Prison Without Bars

Prison Without Bars is a 1938 British black-and-white crime film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Corinne Luchaire, Edna Best and Barry K. Barnes. It is set in a girl's reform school, and was based on a play by Gina Kaus, previously filmed in France as Prison sans Barreaux (1938). Corinne Luchaire starred in both versions.

Synopsis
A young progressive thinking woman becomes superintendent at a French girl's reformatory dominated by the harsh previous head. A young girl is blackmailed by her acquaintance over her love for the superintendent's fiancé, but is released to join him in the end, when all is revealed.

Cast

 * Suzanne Duplat	- Corinne Luchaire
 * Yvonne Chanel - 	Edna Best
 * Dr George Marechal - 	Barry K. Barnes
 * Renee - 	Mary Morris
 * Alice - 	Lorraine Clewes
 * Julie Picard - 	Sally Wisher
 * Mme Appel - 	Martita Hunt
 * Mlle Arthemise - 	Margaret Yarde
 * Mme Remy - 	Elsie Shelton
 * Nina - 	Glynis Johns
 * Mlle Renard - 	Enid Lindsey
 * Mlle Pauline - 	Phyllis Morris
 * Mlle Dupont - 	Nancy Roberts

Critical reception
In The New York Times, Frank S. Nugent dismissed the film as "another prison picture, and while we would not want to pass too harsh a sentence upon it, neither can we fairly pretend that it is innocent": whereas, in December 1938, The Daily Telegraph selected it as one of their ten best films of the year.