The greatest movie ever made..!

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Is this a great film? Not in the least, it was simply too short. But what actually makes it a good film are the supporting characters such as Lillian Roth as Linda, DeWitt Jennings as Detective Tracy (Incredible that that he was not credited because his scenes were paramount to the picture (Spoilers: He was the one who caught Nan Taylor (Barbara Stanwyck)in the first place, and he let Nan go, when he knew Nan shot David Slade (Preston Foster)), and "Sister" Susie (Dorothy Burgess). She was the main villain in the film, and she was in my favorite scene when she framed Nan for a letter, and Nan punched her out Cagney Style. On to Stanwyck, if anyone has seen her films before: "The Lady Eve", "The Mad Miss Manton", "Ball of Fire" "Golden Boy", "The Furies", and of course, "Baby Face", just to name a few, know that Barbara is not the kind of woman to bring home to mother, and there some kind of repercussions involved for being with her, and these were not addressed in this film. Most notably Spade speaking out against politicians and newspapers. Does anyone think they would not say something about him being involved with (And eventually marrying) a felon? That is what almost cost Courtland Trenholm (George Brent) his life in "Baby Face" or Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) his life work in "Ball of Fire", and most notably, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) who lost everything he had because of Phyllis Dietrichson in "Double Indemnity", being involved with a Stanwyck character. Perhaps the best line about a Stanwyck character was concerning "Sugarpuss" Katherine O'Shea in "Ball of Fire" who Miss Bragg (Kathleen Howard)referred to as the "Kind of woman who causes the destruction of entire civilizations." I would have liked to see Nan and Spade deal with the issues involved with their relationship. Not just the end where (Spoilers ahead) When he announces they are getting married and her response was "well, he said so, didn't he!!". As well as the final scene where Linda and the other prisoners read about their wedding in the paper. 7/10 stars.

By force of personality, one of the best the screen ever saw, Barbara Stanwyck put over many a film, especially if she had something to work with. But there were films where even she could do nothing with the potboiler material she got and Ladies They Talk About is definitely that kind of material.The odd thing is that this with a little more subtle treatment could have been as remembered a women's prison picture classic like Caged. There are moments here, but few and far between.Stanwyck is in a role that probably Joan Blondell was too busy to do. She's a wisecracking Depression Era babe getting by on her wits and looks. She's the front for a gang of bank robbers headed by Lyle Talbot. As the film opens Stanwyck and the gang rob a bank with them getting away and Barbara being caught. She goes to prison, but not before running into radio personality and 'reformer' Preston Foster who was from their old home town. Later on Talbot and company also get arrested and are in the men's section of the same prison.After this the plot gets so ridiculous and shrill that it boggles the mind. Barbara still loves Foster buts hates him as well for what she conceives as betrayal. It really was actually, but that depends on your point of view.And Foster actually looks embarrassed on screen mouthing a lot of sanctimonious blather. He's a 'crusader' whatever that means. The best way you can describe him is he's a kind of a Billy Sunday without the degree from the seminary. Foster must have kicked and screamed about this part and should have fired his agent.The best scenes are in the prison and they hold up. But overall the film is horribly dated with characters that people would laugh off the screen today.

This is a very gritty pre-coder made special by Stanwyck. She could take an ordinary programmer and with a couple of emotional scenes make it very memorable. The "Ladies They Talk About" are the women prisoners in San Quentin, where a lot of the action takes place.After putting the police on a false trail ("Police, hurry please - there's a man running wild with a butcher's knife stabbing people") Nan Taylor (Barbara Stanwyck) gets busy with the real business - helping to rob a bank with her gang!!! It goes wrong and Nan is caught. "Fighting" Dave Slade (Preston Foster), a reform revivalist, takes an interest in her - he remembers her from his home town, she was the deacon's daughter!!! She convinces Dave that she is innocent, so he has her paroled - hoping she will go straight. She confesses that she was in on that bank robbery, thinking that her honestly will impress him but it doesn't and she is sent to jail.Life on the inside looks rough but Linda (Lillian Roth) takes her under her wing. Lillian Roth looks absolutely beautiful and even sings a song - "If I Could Be With You". This was one of her last films before her alcoholic oblivion. Someone Nan needs to be careful of is "Sister" Susie (Dorothy Burgess) a religious zealot, who is secretly in love with Dave Slade and will not hear anything against him. Meanwhile Don (Lyle Talbot) and some of his gang, have been imprisoned but they have plans to break out with Nan's help. She provides a plan of the women's section and also an impression of the master key to all the cells. She sends the details in a letter, but because "Lefty" (her "outside" contact) is now in jail her letter is intercepted by the warden and the guards swoop. The gang members are killed in an ambush and Nan wrongly believes Dave Slade was responsible. When she is released she goes "gunning" for him.The ending is pretty improbable - somehow I don't think Nan and Dave are going to live "happily ever after"!!! She is completely hard boiled and only starts to feel sympathy for him when she almost kills him. Even when she is asked if it is true that she and Slade are to be married, Nan replies "well, he said so, didn't he!!"Among the cast is John Hyams, Leila's father, as an uncredited bank manager. Ruth Donnelly is the Matron with the cockatoo and Madame Sul- Te-Wan is Mustard - she had appeared in "Hoodoo Ann" as Black Cindy.Recommended.

Ladies They Talk About (1933) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Pre-Code from Warner about a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) sent to prison after helping commit a bank robbery. She befriends a preacher who says he loves her but she begins to have her doubts. What starts off as a rather interesting prison drama soon falls apart with the sappy love story. Another major problem is that Stanwyck's character is such a mean bitch you can help but want to see her dead and the ending really kills the film.You can catch this on TCM.