Rarities of British cinema
The Woman in the Hall: rediscovering a 1940s ‘bad mother’ melodrama
Among a number of post-war British films testing the stereotypically wholesome depiction of mothers and daughters, The Woman in the Hall features Jean Simmons playing a young woman who is driven to crime by her mother’s dishonesty.
By Josephine Botting
The Woman in the Hall: rediscovering a 1940s ‘bad mother’ melodrama