BLONDE BAIT

BLONDE BAIT (1956). Directors: Elmo Williams; Herbert Glazer.

British women's prison drama Women Without Men with added American-shot scenes filmed with star Beverly Michaels and new players Richard Travis and Jim Davis (both of whom were former leading men of Bette Davis, Travis in The Man Who Came to Dinner and Davis in Winter Meeting). Michaels is a vivid performer with an overbite and a statuesque body. Wrongly imprisoned, she has to break out to keep a New Years' Eve date with the man she loves, and she goes to much trouble and effort to get there, with interesting results. In the new sequences the break-out is engineered by authorities who want to trap Michael's lover, a criminal played by Jim Davis. Good performances help put this one over, but the original was probably better and more ironic.

Verdict: Not bad time waster. **1/2.