[Susan Foreman]

'The Weak And The Wicked' (1958) - Coming to Blu-ray from Studio Canal UK as part of their Vintage Classics line:

Release date: August 5

"Based on the best-selling book 'Who Lie in Gaol' about the autobiographical prison experiences of author Joan Henry, THE WEAK AND THE WICKED (1954) sympathetically tracks several female inmates throughout their imprisonment and subsequent return to society

The upper middle-class Jean (Glynis Johns), the brash Betty (Diana Dors) and the pregnant Pat (Rachel Roberts) reveal what brought them behind bars, each of their stories shown in a series of flashbacks. Jean's story shows how her gambling habit led her to incur a casino proprietor's wrath and subsequent framing of her for fraud. Jean bonds with her fellow inmates, which improves her ordeal, and is moved to an experimental open prison for the rest of her sentence.

Inspiring Jean's storyline, Joan Henry was a writer with a gambling problem who was sentenced to 12 months in prison for passing a fraudulent cheque, for which she claimed she was framed. She served 8 months at Holloway and the more liberal Askham Grange open prison. When Oscar and BAFTA nominated writer-director J. Lee Thompson (Yield To The Night, Tiger Bay, The Guns of Navarone) read her book, he was determined to make it in to a film, and subsequently wound up falling in love and marrying Joan

With Mary Poppins' star Glynis Johns cast as Jean, and Diana Dors as a brassier felon, filming of THE WEAK AND THE WICKED took place just weeks after Diana Dors made headlines in real life for being convicted of stealing alcohol from a friend's house"

Special Features:

• NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
• NEW From Entrapment to Matthew Sweet in conversation
• NEW From Book to Film: Melanie Williams on Joan Henry
• Behind the Scenes Stills Gallery
• Original Trailer