Lady Gangster (1942)
Channel: The Cinema Cellar
Date: 2023-10-09

'Lady Gangster is a 1942 Warner Bros. B picture crime film directed by Robert Florey, credited as "Florian Roberts". It is based on the play Gangstress, or Women in Prison by Dorothy Mackaye, who in 1928, as #440960, served less than ten months of a one- to three-year sentence in San Quentin State Prison. Lady Gangster is a remake of the pre-Code film, Ladies They Talk About (1933). Jackie Gleason plays a supporting role.

Plot
Dorothy "Dot" Burton (Faye Emerson) is a member of a gang of bank robbers. Using her femininity and a cute dog provided her by her male cohorts, who dognapped him, she is able to enter a bank before opening time, leaving the door open and the bank guard holding her dog, thus enabling a successful robbery. When police interfere with the getaway, she faints and proclaims her innocence, but the police have strong doubts as "her" dog will not come to her and has a different name on his collar from what she calls him. After she confesses to her part in the robbery, she is sent to women's prison, where she makes an enemy of a fellow inmate who informs the governor that Burton knows where the bank's money is, thereby causing Burton to lose her parole. She is devastated by it but more trouble occurs as her old gang is going to kill her childhood sweetheart Ken Philips (Frank Wilcox), so she escapes by stealing the warden’s (Virginia Brissac) clothes and getting revenge on her rival inmate (Ruth Ford) before finally rescuing Ken.

Cast
Faye Emerson as Dorothy Drew Burton
Julie Bishop as Myrtle Reed
Frank Wilcox as Kenneth Phillips
Roland Drew as Carey Wells
Jackie Gleason as Wilson (as Jackie C. Gleason)
Ruth Ford as Lucy Fenton
Virginia Brissac as Mrs. Stoner
Dorothy Vaughan as Matron Jenkins
Dorothy Adams as Deaf Annie
William Hopper as John (as DeWitt Hopper)
Vera Lewis as Ma Silsby
Herbert Rawlinson as Lewis Sinton
Charles C. Wilson as Detective
Frank Mayo as Walker
Leah Baird as Matron
Jack Mower as Police Sergeant

Soundtrack
"Blues in the Night" (Music by Harold Arlen)

Directed by Robert Florey
Screenplay by Anthony Coldeway
Based on Women in Prison
1932 play
by Dorothy Mackaye
Carlton Miles
Produced by William Jacobs
Starring Faye Emerson
Julie Bishop
Cinematography Arthur L. Todd
Edited by Harold McLernon
Music by Various
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release date June 6, 1942
Running time 62 minutes
Country United States
Language English'

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Gangster