| Prison Without Bars | |
| Director: | Brian Desmond Hurst |
| Producer: | Alexander Korda |
| Based On: | play by Egon Eis Otto Eis Gina Kaus Hans Wilhelm |
| Starring: | Corinne Luchaire Edna Best Barry K. Barnes |
| Cinematography: | Georges Périnal Bernard Browne |
| Music: | John Greenwood |
| Editing: | William Hornbeck Charles Crichton |
| Studio: | London Film Productions |
| Runtime: | 72 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
Prison Without Bars is a 1938 British black-and-white crime film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Corinne Luchaire, Edna Best and Barry K. Barnes.[1] It is set in a girl's reform school, and was based on a play by Gina Kaus, previously filmed in France as Prison sans Barreaux (1938).[2] Corinne Luchaire starred in both versions.[3]
A young progressive thinking woman becomes superintendent at a French girl's reformatory dominated by the harsh previous head. A young girl is blackmailed by her acquaintance over her love for the superintendent's fiancé, but is released to join him in the end, when all is revealed.[4]
In The New York Times, Frank S. Nugent dismissed the film as "another prison picture, and while we would not want to pass too harsh a sentence upon it, neither can we fairly pretend that it is innocent":[5] whereas, in December 1938, The Daily Telegraph selected it as one of their ten best films of the year.[6]