Turn the Key Softly

A Neorealist-influenced story of three women, played by Yvonne Mitchell, Joan Collins and Kathleen Harrison, released from jail into the cold indifference of London, brought vividly to life by Geoffrey Unsworth’s cinematography. Lee is a sensitive, even sensual, director, with a continental touch and remarkably assured pacing. This film alone proves him to be one of the unsung heroes of British cinema.

Turn the Key Softly is directed by Jack Lee, with Terence Morgan. UK, 1953, 35mm, black & white, 81 minutes. It is preceded by John Krish’s The Elephant Will Never Forget (UK, 1953, 35mm, black & white, 11 minutes), a short about a London tram’s final run before the service was discontinued. Screening on film. Part of Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema, 1945–1960.