VINTAGE REVIEW: “Women’s Prison” (1955)

Google

Synopsis: Life inside a women’s prison turns more brutal than normal due to a sadistic warden.

My review: There’s a lot that’s interesting about Women’s Prison. Even though it might be looked at as a type of B film, it’s got a lot in it that will keep you learning new things upon repeat viewings. Also, even though Helene Jensen (Phyllis Thaxter) is originally the main character (and someone who looks remarkably like Kim Hunter), she disappears for a large section of the movie since her character is only a McGuffin. The real movie revolves around warden Amelia van Zandt (Ida Lupino) and her part in the tragic love story of inmates Joan Burton (Audrey Totter) and her husband on the men’s side of the prison, Glen (Warren Stevens).

I think one thing that makes this movie so interesting is its place in LGBT culture. Generally, “women’s prison” movies–a subgenre by itself–contain the erroneous stereotype of a lesbian. Generally, the lesbian stereotype in these films contain levels of sadism, masochism and not being at peace with themselves on some level. It’s almost like its written into the script that these women recognize something’s different about them even if they don’t understand what it is, and because of it, they act out in malicious ways. Also, the women are generally single, and their singleness is often pointed out in some kind of weird or direct way. Amelia van Zandt’s character combines all of these.

However, the characterization with van Zandt goes one step further and puts her in the position of being someone who is so deformed in her emotional development that she can’t even understand the concept of love. She doesn’t know how to love or be loved. Dr. Crane (Howard Duff) tells her to her face that she’s jealous of the women inmates who have someone on the outside waiting for them. He also tells her to her face that she;s a psychopath because something is limiting her capacity to love. When you hear his speech, you can literally hear the blanks in his statements. If those blanks were filed in, I think what he is trying to say is that she can’t love because she’s not allowed to by society due to her feelings about women. She’s jealous of those women she lords over because they are still able to have loves even while incarcerated while she, a free woman, can’t indulge in love at all; if she did, she’d be ostracized. So since she can’t have love, she tries to beat it out of the women who can under the guise of “rehabilitation.” I think this extreme character trait is indicative of quite a few 1950s films which portrayed the Other–in this case, a gay woman–as evil. It’s a crazy stretch, but given the time period, rife with McCarthyism, it’s only fitting that the people behind the movie industry would try to pin anyone different as a scapegoat for anything.

One thing that backs up my claim about van Zandt being a negative stereotype of a lesbian is her involvement with the Burtons. She hates the idea of them being together because they can share love–a “traditional” love between a man and woman–and she can’t. When she’s ordered by the head warden to find out how Glen got over to the women’s side, she goes to far when she tries to get the answer out of a pregnant Joan. Two things happen when she loses control of herself and starts beating Joan. One–the scene can be interpreted as her acting out her aggression, sadness and frustration on Joan because she still has love, cemented even further by her pregnancy. Second–you can see van Zandt indulging in some sadistic pleasure when she whoops on Joan. This obvious indulging in twisted arousal is a way to “show proof” of the “villany” of gays and lesbians. Of course, this isn’t true in real life, but in the 1950s, this movie was subconsciously implanting ideas into people’s brains.

Another subtle way the movie works in the propaganda against gays and lesbians–we see our original main character Helene, who is a good woman convicted of manslaughter due to accidentally hitting and killing a child with her car,  finally out of the clink with her husband waiting expectantly, ready to greet her with open arms. This further cements the idea that a heterosexual relationship is the “only” relationship, even if you happen to go “astray” (which Helene’s trip to a women’s prison could be interpreted as).

However, even if you watch the film without a sexology/social lens, Women’s Prison is a great movie to watch. Lupino plays an excellent villain, and even if the idea of prison with such lax rules is laughable at times (at times, it seems like the prison is more like a sterile hospital than a gritty prison), you start rooting for the success of the inmates when pitted against the wardens. All in all, Women’s Prison is a great movie that entertains as well as teach about antiquated views of the Other.