Condemned Women (1938) - Lew Landers

This is probably the best film of the "Woman in Prison' genre that I have seen, outside of something more exploitative. It involves the typical tropes of the genre, the hard-tough prisoner (Annie), the fragile-gentile woman (Millie), and our main protagonist, Linda. The film is centered around Linda, a former nurse, who is serving a three-year sentence for Larceny, a crime she committed in order to not go hungry.  She is a character forced into a tough situation due to losing her job and what elevates Condemned Woman over many similar films of the genre is the transformation which takes place in Linda's character. Early on in the film Linda is very much a pessimist, who sees no future for herself.  She has been beaten down by life, but as the film progresses, Linda begins to change, because of the love she shares with the jail's psychiatrist, but also because of what happens around her in terms of the other characters. There is an absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking scene in the late stages of the film, involving Millie, which in a sad but poignant way, is the turning point to Linda's new-found transfromation, giving Linda a reason to live and be happy.  A relatively well photographed film that features a fantastic montage sequence centered around the typhoid epidemic,  Lew Landers' Condemned Women offers a solid redemption story about rebirth 

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