Girls in Prison 1956

Anne Carson is sent to a women’s prison for allegedly participating in a bank robbery with two others, one, Paul Anderson who is still at large. The money was never recovered, and all eyes are on Anne, who denies knowing about the money.

On arrival, Anne meets the outwardly tough Matron Jamieson and the prison chaplain, Rev. Fulton, who feels Anne may have had a mistrial and does not belong in prison. The sense of tension inside the cell block grows as the staff keep a close watch on the new prisoner.

Anne’s cellmates are Jenny, who seems to run the inmates, Melanee who makes a play for Anne, and Dorothy, a woman who has murdered her own husband and child when he ran away with another woman who is still alive. The unhinged Dorothy believes her child is still alive and every new girl in prison is her husband’s lover, Lois. Jenny and Melanee team up in a “good cop/bad cop” routine to press Anne for the location of the money, with Melanee telling Dorothy that Anne is really Lois.

On the outside, Paul is using blackmail and threats on Anne’s ex-criminal father Pop Carson to locate the money, offering to split it with him 50/50.

Anne faces danger from Dorothy’s murderous history, threats on her life from two other inmates seeking the money, and a confrontation with Melanee in a catfight. When a large earthquake hits the area and demolishes the installation, Jenny (who has acquired a pistol from her outside contacts and the outwardly harmless trustee Grandma Edwards) and Melanee use the opportunity to escape with Anne to take her home to locate the money.

The downed telephone and power lines give the three girls time to slip away, but Melanee is killed when Jenny and Anne steal a vehicle and leave her behind. When they arrive at Anne’s home, Pop is still held at gunpoint by Paul. Anne admits that she hid the money and hands it over. When the Reverend arrives, Jenny is killed by Paul, but the Reverend manages to wrestle and subdue Paul before the police arrive. Anne accepts returning to prison.

Since the film’s release in 1956, the theatrical movie poster, featuring a catfight between Melanee and Anne Carson, has become a collector’s item. The poster shows the blonde-haired Gilbert strangling the dark-haired Taylor although that exact scene did not occur in the movie.