Prison Without Bars

Prison Without Bars
Directed byBrian Desmond Hurst
Written byArthur Wimperis
Margaret Kennedy (dialogue)
Based onplay by Egon Eis
Otto Eis
Gina Kaus
Hans Wilhelm
Produced byAlexander Korda
StarringCorinne Luchaire
Edna Best
Barry K. Barnes
CinematographyGeorges Périnal
Bernard Browne
Edited byWilliam Hornbeck
Charles Crichton
Music byJohn Greenwood
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists Corporation (UK)
Release dates
  • 21 September 1938 (1938-09-21) (London, UK)
  • 9 April 1939 (1939-04-09) (US)
Running time
72 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

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.[1][2] It was written by Arthur Wimperis and Margaret Kennedy based on the 1936 play Gefängnis ohne Gitter by Gina Kaus, previously filmed as Prison sans Barreaux (1938),[3] aso starring Luchaire.

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.[2]

Cast

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Reformatory drama, an English version of a French film in which the settings and names of the original are kept. ... [the] story is dramatically presented, though the pseudo-French atmosphere occasionally weakens conviction."[4]

Variety wrote: "Prison Without Bars, remade from the French, is a strong film that should appeal to better-class audiences ... It's in the transition from the French to the English that the filmization falters slightly, pace being slowed."[5]

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."[6]

In December 1938, The Daily Telegraph selected it as one of their ten best films of the year.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Prison Without Bars". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Prison without Bars (1938)". BFI. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009.
  3. ↑ "Prison Without Bars (1938)". Unifrance. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  4. ↑ "Prison Without Bars". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 5 (49): 218. 1 January 1938. ProQuest 1305796536.
  5. ↑ "Prison Without Bars". Variety. 132 (4): 21. 5 October 1938. ProQuest 1475994971.
  6. ↑ "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 6 May 2022.
  7. ↑ "Prison Without Bars (1938)". Archived from the original on 2 August 2015.
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