Crime,Drama,Romance
United States of America
Ladies They Talk About is a 1933 American pre-Code crime drama film directed by Howard Bretherton and William Keighley. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck as Nan Taylor, a glamorous and ruthless moll who is sent to prison for her involvement in a bank robbery. While in prison, Nan makes friends with fellow inmates and begins to plan her escape.
One of Nan's new friends is Linda (played by Lillian Roth), a young woman who is in prison for accidentally killing her abusive husband. Linda is tormented by the sadistic matron of the prison, who regularly beats her and taunts her about her crime.
Nan and Linda come up with a plan to escape by digging a tunnel that leads from their cell to the outside of the prison walls. They recruit other inmates to help them and manage to tunnel their way out of the prison, but they are caught by the guards before they can escape.
Nan is sent to solitary confinement as punishment, but she manages to hatch another plan to escape. This time, she convinces the prison's doctor to help her by staging a fake illness. The doctor, who is in love with Nan, agrees to smuggle her out of the prison in his car.
The escape goes according to plan, but Nan and the doctor soon run into trouble when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. They are eventually found by the police, who take them back to the prison.
In the end, Nan is sentenced to life in prison, but she makes one last attempt to escape by staging a riot among the inmates. The riot is put down by the guards, and Nan is killed in the chaos.
Ladies They Talk About was a critical and commercial success, and is now regarded as a classic of the pre-Code era. The film's themes of female empowerment and solidarity among prisoners were ahead of their time, and Barbara Stanwyck's performance as Nan Taylor is widely regarded as one of her best.
