Waste of time

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I just watched this film again after some years and felt very sad and upset at the fate of Mary Hilton. Diana Dors gave a performance of true excellence and power. The setting within the prison cell with the female wardens as supporting players is stark and yet sympathetic . Diana gave a compelling performance and so well were in supported by the rest of the cast especially Yvonne Mitchell and Olga Lindo. I was so very impressed by the entire film. It was a shame that Dors was ignored by the Academy but I suppose in the 50s non-American actresses were not considered as the films were mainly "art house" films. Enjoyed the whole experience.

Whilst this is a good if depressing film I am of the opinion that the ending is a cop out.It does not show the actual hanging which of course is the most barbaric part.The film fails also in showing that Dors has sufficient motive and why Craig preferred the other woman so that part of the film fails.Also it does become increasingly depressive being in the condemned cell.

This is a powerful movie. Diana Dors is the star. She's on screen virtually the whole time and turns in a fine performance. It's not what we expect from Diana Dors: She is not a sex pot or glamor girl.She plays an unhappy young woman who is taken in by a man. She kills him -- very early in the film; so this is not a spoiler. She is sent to prison. Much of the film is set in prison and there are many flashbacks.Yvonne Mitchell is also superb as a sympathetic prison matron.In her later years, Dors went from voluptuous to very large. She is shocking in the first movie I ever saw her in: "Baby Love." And she's large, good, and naked in the fine "Deep End." The woman could act and that is very clear in "Yield to the Night." She wears no, or very little makeup. The close-ups show a pretty but unglamorous woman.It's film noir in structure. And it's one of the few in which a woman is the primary character. Look for this one!

The pompous dirigible Jean-Luc Godard ,like most French movie directors a man utterly in love with himself,or at least ,the idea of himself ,once said that all you really needed to make a movie were " a girl and a gun"At the opening of this movie it looks as if the makers had taken his dictum literally for that is precisely what we get.The girl is Mary Hutton (Diana Dors) and she pulls a gun from her handbag and shoots a man to death ,one she blames for her lover's suicide .It is an open and shut case -she is placed on trial for murder and sentenced to death by hanging .The majority of the movie takes place in her condemned cell as she waits the outcome of her appeal and relives the doomed affair with lover Jim (Michael Craig) What sets the movie apart from its Hollywood sister "I Want to Live"from a couple of years later is that unlike Susan Hayward in that movie Mary Hutton is quite obviously guilty -her case is not a miscarriage of justice and there is no special pleading in the way the movie sets out to make its anti-capital punishment case .For make no bones about it, this is an abolitionist propaganda piece .Despite her clear and palpable guilt the movie insists that hanging is just plain wrong . J lee Thompson shows an absurdity to things as the wardens set about trying to keep her occupied -they teach her chess ,pass the time in meaningless chit chat and ensure she is healthy enough to be hung in a week or so .The style is not ,as you might expect ,documentary but shows the influence of German Expressionism in its use of extreme close-ups,and oblique camera angles .It deftly suggests the disorientation of someone who may be about to die by order of the state in a premeditated and planned manner Much was made at the time of its similarity to an actual murder case -that of Ruth Ellis,the last woman to be hung in Britain .Both Ellis and Mary in the movie were blondes ,both shot men who had done them wrong .This is coincidence nothing more as the script was written two years prior to the Ellis case and the release of the movie at the time the Ellis case was generating publicity was an accident .Dors is sensational in the role .A flamboyant publicity conscious starlet she declared herself with this movie to be powerhouse actress unafraid to present an appearance devoid of her usual glamour ,letting her dyed hair grow out to show dark at the roots and discarding the revealing gowns of the publicity machine for unflattering prison wear .Its a powerful piece of work and all involved in its making did good work .I am still a pro-hanger but I do admire the honesty and integrity of this movie .its not enjoyable but it is potent