Good Time Girl – 1949 | 81 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Convincing thriller adapted from the Arthur la Bern novel Night Darkens the Streets, which was in turn based on a true story. Censors delayed the film until a new opening was created. Jean Kent, in her first starring role, tackled the serious social theme of female criminality, and whether people are the product of a poor environment rather than inherently corrupt. Director David MacDonald suggests that the remedy lies deeper than in preventive measures after the event.

The Chairman (Flora Robson) of a juvenile court is leaving the courtroom when a police sergeant leads in a young girl. She is a runaway who is unwilling to return, so the Chairman decides to relay to her in flashback the real-life descent into serious crime of a girl called Gwen. When the story is finished, the young girl must decide if she wishes to return to her family.

Falsely accused of stealing, Gwen Rawlings (Jean Kent) is sacked by her lusting boss and given a sound thrashing her father; she runs away from home and takes up lodgings in London’s West End. Gwen finds employment in the Swansdown Club in Soho, where the owner, Max (Herbert Lom), gets her to pawn stolen jewellery. Gwen is ultimately arrested by the police in a flat belonging to her boyfriend, Red Farrell (Dennis Price), and placed before a juvenile court. Sent to a reformatory where they cut off all her hair, newcomer Gwen finds herself taught the tricks of the trade by bad girl Roberta (Jill Balcon). However, Gwen escapes out of a window and over the fence during a riot, as she has important business that cannot be held up by a prison sentence. She travels to Brighton, becoming a mistress to a racketeer named Danny (Griffith Jones). Gwen breaks-off her relationship with Danny after a car crash in which a policeman is killed, and joins up with two American GI deserters. During a hold-up, they shoot a man, Gwen’s former beau, Red, and she is sent to prison for 15 years.