''Women Without Men'' is a 1956 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- ...

directed by Elmo Williams and Herbert Glazer and starring Beverly Michaels, Joan Rice and

Hermione Baddeley Hermione Youlanda Ruby Clinton-Baddeley (13 November 1906 – 19 August 1986) was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She typically played brash, vulgar characters, often referred to as "brassy" or "blowsy".Folkart, Burt, "Noted ...

. The screenplay concerns a woman who is unjustly sent to prison for an act which was really one of self-defense, and who escapes from prison in order to keep a rendezvous with her would-be fiancé, who has been out of the country and unaware of her plight. For U.S. release the film was retitled ''Blonde Bait'' and substantially re-edited, with new scenes filmed by the American distributors (with additional American actors - e.g. Jim Davis replacing Paul Carpenter as Nick) and notable character and plot changes, such as turning the heroine into a gangster's moll, for whom the prison break in engineered by the police in hopes she will lead them to her much-wanted fugitive boyfriend. Other new actors were

Richard Travis Richard Charles Travis, (born Dickson Cornelius Savage; 6 April 1884 – 25 July 1918) was a New Zealand soldier who fought during the First World War and was posthumously decorated with the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry ...

, Harry Lauter and Paul Cavanagh. Beverly Michaels also appeared in the film's new ending sequence.

Plot

Cast

* Beverly Michaels - Angie Booth * Joan Rice - Cleo *

Thora Hird Dame Thora Hird (28 May 1911 – 15 March 2003) was an English actress and comedian, presenter and writer. In a career spanning over 70 years, she appeared in more than 100 film and television roles, becoming a household name and a Briti ...

- Granny *

Avril Angers Florence Avril Angers (18 April 1918 – 9 November 2005) was an English stand-up comedian and actress. The ''Daily Telegraph'' described her as "one of the most zestful, charming and reliable character comediennes in the postwar London theat ...

- Bessie * Paul Carpenter - Nick *

- Grace *

Bill Shine William Shine (born July 4, 1963) is a former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. He spent most of his career as a producer and executive at Fox News. Most recently, he w ...

- Reveller * Gordon Jackson - Percy *

Valerie White Valerie may refer to: People *Saint Valerie (disambiguation), a number of saints went by the name Valerie *Valerie (given name), a feminine given name Songs *"Valerie", a 1981 song by Quarterflash, from ''Quarterflash'' *"Valerie", a 1982 son ...

- Governor *

Eugene Deckers Eugene Francis Deckers (22 October 1917, in Antwerp – 1977, in Paris, France) was a Belgian actor. Career After establishing himself on the British stage, Deckers made his first English language film appearance in 1946. Formerly a romantic ...

- Pierre *

April Olrich April Olrich (17 July 1931 – 15 April 2014), born Edith April Oelrichs, was an English ballerina and actress, born in Zanzibar, now part of Tanzania. Early life Edith April Oelrichs was born in Zanzibar in 1931 (some sources give 1933), where h ...

- Margueritte * Ralph Michael - Julian *

Betty Cooper Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper is one of the main characters appearing in American comic books published by Archie Comics. She is the lead guitarist, percussionist and one of the three singers of The Archies. The character was created by Bob Montana an ...

- Evans *

Sheila Burrell Sheila Mary Burrell (9 May 1922 – 19 July 2011) was a British actress. A cousin of Laurence Olivier, she was born in Blackheath, London, the daughter of a salesman. She attended St John's, Bexhill-on-Sea and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dram ...

- Babs * Michael Golden - Bargee

Critical reception

Sky Movies Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema ...

'' wrote, "Hammer Films, just before their success in the horror field, jumped on the band-wagon for women's prison films that had been rolling in Britain and America since the success of ''

Caged In music, a barre chord (also spelled bar chord) is a type of chord on a guitar or other stringed instrument played by using one finger to press down multiple strings across a single fret of the fingerboard (like a bar pressing down the strin ...

'' in 1950. Beverly Michaels (sent to prison on the slimmest of pretexts), Joan Rice, April Olrich and Hermione Baddely are among those looking grim, while Thora Hird makes the most of one of her best film roles as the indomitable Granny." The ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves ...

'' noted a " Second-feature British prison drama of no particular distinction, but deploying some humour and employing some interesting names - Thora Hird, Avril Angers - which up the entertainment quotient...it's good for an idle rainy afternoon or 2am insomnia."

References

External links

* 1956 films 1956 crime drama films British crime drama films Women in prison films Films shot in Berkshire Hammer Film Productions films 1950s prison films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films {{crime-drama-film-stub