City Without Men (1943)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Sidney Salkow

Writers:

Martin Berkeley (story)
Donald Davis (additional dialogue)

Release Date:

14 January 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Women fighting for their men, and their right to love them!

Plot:

A young woman's husband has been imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. In order to be near him to try to help him get his sentence overturned, she moves into a boardinghouse near the prison whose residents are the wives of inmates. |

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Linda Darnell	...	Nancy Johnson
Edgar Buchanan	...	Michael T. Mallory
Michael Duane	...	Tom Adams
Sara Allgood	...	Maria Barton
Glenda Farrell	...	Billie LaRue
Leslie Brooks	...	Gwen
Doris Dudley	...	Winnie
Margaret Hamilton	...	Dora
Constance Worth	...	Elsie
Rosemary DeCamp	...	Mrs. Slade
Sheldon Leonard	...	Monk LaRue
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Arthur Loft	...	Lawyer (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Prison Farm (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:15

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Female Ensemble cast

I am rating this film with a 6 out of 10 on the basis that if i *could* have heard the dialogue, it would have been a very satisfying B-Movie. As it is, the Alpha Video DVD release has incredibly BAD sound quality, rendering much of the speech incomprehensible and thus muddying up both the plot and the emotional impact of the work. I am generally a promoter and fan of the Alpha releases of Poverty Row movies, but the condition of the sound is beneath what anyone should be made to endure. Anyway, on the premise that somewhere there's a better print, i think i would like to see it again. Margaret Hamilton is outstanding as a piano playing card cheat, Edgar Buchanan is unexpected as an alcoholic lawyer, and Sara Allgood is tragic as a woman who has lost her husband to the prison system and loves him still. The film really belongs to the women, but the men do a credible job, especially Sheldon Leonard as a tough-guy inmate.