Blonde Bait (1956)

Having done several movies where she was behind bars, Beverly Michaels began to lighten her image after starting off as the opportunistic hard boiled tramp, and here, is the victim, ending up in a British women's prison after defending herself against a violent lover. Sure, he had found out that she was planning on leaving him for the man she really loved, but with his hands on her throat and a quick way of defending herself at her disposal, the sympathy instantly lies with Michaels. The prison she ends up in isn't the brutal American detention center that audiences had become familiar with through 1950's "Caged" and 1955's "Women's Prison" (or even another Beverly Michaels melodrama, "Betrayed Women"), but one where the warden seems to be concerned about her charges, encouraging the emotionally broken Michaels to utilize the library and try to make friends. When Beverly rescues a girl who accidentally catches on fire in the prison kitchen, the warden (Valarie Wright) decides to fool her into escaping as a part of a plot by the U.S. State Department in capturing her criminal boyfriend.This fails to convince on two merits. It lacks the camp value of other women's prison films, and the subplot of Michaels and several other inmates being allowed to escape (one of them with a baby!) just seems totally unrealistic, no matter the motivations behind it. On the run, they find help in the most unbelievable of places, and while hiding out in the home of Hermoine Baddley's, Michaels must act all heroic to prevent Ms. Baddley from taking the baby of the missing mother to the authorities. It's all well intended, fairly entertaining, and sincerely acted, but most of it, I just couldn't buy. Thora Hird as the elderly inmate they refer to as "Granny" gets to steal every scene she's in, with Joan Rice as the other escapee and future Jock Ewing (Jim Davis) in the small part of Michaels' traitorous lover. Paul Cavanaugh is commanding as the American state department worker who initializes the escape, while Ralph Michael as the older lover whom Michaels defends herself from is completely repulsive. It's a mixed bag I wanted to like more, but lacking in the toughness of other women in prison movies and containing a plot I had a hard time swallowing, I have to rank this as one of the weaker films in that genre. Even though others are worse, this one just ends up being not very interesting.

Yes the late Thora Hird could be a comedienne in roles such as this playing Granny Rafferty, opposite American Beverley Michaels who plays her fellow inmate in a women's prison.Previous reviewers have outlined the plot of a tale of post WWII & the Cold War where both Scotland Yard and the U.S. State Dept mount a joint venture to entrap a traitor/murderer played by Jim Davis (most known in this country for playing JR's father in early episodes of "Dallas").The reference to "Lindberg" in the screenplay I assumed referred to aviator Charles Lindberg when the three escaped women prisoners and baby use an old MG to make their getaway, with Thora joking at the wheel.They make their getaway with the connivance of UK/US authorities before the denouement when Beverley finally realises the rotten relationship she had with the Jim Davis character.Yes I rated it 7/10 and was entertained on this, my first ever viewing.

***SPOILERS*** The US State Department gets wind that master Soviet spy Rick Randell, Jim Davis, is having an affair with singer-dancer-stripper Angela Booth,Beverly Michaels, and plans to use her to have him tracked down before he does any more damage to his country the USA as well as the Free World. With Randell planning to meet Angela on New Years Eve at the Oxhead Inn outside of London she gets sideswiped when in a fit of anger she smashed her agent Julian Lord, Ralph Michael, face in with a mirror when he refused to let her out of her contract and then tries to assault her. Ending up in prison for six months on an assault conviction all that Angela has on her mind is to escape and get married to that "Hunk" of a guy Randell before she can finish her sentence.What is soon planned by the US State Department and Scotland Yard in having Angela allowed to escape so she can lead them to Randell so they can make the pinch on him for treason against the USA. It's Angela by being left out in the cold to what her lover is really up to goes along with the escape plan secretly set up by Scotland Yard being engineered by in house stollie and fellow prisoner Granny Rafferty, Thora Hird, who's only in it, the escape, for the fun & excitement and nothing else.***SPOILERS*** Crashing of the the womens prison together with Granny and fellow prisoner Margurite, April Olrich, and her six month old baby who was born to her behind bars Angela, after a number of wild and crazy incidents with the police, finally makes it to the Oxhead Inn only to find it bordered up and out of business. Lucky for her as well as Scotland Yard & the US State Department Nick Randell, obviously drunk from celebrating the New Year, shows up staggering out of the woods as well. Not expecting Angela to show up at all Randell loses his cool, in suspecting that she set him up, and starts to slap her around showing her what a heel as well as traitor to his country he really is. With US Secret Agent Kent Forster, Richard Travis, hiding in the nearby bushes Randell ends up shooting it out with him only to be the one who ends up getting shot!

In their quest to nab a spy for the Soviet Bloc named "Nick Randall" (Jim Davis), the American State Department decides to follow his girlfriend, "Angela Booth" (Beverly Michaels) to a secret rendezvous the two had planned a few months earlier. The only problem is that Angela is sent to prison in England for a crime she wasn't guilty of. Not wanting to tip their hand, the Americans and British resort to desperate measures to make sure that Angela keeps her appointment with Nick at any costs. At any rate, rather than spoil the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this is a decent enough B-Movie from the mid-50's which might appeal to those who enjoy action-dramas of this nature. I would also like to add that this film is not nearly as risqué as the movie poster printed during this time might lead a person to believe. Again, one has to consider the time period in which it was made. That said, I rate it as average, all things considered.