"Helen Jensen" (Phyllis Thaxter) is a young woman who accidentally killed a child in an automobile accident and has been sentenced to prison for a period of 1 to 10 years. To make matters worse she isn't as tough as some of the other female inmates and has a nervous breakdown within only a day of her arrival. The main female matron, "Amelia van Zandt" (Ida Lupino) has a lot to do with it due to her cold and heartless decision to deliberately disobey the doctor's orders of not having her confined in isolation. But this isn't the first instance of abuse by Amelia as other instances occur during this film which finally reach a breaking point. At any rate, rather than detail the entire plot and possibly spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was an interesting prison movie for the most part. The acting was decent with both Ida Lupino and Jan Sterling (as "Brenda Martin") probably standing out the most. But while some of the movie seemed quite realistic there were other parts which seemed a bit too over-the-top. Likewise, there really wasn't anything that unique from other prison movies. As such, although it certainly wasn't a bad movie, I find it difficult to give this film anything higher than an average rating.
Review of Women's Prison
