STUDIOCANAL are delighted to announce the release of two compelling dramas from British director J. Lee Thompson (Ice Cold in Alex) into their Vintage Classics Collection featuring standout performances from two legendary and much-missed British actresses Glynis Johns and Sylvia Syms.
THE WEAK AND THE WICKED stars the late Diana Dors (Yield to The Night) alongside Glynis Johns (Mary Poppins), and NO TREES IN THE STREET features Herbert Lom (The Pink Panther Strikes Again) and Melvyn Hayes (Summer Holiday) alongside Sylvia Syms (Woman in a Dressing Gown) in her BAFTA-nominated performance.
Both films will premiere at Bristol’s Cinema Rediscovered Festival (24-28 July) and will be available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from 5 August.
Based on the best-selling book ‘Who Lie in Gaol’ about the autobiographical prison experiences of author Joan Henry, THE WEAK AND THE WICKED (1954) sympathetically tracks several female inmates throughout their imprisonment and subsequent return to society.
The upper middle-class Jean (Glynis Johns), the brash Betty (Diana Dors) and the pregnant Pat (Rachel Roberts) reveal what brought them behind bars, each of their stories shown in a series of flashbacks. Jean’s story shows how her gambling habit led her to incur a casino proprietor’s wrath and subsequent framing of her for fraud. Jean bonds with her fellow inmates, which improves her ordeal, and is moved to an experimental open prison for the rest of her sentence.
Inspiring Jean’s storyline, Joan Henry was a writer with a gambling problem who was sentenced to 12 months in prison for passing a fraudulent cheque, for which she claimed she was framed. She served 8 months at Holloway and the more liberal Askham Grange open prison.
When Oscar and BAFTA nominated writer-director J. Lee Thompson (Yield To The Night, Tiger Bay, The Guns of Navarone) read her book, he was determined to make it in to a film, and subsequently wound up falling in love and marrying Joan. With Mary Poppins’ star Glynis Johns cast as Jean, and Diana Dors as a brassier felon, filming of THE WEAK AND THE WICKED took place just weeks after Diana Dors made headlines in real life for being convicted of stealing alcohol from a friend’s house.
Released 5 years later in 1959, tense crime thriller NO TREES IN THE STREET saw J. Lee Thompson move further towards social realism, as the British trend for the ‘kitchen sink drama’ began.
Adapted by TV and theatre writer Ted Willis from his own stage play (his screenplay received a BAFTA nomination), Thompson cast Sylvia Syms as Hetty, a sweet young woman who desperately tries to stop her younger teenage brother Tommy (Melvyn Hayes) descending in to crime in the slums of pre-war East London, whilst Hetty’s mother urges her to take up with Wilkie (Herbert Lom), a smooth local racketeer, in an attempt to raise the family out of poverty.
Lee Thompson, Sylvia Syms and Ted Willis had previously collaborated on the award-winning Woman in a Dressing Gown(1957) and Ice Cold in Alex(1958). Thompson and Willis worked with producer Frank Godwin to produce well-received films with strong female protagonists that pre-empted the British New wave by several years.
THE WEAK AND THE WICKED will be released on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on 5 August
https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/the-weak-and-the-wicked/
Special Features:
- New From Entrapment to Matthew Sweet in conversation
- New From Book to Film: Melanie Williams on Joan Henry
- Behind the Scenes Stills Gallery
- Original Trailer
NO TREES IN THE STREET will be released on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on 5 August
https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/no-trees-in-the-street/
Special Features:
- New The Highs and Lows of Kennedy Matthew Sweet on No Trees in the Street
- New Passion & Poverty: An interview with Melanie Williams
- New Melvyn Hayes on No Trees in the Street
- Behind the Scenes Stills Gallery
- Original Trailer
About STUDIOCANAL (a CANAL+ Company)
STUDIOCANAL, a 100% affiliate of CANAL+ Group held by Vivendi, is Europe’s leader in production, distribution and international sales of feature films and series, operating in all nine major European markets – France, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Spain, Denmark and Benelux – as well as in Australia and New Zealand.
It finances and produces around 30 films per year, distributes around 80 films per year. It owns the largest library in Europe and one of the most prestigious libraries in the world, boasting more than 8 000 titles from 60 countries, spanning 100 years of film history. 20 million euros has been invested into the restoration of 750 classic films over the past 5 years.
In addition, STUDIOCANAL also produces almost 20 series each year and operates at an international level by globally distributing its scripted productions and CANAL+ Originals (2,000 hours of current and library content in distribution). All productions take place directly through STUDIOCANAL entities or with its award-winning network of 14 production companies in Europe and in the United States (STUDIOCANAL Series, LAILAPS FILMS, RED PRODUCTION COMPANY, URBAN MYTH FILMS, BAMBÚ PRODUCCIONES, STUDIOCANAL ORIGINAL, 2e BUREAU, SUNNYMARCH TV, SAM Productions, DINGIE, KINO SWIAT, BIRDIE PICTURES, STRONG FILM & TELEVISION, THE PICTURE COMPANY).
About VINTAGE CLASSICS from STUDIOCANAL
The stunning roster of incomparable VINTAGE CLASSICS titles includes outstanding thrillers, heart-rending masterworks, horror favourites, war dramas, Ealing comedies, and plenty of lesser-known gems.
The collection boasts some of the greatest and most beloved stars of cinema including Alec Guinness, Julie Christie, Paul Robeson, Dirk Bogarde, Diana Dors, Richard Attenborough, Margaret Leighton, Terence Stamp and Jenny Agutter to name but a few, in films directed by auteurs such as David Lynch, John Schlesinger, Carol Reed, Roger Corman, Nic Roeg, and Joseph Losey.
Prepare to reappraise underrated actors, box office bombs and overlooked directors, such as the incomparable Muriel Box, director of three films in the collection. 2024 sees the eagerly awaited new 4k restoration of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960), Ealing’s The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) in 4K, Carol Reed’s enchanting fable A Kid for Two Farthings (1955), the film that kick-started the British New Wave: Room at the Top (1959), Kenneth More as The Comedy Man and many more.
