Turn the Key Softly (Original title)
Dates: 1953 (Copyright), 01 June 1953 (Release)Country: United KingdomDirector: Jack Lee
Synopsis: Drama. At 8.00am one day three women are released from Holloway (women's) prison in London. They are brassy young Stella Jarvis, timid old Mrs Quilliam and poised, secretive Monica Marston. As they head back out across London to their old lives, they face temptations that could prove their undoing again. Stella is glad to see her fiancé, the kindly, steady-going bus conductor Bob, who urges her to settle down in respectable digs. Mrs Quilliam is happy to see her dog, Johnny. Monica tries to find an office job despite the fact that her criminal record can hardly be hidden from prospective employers, and she is displeased to see her old boyfriend, David. That same evening, the women are to meet for dinner at the Monte Christo restaurant in the West End. The rest of the evening proves full of unexpected drama for them all.
Genre: Drama
Subjects: Ex-prisoners, Theft
Releases
Date: 1953Country: United KingdomRelease type: unknownFormat: 35mm Film - Black and White - SoundRuntime: 81 mins Length: 7325 FeetDialogue (original): English
Dates: 1953 (Copyright), 01 June 1953 (Release)Country: United KingdomDirector: Jack Lee
Synopsis: Drama. At 8.00am one day three women are released from Holloway (women's) prison in London. They are brassy young Stella Jarvis, timid old Mrs Quilliam and poised, secretive Monica Marston. As they head back out across London to their old lives, they face temptations that could prove their undoing again. Stella is glad to see her fiancé, the kindly, steady-going bus conductor Bob, who urges her to settle down in respectable digs. Mrs Quilliam is happy to see her dog, Johnny. Monica tries to find an office job despite the fact that her criminal record can hardly be hidden from prospective employers, and she is displeased to see her old boyfriend, David. That same evening, the women are to meet for dinner at the Monte Christo restaurant in the West End. The rest of the evening proves full of unexpected drama for them all.
Genre: Drama
Subjects: Ex-prisoners, Theft
Releases
Date: 1953Country: United KingdomRelease type: unknownFormat: 35mm Film - Black and White - SoundRuntime: 81 mins Length: 7325 FeetDialogue (original): English
Credits
(47)
©: Chiltern Film Productions Limited, Presents: The J. Arthur Rank Organisation, Executive Producer: Earl St. John, Produced by: Maurice Cowan, Production Manager: Denis Holt, Production Controller for Pinewood Studios: Arthur Alcott, Production Secretary: Penny Dewdney, Assistant Director: Robert Asher, 2nd Assistant Director: Peter Manley, 3rd Assistant Director: Colin Brewer, Continuity: Joan Davis, Casting: Weston Drury Jr, Screenplay by: Jack Lee, Screenplay by: Maurice Cowan, From the novel by: John Brophy, Director of Photography: Geoffrey Unsworth, Camera Operator: David Harcourt, Focus Puller: Ronnie Maasz, Clapper Loader: David Motture, Stills: George Courtney Ward, Special Processes: John Gow, Editor: Kieran Carruthers, Sound Editor: Graeme Hamilton, Assistant Editor: John Cooke, 2nd Assistant Editor: Elizabeth Taylor, Art Director: Don Ashton, Set Dresser: Vernon Dixon, Chief Draughtsman: Ernest Archer, Draughtsman: Roy Walker, Draughtsman: Jim Able, Geoffrey Drake, Dress Designer: Julie Harris, Make-up: Geoff Rodway, Music Composed and Directed by: Mischa Spoliansky, And [Music] Played by: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sound Recordist: Dudley Messenger, Sound Recordist: Gordon K. McCallum, Sound Camera Operator: Harold Clark, Boom Operator: Geoffrey Daniels, Boom Assistant: John Salter, Dubbing Crew: Gordon K. McCallum, Dubbing Crew: Bill Daniels, Ted Drake, Sound Editor: Graeme Hamilton, Sound System: Western Electric Recording, Made at: Pinewood Studios
Cast
(16)
Yvonne Mitchell (Monica Marston), Terence Morgan (David), Joan Collins (Stella Jarvis), Kathleen Harrison (Mrs Quilliam), Thora Hird (landlady), Dorothy Alison (Joan), Glyn Houston (Bob), Geoffrey Keen (Gregory, 2nd employer), Russell Waters (George Jenkins, man on Tube), Clive Morton (Walters, 1st employer), Richard Massingham ([bystander]), Peggy Marshall ([Stella's old streetwalker friend]), Mavis Sage, Antoinette Seaborn, Patricia Somerset, Jacqueline Cox