The Story of Molly X

June Havoc moves to San Francisco. Her husband, a gang leader was killed, and she's in town to build a crew and carry out robberies of her own devising. When Elliott Lewis tells her he shot her husband because he wanted her, she shoots him. John Russell helps her hide, but she is picked up on different charges and sent to a woman's prison, where she gradually changes.

This movie, written and directed by Crane Wilbur, is one of those earnest movies that urge the authorities to make prisons, if not humane, focused on reforming the character of the inmates, using psychology and training for a new life to achieve those goals. In the following decade, of course, woman-in-prison movies would change radically, adopting a sadism-and-lesbianism veneer to bring in the audience. For the moment, though, this is a handsome and committed effort, with a particularly interesting performance by Dorothy Hart and the vengeful girlfriend of the man Miss Havoc shot, and a funny little turn by Ida Moore as a convicted murderess. With Sara Berner, Charles McGraw, and Richard Eagan.