This is a crime drama that could have been so much better, the story of a house for single mothers where the babies are ultimately taken from them and sold into adoption. Stage actress Freda Jackson is the amiable owner who hides a sinister secret, and will do anything, including tossing out the baby with the bath water, to get away with it. Rene Ray, the newest tenant, is about to give birth, her boyfriend (Laurence Harvey) about to be sent to prison, and that makes her vulnerable to Jackson's schemes.
The performance of Jackson is quite compelling, starts off as charming, but slowly her claws come out, revealing her to be quite evil. Among the other women who live there are Dora Bryan, Lois Maxwell and Vida Hope, and their hard working class accents often makes them seem harder than they really are. Some are indeed hard hearted, scheming and jealous, but they're an interesting bunch, not just paint by numbers crude.
Unfortunately, this is a hard film to like as it is unpleasant, and takes a while to really get going. It's based on a play, and obviously cut down for movie length, so it's not as fleshed out as it could have been, and often, seemingly missing important details. Ray is surprisingly strong even when at her most vulnerable, as if she knows she has to hide those personal traits in order to succeed in bringing Jackson down. One notch above an exploitation film, the melodramatic twists towards the end never make the viewer believe that right won't triumph.
The performance of Jackson is quite compelling, starts off as charming, but slowly her claws come out, revealing her to be quite evil. Among the other women who live there are Dora Bryan, Lois Maxwell and Vida Hope, and their hard working class accents often makes them seem harder than they really are. Some are indeed hard hearted, scheming and jealous, but they're an interesting bunch, not just paint by numbers crude.
Unfortunately, this is a hard film to like as it is unpleasant, and takes a while to really get going. It's based on a play, and obviously cut down for movie length, so it's not as fleshed out as it could have been, and often, seemingly missing important details. Ray is surprisingly strong even when at her most vulnerable, as if she knows she has to hide those personal traits in order to succeed in bringing Jackson down. One notch above an exploitation film, the melodramatic twists towards the end never make the viewer believe that right won't triumph.