MissSimonetta Though produced by Warner Bros. at the dawn of the 1930s, this women's prison picture is not much of a social issue drama. Ladies They Talk About (1933) often feels more like a dark comedy than anything else. Barbara Stanwyck plays a tough-talking bank robber who falls for a crusading religious man. He falls for her too, but her past doesn't stop him from having her tossed into the slammer for five years.The plot and love story are mostly bunk. The highlights of the film are the examination of life inside the prison, the way all of these women interact. Unfortunately, the film is marred by unpleasant racial stereotyping and an ending which does not ring true. Stankwyck fans and lovers of pre-code will dig this though.

bkoganbing By force of personality, one of the best the screen ever saw, Barbara Stanwyck put over many a film, especially if she had something to work with. But there were films where even she could do nothing with the potboiler material she got and Ladies They Talk About is definitely that kind of material.The odd thing is that this with a little more subtle treatment could have been as remembered a women's prison picture classic like Caged. There are moments here, but few and far between.Stanwyck is in a role that probably Joan Blondell was too busy to do. She's a wisecracking Depression Era babe getting by on her wits and looks. She's the front for a gang of bank robbers headed by Lyle Talbot. As the film opens Stanwyck and the gang rob a bank with them getting away and Barbara being caught. She goes to prison, but not before running into radio personality and 'reformer' Preston Foster who was from their old home town. Later on Talbot and company also get arrested and are in the men's section of the same prison.After this the plot gets so ridiculous and shrill that it boggles the mind. Barbara still loves Foster buts hates him as well for what she conceives as betrayal. It really was actually, but that depends on your point of view.And Foster actually looks embarrassed on screen mouthing a lot of sanctimonious blather. He's a 'crusader' whatever that means. The best way you can describe him is he's a kind of a Billy Sunday without the degree from the seminary. Foster must have kicked and screamed about this part and should have fired his agent.The best scenes are in the prison and they hold up. But overall the film is horribly dated with characters that people would laugh off the screen today.

blanche-2 Barbara Stanwyck is a front for bank robbers who winds up in San Quentin in "Ladies They Talk About," a pre-code drama. The film is badly dated with very melodramatic acting, the exceptions being Stanwyck and Lillian Roth. Not to mention, it's an absurd story. A popular reformer, "Brother David Slade" falls for Barbara the minute he sees her, believes her innocent, and wants to help her. He arranges for her release from jail, and then, brimming with confidence, she confesses that she was indeed part of the bank robbery. Shattered, he sends her up the river to San Quentin.Once there, Stanwyck becomes a popular inmate with the exception of Sister Susie who's in love with Slade and hates her guts. Stanwyck helps her old buddies from the bank robbery escape by tunneling to her cell. The story goes on from there.Lillian Roth is great as a young woman who befriends Stanwyck, and she gets to sing. Stanwyck is fabulous with her wavy hair and tough talk. Preston Foster mainly looks pious and sincere.The film is interesting because of Stanwyck and Roth, but the story isn't good. Happily this was at the beginning of Stanwyck's career, and she went on to better things.

Ron Oliver The hard-boiled dames locked up at San Quentin State Penitentiary are some of the LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT.Barbara Stanwyck stars in this very enjoyable pre-Code crime drama which takes a Hollywood look at women's lives behind bars. The acting is strictly of the ham variety, with a few histrionics, some heart-string tugging and a surprisingly large dollop of comedy thrown in. Some of the plot developments are absolutely ludicrous, but the viewer should never get bored.Stanwyck is terrific as the female member of a small-time gang of crooks. Prison gives her a chance to get really tough in order to deal with her situation, but the audience always knows that just a few moments with the right man will have her (rather unconvincingly) melting like butter. Whether brawling with a vicious inmate, assisting in an escape attempt, or going gunning for the guy she thinks betrayed her, Stanwyck is always right on the money for entertainment value.Three female costars give Stanwyck some great support in the prison scenes. Lillian Roth, as the lighthearted inmate who befriends Barbara, nearly steals the show with her perky personality; she gives the movie one of its brightest moments when she croons 'If I Could Be With You' to a fan photo of comic Joe E. Brown. Frowzy Maude Eburne is a hoot as a bawdy former madam who likes to reminisce about her old 'beauty parlor' from the comfort of her rocking chair. Good-natured Ruth Donnelly is a nice addition, in a small role, as an Irish matron with a big white parrot.Preston Foster, as a reform revivalist who remembers Stanwyck from their childhood together in Benicia, California, gives an earnest performance, stalwart & steady. Lyle Talbot and Harold Huber appear as members of Stanwyck's gang. Elderly Robert McWade makes the most of his performance as Los Angeles' wily District Attorney.Movie mavens will spot some fine character actors appearing unbilled: rotund DeWitt Jennings as a cagey police detective; Helen Ware as the no-nonsense prison head matron; Madame Sul-Te-Wan as Mustard, the sassy prisoner who's terrified of parrots; Robert Warwick as San Quentin's stern warden. And that's dear Mary Gordon who appears for only a few scant seconds as a laughing white-haired inmate in the Visiting Room.