Ladies They Talk About (1933)

Absolutely the worst movie.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Don't expect much in the way of pre-Code titillation with this simple film adapted from a play. What you do get is a starring vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck, who plays the moll of a gang who robs banks.After being apprehended, she is sent to San Quentin, where she learns to live with prison rules and the social structure there. She's a tough cookie, always looking to assert herself, even on her first day of captivity.Except for the presence of guards, life as depicted in the women's prison is much like "Stage Door", with a leisurely, genial attitude. Comic touches abound in this film, like the scene where one inmate sings to a headshot of Joe E. Brown, of all people.While Stanwyck is strong in her role and Preston Foster is solid in his briefer portrayal of the revivalist who never gives up on her, "Ladies They Talk About" has a story too simple to challenge the viewer or, for that matter, the actors themselves. And the drama is minimal.But it's fun to see Stanwyck in one of her earlier films.

By force of personality, one of the best the screen ever saw, Barbara Stanwyck put over many a film, especially if she had something to work with. But there were films where even she could do nothing with the potboiler material she got and Ladies They Talk About is definitely that kind of material.The odd thing is that this with a little more subtle treatment could have been as remembered a women's prison picture classic like Caged. There are moments here, but few and far between.Stanwyck is in a role that probably Joan Blondell was too busy to do. She's a wisecracking Depression Era babe getting by on her wits and looks. She's the front for a gang of bank robbers headed by Lyle Talbot. As the film opens Stanwyck and the gang rob a bank with them getting away and Barbara being caught. She goes to prison, but not before running into radio personality and 'reformer' Preston Foster who was from their old home town. Later on Talbot and company also get arrested and are in the men's section of the same prison.After this the plot gets so ridiculous and shrill that it boggles the mind. Barbara still loves Foster buts hates him as well for what she conceives as betrayal. It really was actually, but that depends on your point of view.And Foster actually looks embarrassed on screen mouthing a lot of sanctimonious blather. He's a 'crusader' whatever that means. The best way you can describe him is he's a kind of a Billy Sunday without the degree from the seminary. Foster must have kicked and screamed about this part and should have fired his agent.The best scenes are in the prison and they hold up. But overall the film is horribly dated with characters that people would laugh off the screen today.

Ladies They Talk About (1933) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Pre-Code from Warner about a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) sent to prison after helping commit a bank robbery. She befriends a preacher who says he loves her but she begins to have her doubts. What starts off as a rather interesting prison drama soon falls apart with the sappy love story. Another major problem is that Stanwyck's character is such a mean bitch you can help but want to see her dead and the ending really kills the film.You can catch this on TCM.

Nearly twenty years before CAGED, LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT touched the theme of women in prison with a much lighter touch. Barbara Stanwyck, this time, is at the helm as the ingénue sent to prison by her no-good boyfriend played by Preston Foster, although you wouldn't know it since this prison resembles more of a posh boarding house than the hell CAGED would present much later. Stanwyck is her usual gritty self (which is saying, she's fierce and elevates what would have been a throwaway role) as the girl who toughens up, and there is one of the earlier references info lesbianism thrown in as an oblique character who "likes to wrestle". It's probably more memorable due to the fact of being made in Hollywood's Pre-Code years, but if at all for an early Stanwyck, it's worth a shot. Look for Lillian Roth in a supporting role, one of the few she made during her short career before collapsing into almost absolute ignominy.