Film Review: Yield to the Night (1956)

From the intense and violent opening scene of a woman being gunned down on a city sidewalk by a gun-wielding blonde, J. Lee Thompson's cinematic masterpiece Yield to the Night grabs a hold of its audience and never lets go. Based on the novel of the same title by Joan Henry, the film offers an intimate look into the life of a woman driven to murder. Told partly in flashbacks, we feel sympathy for Mary Hilton, a woman who has been sentenced to hang and is waiting on death row for her execution. Yet, before we get to the dreaded final act, we're treated to outstanding performances from a mostly female cast, led by our leading lady Diana Dors. Playing against the blonde bombshell roles she was typically cast in, Dors gives a career-best award-worthy complex performance that is both powerful and haunting. Pushing past her stunning aesthetic seems like a lot to ask of the audience. Yet after the first few scenes, you realize that Dors is giving everything she has to tell this woman's tale. Supported by a cast of talented actors (including a brilliant stand-out performance by Yvonne Mitchell), Dors uses each interaction with each character to give us a glimpse into the multifaceted Mary Hilton, a woman of whom many assumptions have been made (similar to Dors own career and hypersexualized image; the parallel is echoed between actor and character in a profound way, making both worthy of a deeper study by a film scholar - yes, there's a dissertation to be discovered and written here). What makes this film so ahead-of-its-time (as many modern critics have pointed out) is the rejection of the impulse to make another woman-in-prison exploitation film (which were common in the era this film was made) and instead create a fascinating and sad exploration of the life of a doomed woman who society convicted of a crime long before pulling the trigger. Adding to the still-happening and very necessary global discourse on capital punishment, this cinematic gem should be revered for its crafted storytelling, brave performances, and its determination to make a movie with a memorable message.