VividSimon Simply Perfect

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

MartinHafer "Turn the Key Softly" is an interesting film and well worth your time. It's the story about three women who are released from prison on the same day. It follows each through their first day out and is a very melancholy story...one that will NOT be leaving you happy! There...you've been warned.The three ladies (one of which is a very young Joan Collins) all leave prison and the story clearly illustrates that you just can't go back to your old life. In one case, it's because family no longer want anything to do with one of the women. And, in another case, one returns to her crook boyfriend...something which clearly is NOT in her best interests. As for the final one, her story is a bit hard to categorize other than she likes nice things.Overall, this is a very good film for three reasons. It's best quality is that it's unique in so many ways...a major plus. It also has some terrific acting as well as brilliant cinematography--particularly late in the film during a chase sequence. Overall, not a lot to complain about apart from the depressing nature of some of the stories.

boblipton Yvonne Mitchell, Joan Collins and Kathleen Harrison are released from prison into the hustle and bustle of London on the same day, with varying degrees of resolution to go straight. They agree to meet for dinner at a posh restaurant -- Miss Mitchell's treat. The movie covers the day and their varying success.It's well performed by three actresses: Miss Harrison plays her scrublady from SCROOGE, transported a century and a quarter into the future. jugged on fifteen counts of shoplifting; Miss Mitchell is an well-to-do young woman who loved unwisely but too well and took the fall for her burglar boyfriend; and Joan Collins.... well, she looks like a cheap piece of goods, but she's scheduled to marry a bus driver.It's based on a novel and the screenplay is, I fear, somewhat muddled, with the random nature of events leading to random outcomes. The actresses give excellent performances, and director Jack Lee, in cooperation with cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, sets up the final fifteen minutes in a striking manner. He clearly had a fine eye for the streets of the city, having worked for the GPO as assistant director to LONDON CAN TAKE IT! His abilities helming a fiction movie were shakier, but given the performances and visuals, this one is worth a look.

malcolmgsw This was one of a number of films made at this time arising out of shared experiences of institutions.There were films about Borstal s,Prisons,schools,department stores and police station.In this film we follow the lives of 3 ex women prisoners on the day of their release.The main story is that of Yvonne Mitchell and Terrance Morgan,then there is Joan Collins and finally Kathleen Harrison.The first story is far and away the best and supplies the main climax to the film.Mitchell wants to go straight but is inveigled into a robbery by Morgan.She manages to escape and leave him to his fate.Collins is a good time girl who is enticed into her old ways,probably prostitution,by her old friends.She is going to marry a bus conductor would you believe.Her acting is absolutely awful,and her attempt to speak with a cockney accent is laughable.Can anyone believe a Joan Collins character happily married to a bus conductor.the third story concerns the reliable Kathleen Harrison and her dog Johnny.This is a real shaggy dog story and really the worst of the bunch and which leads to a very contrived finale. The most interesting part of this film is the location work and to be reminded of the way London was in the 50s.Incidentally Collins is shown outside the Leicester Square Theatre,now the Odeon West End.On Tuesday the vandals at Westminster agreed to its demolition so that yet another hotel could be built there.Shame on them.

JohnHowardReid Beautifully photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth and imaginatively directed by Jack Lee, this splendidly acted drama is a triumph for all concerned. Production values, including a marvelously staged action climax, are absolutely first class. Admittedly, some may find the music score by Mischa Spoliansky a little too sentimental for film noir, but I thought it totally appropriate. Directing 2nd units on actual locations was a Jack Lee specialty, so it comes as no surprise here to see real locations employed to such advantage. Film editor Lito Carruthers has also done a marvelous job. The editing is as taut as a circus high wire. Lito was born in Greece, but came to England as a child. Educated at the Convent of Sion, she joined the film industry as an assistant in the London production office for Fire Over England (1937). During the Second World War, she served her apprenticeship in the cutting rooms of Ealing Studios, where she cut her first picture, a 45-minute documentary, very appropriately Greek Testament (1942), under the editorial supervision of director Charles Hasse. Beginning with Old Mother Riley Overseas in 1943. Lito edited 26 movies between 1943 and 1960, finishing up with Too Hot To Handle in 1960. I don't know what happened after that. Whether she retired, died, got married? It would be nice to know. She was a really top film editor. First rank.