Ladies They Talk About

In most prison films, the convicted man is rehabilitated by the love of a woman. In Ladies They Talk About, Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman who becomes rehabilitated by the love of the man who sent her to prison. Stanwyck is Nan Taylor, a bank robber who gets sent to prison for her role in a bank heist. David Slade (Preston S. Foster) is the reformer who has fallen in love with her. When her two "partners" are killed in a jailbreak attempt in which she, too, is involved, Nan thinks David is the one responsible for tipping off the authorities. But she soon learns to trust in his love for her, eventually reciprocating and leaving her unsavory past behind. Codirected by William Keighley, who went on to direct The Man Who Came to Dinner, and based on the play by Dorothy Mackaye and Carlton Miles, Ladies They Talk About is not only worthy talking about, it's worth seeing over and over again.

• drama
• romance