and disables the guard by the simple trick of having him hold her little dog.  She would've got away with it too, if it hadn't been for the sharp eyes of a detective who recognizes her and removes her blonde wig.  However, before she's put away, she captures the interest of a radio revivalist called David Slade (who seems to be simply a rabble-rouser or aspiring politician, but is actually religious) who remembers her from the town they both grew up in, when she was the Deacon's daughter and he was the son of the town drunk.  Well, religion drove them in different directions, and here they are.  Hard-bitten moll though she is, he breaks down her crusty exterior to the extent that she admits (what she had been denying up to that point) that she really was involved in the robbery.  She thought that this would make no difference to Slade, but he reneges on his deal to take her into his own custody (a deal that the DA only agreed to because he has an upcoming election and needs Slade's support - pre-code cynicism!) and sends her up for 2-5.  However, he is clearly besotted with her and writes to her constantly in prison - letters she tears up unread.  She turns out to be well-suited to jail and is completely uncowed by any of her fellow jailbirds, even the cigar-chomping butch who "likes to wrestle".  The portrayal of prison (San Quentin) is interesting: it's racially mixed (and the film vacillates between appearing very progressive and sadly racist (a lot of mugging and implication that black people are childishly superstitious)) and it actually looks pretty cushy - they get their own rooms (rather than the bare cells that their male equivalents get) that they can decorate very nicely.  While she settles in, it turns out that two of the gang she was with get caught and are just yards away in the men's prison doing 20 years.  She is visited by the remaining member ("Lefty") who tells her of their plan to tunnel into her cell (something about fewer guards over there) and so her job is to get an impression of the main key to the cells and send it to Lefty.  This she does with the help of an unsuspecting-but-friendly warder (they bond over their shared Irish-ness) and David, whom she finally allows to visit her only so she can slip the letter to Lefty in his pocket to post.  He does, but Lefty has been arrested and the cops open the letter, find the picture of the key and rush to foil the breakout, resulting in the death of her two fellow gang members and the rescinding of any chance of early parole.  She believes that David opened the letter and swears revenge.  Complicating matters all this time is an inmate who has a crush on David (he is a star radio presence) and is jealous.  After causing trouble for our heroine in the slammer, she gets out earlier and becomes part of David's flock.  It all builds to an exciting climax where she goes to shoot David... and does... but then ends up marrying him anyway!  Stanwyck is excellent as always, and some of the lifers in prison are real characters (especially "Aunt May" who ran a "beauty parlor"), and I like the detective who catches her in the first place and ends up helping her out at the end, but other than that, the cast is pretty weak, David in particular.  Joan Blondell and Clark Gable are sadly missed.