France made "nous sommes tous des assassins " (André Cayatte, 1951)
The US made "I want to live" (Robert Wise ,1958)
The UK made "yield to the night " (the ridiculous alternate title "blonde sinner" should be forgotten )
The three movies were candid indictment against death penalty ; Diana Dors, cast against type, compares favourably with Susan Hayward in the American movie.
The luminous blond sex symbol in the flashbacks becomes a broken woman , with a premature aged face in jail: a stunning metamorphosis .
These flashbacks are kept to the minimum ,but well introduced into the story ; most of the time is given over to a convict who got the capital punishment in her cell in which she's never left alone (for fear she might take her own life?)and where they never turn off the light (hence the deeply moving title ).
Lots of voice over make sense ; the waiting is the hardest time ,when the prison governor can any hour now bring you your pardon or your hanging ("I can recognize her steps ".In France, condemned men would never know which day they would be guillotined and in the small hours,they were listening closely by the door the steps , all this is shown in Cayatte's movie which was the first attempt in the world to rebel against the horrible death ceremony .
What's the point of healing your ankle , catching a cold or learning to play chess when your days are numbered? The wardens are compassionate ,but except for one of them who's just lost her mom , they are not able to relate to such a horrible fate .What's the point of eating ? of having a good night sleep? What's the point of anything?All is pathetic, the only real thing is that door , behind which....
It's not Jack Lee Thompson's usual style ,and I was skeptic about his treatment of an intimate subject ;but I 've got to make amends ;He brilliantly succeeds :the very last scene, notably ,is a model of simplicity and restrained emotion.
Based on a true story ;a must,as the two other movies I mention are.
