The Weak and the Wicked

The Weak and the Wicked
UK release poster
Directed by	J. Lee Thompson
Produced by	Victor Skutezky
Written by	Anne Burnaby
Based on	novel Who Lie in Gaol by Joan Henry
Starring	Glynis Johns Diana Dors
Music by	Leighton Lucas
Cinematography	Gilbert Taylor
Edited by	Richard Best
Release date	18 July 1954
Running time	81 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	£213,706 (UK)

The Weak and the Wicked (called Young and Willing in the United States) is a 1954 British drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson based on the book by his wife, Joan Henry, starring Glynis Johns, and Diana Dors.

Based on a best-selling book and prison experiences of author Joan Henry, director J. Lee Thompson's prison saga explores the life of inmates behind bars where innocence is lost in the world of vice. Despite its pulpy pot-boiler title, the film settles for earnest social drama over melodrama.

Frank "women in prison" story that sympathetically tracks several inmates through their imprisonment and subsequent return to society. Some are successfully rehabilitated; some are not.

Female prisoners talk about the events that brought them there and each of their stories is detailed in a series of flashbacks; notably the upper-class Jean (Glynis Johns), the brash Betty (Diana Dors) and the pregnant Pat (Rachel Roberts). The film follows the inmates' progress behind bars; Jean's ordeal improves after some sympathetic bonding with her fellow inmates, followed by a move to an experimental open prison.

The film was popular at the British box office. According to the National Film Finance Corporation, the film made a comfortable profit.

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Wikipedia