2 August 2013: Yield to the Night

Released a year after her execution, this stylised and highly claustrophobic anti-hanging film bears a high resemblance to the Ellis case - a link that was denied by the film-makers at the time. Watching it, and having read the opening chapter of "A Fine Day For A Hanging', it's easy to see the association; Diana Dors plays Mary Hilton, a young blonde woman convicted of murder and condemned to hang for murder by shooting a person to death... Sounding familiar? Also the murder was motivated by passion - although the victim here is female, love-rival Lucy Carpenter, the cause of death of Hilton's object of affection, Jim Lancaster.

Photographed in steely monochrome and directed by J. Lee Thompson (The Yellow Balloon), the film, while sometimes melodramatic, is highly compelling and increasingly harrowing, mainly set in Hilton's cell as she recalls the events that led to her incarceration. Thompson uses the image of the single, unshaded light bulb as a recurring motif throughout the film, which references the Ellis case; Ruth complained about the light to the wardens who kindly fashioned a lampshade out of card for her comfort (strictly against regulations!). The film also explores the relationship between Hilton and her wardens, particularly Matron MacFarlane (Yvonne Mitchell). The scene between the two women where MacFarlane builds a house of cards during their conversation only to destroy it at the end serves to symbolise Hilton's predicament; hope for reprieve, precariously built, can be so easily dashed.

The film also marked an acting departure for the young Diana Dors, hitherto playing glamorous roles given her 'British Marilyn' status, here dulled down and haggard in her prison scenes. She brings a steely-eyed intensity to her role, a side of her that I have never seen before, a performance she hoped would make her be taken seriously as an actress. The scenes which feature her in close-up, face directed to camera while her voice-over exposes her inner turmoil are some of the most effective in the film. Dors discovered she was pregnant when Yield To The Night announced, but she knew this would be an opportunity that she simply couldn't put aside; consequently, she opted for abortion and not for the first time either.

The film was released in the US with the the rather more sensational title 'Blonde Sinner" (and check out the promotional poster below), obviously playing on the overt sexuality of its star. The strap line 'The Man-By-Man Story Of A Lost Soul!' is somewhat misleading and I should imagine that stateside audiences may have felt rather disappointed by the intense prison drama before them, when they were expecting a blonde-fuelled raunch-fest.

Yield To The Night was nominated for three BAFTAs and the Palme d'Or for J. Lee Thompson at Cannes in 1956.