Adapted from the play, "Women in Prison," by Dorothy Mackaye and Carlton Miles. Featuring:

Barbara Stanwyck as Nan Taylor

Preston Foster as David Slade

Lillian Roth as Linda

Dorothy Burgess as Susie

Maude Eburne as Aunt Maggie

Harold Huber as Lefty

"St. Louis Blues" playing through the credits. The film opens with Nan making a hysterical phone call to the police: a madman with a butcher knife is running amok on the Westside. The call is a diversion to get police away from a bank her gang intends to rob. She rides to the East Side Security Bank with her gang of four men. Wearing a blonde wig and pretending to be Mrs. Andrews, who needs to deposit money for train tickets, she gets a guard to let her into the bank early. The guard holds Fifi, her dog. The gang robs the place and gets away. The guard insists that she remain. Tracy, the police detective, arrives and recognizes her as Nan Taylor; he removes her wig: "Not so hot as a blonde, Nan." "For a dumb dick, you've got a memory like an elephant." The headline reads: "Beautiful Gun Moll Captured." (Why didn't the gang take her hostage to get her out?)

Cut to David Slade's anti-crime speech ("Fighting Dave") on radio station WDS: criticized as being a meddler. Speaking out against corruption and politics in the DA's office. A crusading evangelist, but handsome. "I wish he was my boyfriend." Called a reformer; he uses the radio pulpit as his platform. The DA says: "People listen to him. They have radios and they have votes."

David Slade arranged an interview with Nan. He knew her when she was Nan Ellis, a small-town deacon's daughter, and he was the son of the town drunk. She had gone to reform school. She gives Slade a pitch that she's innocent: she says she can't go straight if the authorities don't give her a chance. So Slade takes up her cause on the radio.

The DA gets Nan brought over from County Jail. DA Simpson says he's doing Slade a favor: he's paroling Nan to Slade's custody. The DA says Slade is falling for her. He shoots straight, the DA says. Slade comes in. Nan thanks him and then, when Slade says he is taking her to his home, uncharacteristically admits that she hasn't been straight with him. She wasn't on the level: she was in on the bank job. Slade turns away, his feelings hurt. He can't talk. Nan tells the DA she was in on the bank job, but she doesn't know the men who were with her: "I didn't get their names." The DA tells her she is going on a little trip. Slade won't look at her.

Nan Taylor is sentenced to two-to-five years in San Quentin (18:30). Scene of the men marching along in silence, while in the women's wing bedlam reigns. Nan is brought in. She asks for a new dress: the matron gives her an old one and tells her, "This is a penitentiary, not a pink tea."

All the women on the wing give her the eye, as they sit around listening to the radio. When David Slade is announced, Nan steps up and turns off the radio. She faces down a matron and a woman convict (Sister Susie, a Slade fan) with bobbed hair. Nan talks tough and gets away with it. Another women, Linda, says she thinks it's swell; Linda shows her around:

the Greenhouse, where they grow plants.

the kitchen, where three women in for poisoning cook; it's connected to the morgue.

the sun yard, where blades of grass are named individually. Close to the two things you want most: freedom and men.

the ladies bird club, for stoolpigeons.

They see Mrs. Arlington, a socialite in for putting glass in another woman's caviar. They all call Nan a "new fish." They meet Aunt Maggie, in her rocker, who ran a "beauty parlor"--a brothel--until police came to visit.

David Slade writes Nan a letter (on Slade's Auditorium stationery) wanting to visit, but she tears the letters up and refuses to see him. Nan decorates her cell to suit her style. Linda sings, "If I Could Be with You," to a photo of Joe E. Brown on her wall. We see the other women passing time in their rooms.

Six months go by. A guard with a bird on her shoulder gives Nan a letter. It's from Lefty, who promises to visit. Sister Susie promises to get her for being disrespectful to Slade.

Mrs. Arlington and a black woman named Mustard have a dispute over laundry not returned. The guards use the parrot to frighten Mustard into going back to work.

Lefty comes to visit Nan in Q. Two of the boys have been caught; they're on the other side of the wall. They want to escape through the women's section. He wants Nan to provide a map and a drawing of a key. The men are going to tunnel through.

Slade writes; Nan has agreed to see him. Noonan, an Irish woman guard who has taken a liking to Nan, counsels her about Slade. Nan presses her key in a bar of soap.

Susie plants a love note in Nan's coat pocket. The guard gives her 30 days in the laundry, with no visitors. Nan punches out Sister Susie. Slade comes up to the prison, but the matron turns him away (45:00).

Nan and Linda are working in the laundry. Nan gets a note from Lefty telling her to send the key diagram to an outside address.

Susie gets out of prison, promising to tell Slade all about Nan. Noonan, the guard, comes to the laundry to get Nan: Slade has been allowed in for a special visit. She dresses up and acts very sweet: big kiss. She slips a letter in his pocket. When Slade finds it, he at first wonders what to do with it, but he does finally drop it in the mail.

The two bank robbers locate Nan's cell from the map. She plays loud music to cover the noise of their escape work.

Lefty's letter arrives, but he is in jail. The jailer opens his mail, sees the key diagram, and immediately calls the warden. They sound the alarm.

When Dutch and Don come through the tunnel to Nan's cell, the guards are closing in. They head for Nan's cell, too. The guards shoot down the escapees. The warden tells Nan, "No parole." Nan says she's not responsible for the two con's deaths, but she knows who is, and she promises to get even. "Don't worry about my conscience, sweetheart."

Nan finally gets out of prison: "Beautiful Gun Moll Released." She goes to the revival where Slade is speaking. The cop Tracy sees her and they talk. When she goes inside, Tracy follows her.

When they offer an invitation ("Almost Persuaded"), Nan comes forward. Slade has her taken to his study. Susie is in the choir. She looks through the keyhole. Nan shows him a picture of the two dead convicts and her; she berates him for double-crossing her. When he tries to stop her from leaving, she shoots him in the arm. She says she's sorry; he says, "It's nothing." Susie and the police come in but Slade says everything is fine. He keeps his hand in his pocket.

Slade sends everyone away except Tracy, who knows something is wrong. Slade tells Tracy they're going to get married. Tracy tells him to have a doctor look at his arm, and leaves. Big embrace. They get married, as the women in the prison read in the paper. Aunt Maggie says, "She would have knocked them cold in my beauty parlor." (1:10:00)