''Turn the Key Softly'' is a 1953 British
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Jack Lee and starring
Yvonne Mitchell
Yvonne Mitchell (born Yvonne Frances Joseph; 7 July 1915 – 24 March 1979) was an English actress and author. After beginning her acting career in theatre, Mitchell progressed to films in the late 1940s. Her roles include Julia in the 1954 BBC ...
,
Joan Collins
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime ...
,
Kathleen Harrison, and
Terence Morgan
Terence Ivor Grant Morgan (8 December 1921 – 25 August 2005) was an English actor in theatre, cinema and television. He played many "villain" roles in British film but is probably best remembered for his starring role in the TV historical ...
. Lee and producer
Maurice Cowan also wrote the screenplay, based on the 1951
novel of the same title by
John Brophy, dealing with the first 24 hours of freedom for three women released on probation from prison on the same morning. It was shot at
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London.
The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to te ...
and
on location around
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. The film's sets were designed by the
art director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...
Donald M. Ashton
Donald M. Ashton (26 June 1919 – 25 August 2004) was an Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning English art director most noted for his work on such films as '' Billy Budd'' (1962), ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' (1957), ''Oh! What a ...
. It was released by
Rank's
General Film Distributors
General Film Distributors (GFD), later known as J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors and Rank Film Distributors Ltd., was a British film distribution company based in London. It was active between 1935 and 1996, and from 1937 it was part of the Rank Or ...
.
Plot
Three women are released from
Holloway Prison in London. Monica Marsden is a well-bred young woman, led into crime by her smooth-talking lover David; Monica took the fall for a crime he masterminded. Stella Jarvis is a beautiful
West End prostitute. Mrs Quilliam is a kindly elderly widow, who lived in poverty and was jailed for repeat shoplifting offences. Monica proposes that the three should meet up later for a fancy dinner, for which she will pay, to discuss how their first day of freedom has gone.
Monica goes to stay at her friend's flat and spends her morning job-hunting. Obtaining an office job despite her criminal record, she returns to the apartment and finds David waiting for her there. Although she is initially angry that he did not contact her once during her incarceration, he convinces her that the two of them can make a fresh start now that he is gainfully employed as a car salesman. He invites her to the theatre later that night.
Stella is engaged to Bob, an honest bus conductor who has patiently waited for her to get out of prison so they can marry. She resolves to change her ways and make him a good wife. He tells her that they can marry the following week when he can take time off from his work. He gives her three pounds to rent a room in
Canonbury (since his landlady will not let Stella stay with him) and to buy herself food. He tells her to meet him that evening after his shift ends. She takes the bus to rent the room, but her route takes her through
Leicester Square
Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...
, where she visits her prostitute friends and squanders the three pounds on a pair of earrings.
Mrs Quilliam returns to her former room in the poor neighbourhood of
Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Although primarily residential in character, i ...
to her special friend, Johnny. Johnny turns out to be her beloved little dog, a
Wire Fox Terrier, whom her neighbours have looked after. Mrs Quilliam has very little money. She and Johnny go to visit her daughter, Lila, who now lives in a nice suburban home with her husband and daughter. Lila, embarrassed by her mother's poverty and criminal record, is not happy to see her and coldly sends her away.
The three women, along with Johnny, dine at the Monte Christi, an elegant restaurant. Afterwards, Stella allows a businessman, George Jenkins, to pick her up on the street. They go drinking together, he gets drunk and Stella realises she is going to be late meeting Bob. Just before George falls asleep against a building, he tells Stella he does not like her new earrings and offers her money to buy a "decent" pair. She takes three pounds, returns George's wallet, then puts her earrings in his pocket, and hurries to meet Bob at
Piccadilly Circus. She tells Bob she did not go to Canonbury, but that she has not done anything bad, showing him that she still has the three pounds. The two happily leave together.
Mrs Quilliam stops at a pub, where Johnny accidentally escapes out of the door into an unfamiliar area. She frantically hunts for Johnny, and upon seeing him, rushes into the street without looking. She is struck by a car and killed.
Monica goes to the theatre with David, only to learn that he plans to rob a safe in a building over the road and wants her to help him, after which they will flee the country with the stolen money. She does not want to be involved, but he forces her onto the roof and locks the door, making her wait for him while he climbs down a rope ladder and enters a nearby window to rob the safe. While she is waiting, she manages to find the key, unlock the door and slip back into the theatre, leaving David to be discovered by security and apprehended by police. Monica is sadly walking home when she sees the dead Mrs Quilliam being stretchered into an ambulance and learns what happened. She then sees Johnny whimpering nearby, and takes him home to start their new life together.
Cast
*
Yvonne Mitchell
Yvonne Mitchell (born Yvonne Frances Joseph; 7 July 1915 – 24 March 1979) was an English actress and author. After beginning her acting career in theatre, Mitchell progressed to films in the late 1940s. Her roles include Julia in the 1954 BBC ...
as Monica Marsden
*
Terence Morgan
Terence Ivor Grant Morgan (8 December 1921 – 25 August 2005) was an English actor in theatre, cinema and television. He played many "villain" roles in British film but is probably best remembered for his starring role in the TV historical ...
as David
*
Joan Collins
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime ...
as Stella Jarvis
*
Kathleen Harrison as Mrs Quilliam
*
Thora Hird as Mrs Rowan
*
Dorothy Alison as Joan
*
Glyn Houston
Glyn Houston (23 October 1925 – 30 June 2019) was a Welsh actor best known for his television work. He was the younger brother of film actor Donald Houston.
Early life
Glyndwr Desmond Houston was born at 10 Thomas Street, Tonypandy, Glamorgan ...
as Bob
*
Geoffrey Keen as Mr Gregory
*
Russell Waters as George Jenkins
*
Clive Morton as Walters
*
Richard Massingham as Bystander
*
Hilda Fenemore as Mrs Quilliam's Daughter
*
Fred Griffiths as Newspaper Seller
*
Simone Silva
Simone may refer to:
* Simone (given name), a feminine (or Italian masculine) given name of Hebrew origin
* Simone (surname), an Italian surname
Simone may also refer to:
* ''Simone'' (1918 film), a French silent drama film
* ''Simone'' (1926 fi ...
as Marie
*
Toke Townley
John Antony Townley (6 November 1912 – 27 September 1984), known professionally as Toke Townley, was an English actor.
Biography
Townley was born on 6 November 1912 at Great Dunmow, Essex; his father was a vicar. His first name, "John", was c ...
as Prison Officer
*
Vi Stevens as Barmaid
*
Edward Evans as Commissionaire
Production
The film was based on a novel published in 1952. The censor,
Arthur Watkyn, a playwright, made some suggestions for cuts to enable the film to be passed. Reportedly Kathleen Harrison had to spend two hours in the make up chair every morning.
This was Joan Collins's first film under a new contract she had signed with Rank. Terence Morgan was also under contract to Rank.
Reception
''Turn the Key Softly'' received very positive reviews from contemporary critics, who noted with approval its realism and honesty; also its avoidance of the twin pitfalls in a storyline of this nature of either overly sentimentalising its characters or attempting to spice up proceedings with over-the-top melodrama or unnecessary plot twists and digressions. All three leading actresses were praised for their portrayals, with Harrison in particular singled out as giving a memorable and touching performance. Only a fall-back on coincidence as a plot device was mentioned as a minor weakness.
''Variety'' said "there is an interesting idea in this new British production which just fails to come off."
''
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 d ...
'' critic A. W. wrote: "''Turn the Key Softly''...is pointedly realistic about its stigmatized principals. And, while this examination of the short courses of the lives of three ladies of varying degree after they have left London's Holloway Prison, is not precisely on a heroic scale, the producers have endowed the proceedings with compassion, sensitivity and a modicum of irony. Credit Jack Lee and Maurice Cowan,...with keeping their heroines on the move without snarling this traffic in tales. (They) see the ladies through with honest results. Yvonne Mitchell...brings attractiveness and understanding to the role. Joan Collins is properly lush and brassy as the Cockney charmer. However, Kathleen Harrison...contributes the film's top portrayal. She makes the loneliness of the poor and unwanted strikingly real." Film critic of the ''
Pittsburgh Press'', Henry Ward, said: "''Turn the Key Softly'' is the kind of movie that apparently can only be made in Britain. It is a warm, sympathetic sort of movie that is sentimental without being sticky or maudlin, a well-paced melodrama that never falls back on over-dramatics for effect." He described Mitchell as "appealing", Collins as "excellent" and Harrison as "superb", concluding that the film "came to our town with a minimum of fanfare. It doesn't need it. It has a good story told with fine acting."
"British score again with fine film"
Ward, Henry. ''Pittsburgh Press'', 20 March 1954. ''Retrieved 27 October 2010''
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Turn the Key Softly
1953 films
1953 drama films
British black-and-white films
Films directed by Jack Lee
Films based on British novels
British prison drama films
Films shot at Pinewood Studios
Films shot in London
Films set in London
1950s prison films
1950s English-language films
1950s British films