Prison Movies

Prisons de Femmes / Marked Girls (1938, France)

One thing seems to unify the views of those who have provided synopses of this melodrama; despite the impression given by the film’s title, the prison content, they all agree, is disappointingly brief.

Now, I can’t hand-on-heart say that I’ve watched (or understood) the whole of this movie.

Not that I didn’t try, but in the copy to which I had access, the English subtitles were both sparing and sporadic… and when they did arrive, they didn’t always inspire confidence. By way of example: as the heroine, Juliette (Renée Saint-Cyr) is being sentenced, the judge allegedly says, with utmost gravity, that he “condemns the lure of sand gain 1 to 3 years imprisonment.”

The moral, clearly: avoid the lure of sand.

The story is narrated by a novelist interested in incarcerated women, Francis Carco, playing himself, and consists largely of flashbacks. In his research, Carco has somehow discovered Juliette’s innocence.

Juliette, it seems, may have been guilty of theft but has been wrongly convicted of the manslaughter of her abusive boss. In the 12 or so minutes of the movie that are devoted to her time in prison, we are treated to detailed induction processes (involving fingerprinting, the removal of stockings and the bidirectional measuring of the head), the compulsory wearing of bonnets outside the cells, the illicit removal of a panel in the wall that separates two cells which allows Régine (the top billing Viviane Romance) to calm the distraught newcomer Juliette, various work activities (cooking, washing, sewing), circular exercise in bonneted single file, the passing of a note which warrants disciplinary action and a spell in the dungeon, and a slashed wrist during a chapel service. It’s a busy 12 minutes of prison life (filmed, apparently, at a working women’s prison in Montpellier).

Régine is a rough cabaret singer, devoted to her man, Dédé. She helps Juliette survive her three arduous years in prison, and before she is released, gives Juliette the name of a contact, Madame Gaby (Marguerite Deval), who ‘helps’ women transition to the community, often it appears by arranging shady jobs in shady nightclubs. Juliette avails herself of her services and gets a less shady job as a saleswoman.

There perhaps, Juliette meets an exceptionally wealthy industrialist, Max Régent (Jean Worms), and marries him… without telling him of her turbulent past. Mixing in high society, she is constantly fearful that her past will be revealed, and after Régine is released and introduces Juliette to her gallant boyfriend, Dédé blackmails Juliette. Régine is however suspicious of Dédé’s romantic interest in her friend and murders him, framing Juliette in the process. Luckily, Franco, a confident of Max’s, reveals Juliette’s past to him and persuades him to forgive her. Prison scenes get a top-up for another couple of seconds as Régine is lodged back inside.

At least, that seems to be the general gist.

Not a prison movie, unfortunately, despite some nice prison scenes… and a sabulous moral.

Posted on September 29th, 2026 at 9:29 pm. Updated on September 29th, 2026 at 9:29 pm.