Review of Turn the Key Softly

When you want to watch a completely different type of movie, watch Turn The Key Softly. The title gives little clue as to the emotional story that is about to unfold. I had no idea what to expect, I found it on Youtube. Three women are released from a British Prison on the same morning, the movie follows their first 24 hours of freedom. The only actress I recognized was a very young Joan Collins, 14 years before she guest starred as Edith Keeler, in the best episode ever of the original Star Trek series, City on the Edge of Forever. Yvonne Mitchell gets top billing as another one of the released prisoners, even more glamorous and attractive than Collins on her best day. Although Collins played a cockney, I found every bit of dialog to be very understandable to American English speakers. Maybe she was speaking cockney light. I didn't need subtitles like with some British movies. But it is the third, the oldest and least attractive actress, Kathleen Harris, who completely steals the show in my humble opinion. She tells her two jail companions how she is eager to get home because she has somebody waiting for her, Johnny. On and on she raves about her beloved Johnny. I assumed Johnny was her son, but you could think she meant her husband, or brother. So it comes as a total shock when she gets home to Johnny, a dog! A dog that can't control his enthusiasm to see her again. She promises never to leave him again. I expected that to be the end of her story, but I was wrong.

I doubt if the director expected the homely old woman and her black and white dog to upstage the beautiful leading lady, Yvonne Mitchell who figures prominently on the movie poster. But the dog theme runs all the way through to the end of the picture and ties in neatly with Yvonne Mitchell. I won't give away the grand finale, except to warn you to have plenty of tissues ready to wipe away the tears.