Paula Hammond - Features EditorBased on the best-selling book, Who Lie in Gaol, about the prison experiences of author Joan Henry, The Weak and the Wicked (1954) is a landmark film from British director, J. Lee Thompson.
Made famous with war thrillers such as Ice Cold in Alex and The Guns of Navarone, Thompson would go on to have an impressive Hollywood career, directing films as diverse as Cape Fear, Taras Bulba, and Mackenna’s Gold.
If Anthony Quinn (Ice Cold in Alex) was to be believed, Thompson’s directing technique relied on never reading a scene until he shot it, and approaching every shoot seemingly “on a whim”.
Yet if we look at his films, then it’s clear that, while the subject matter of his later work may have changed, Thompson’s innovative and spontaneous approach to filmmaking remained.
This is perhaps most apparent in The Weak and the Wicked, which is released by StudioCanal this August as part of their Vintage Classics Collection.
The Weak and the Wicked is a masterclass of social realism — sympathetically tracking several female inmates throughout their imprisonment and subsequent return to society.
The upper middle-class Jean (Glynis Johns), the brash Betty (Diana Dors), and the pregnant Pat (Rachel Roberts) reveal what brought them behind bars, each of their stories shown in a series of deftly-handled flashbacks.
Thompson would later regret that he abandoned ‘content and message’ for the quick entertainment of Hollywood and American TV, saying that he felt like he had “sold out”. Yet arguably The Guns of Navarone is every bit as ‘Thompson-esque’ as The Weak and the Wicked — with the same attention to detail, the same nuanced performances, and the same sense of atmosphere.
Thompson was a skilled artist, and whether it’s his 1950s kitchen sink dramas or his ‘70s action flicks, he made movies for people who love films.
THE WEAK AND THE WICKED will be released on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on 5 August
https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/the-weak-and-the-wicked/
Special Features:
- New From Entrapment to Freedom: Phuong Le & Matthew Sweet in conversation.
- New From Book to Film: Melanie Williams on Joan Henry.
- Behind the Scenes Stills Gallery.
- Original Trailer.
