Based on the autobiographical novel Who Lie in Gaol by Joan Henry, The Weak and the Wicked tells the story of Jean Raymond, an upper-class woman with a gambling addiction, who is given a twelve-month prison sentence resulting from her inability to pay her debts. At first she is overwhelmingly depressed by life in the women's prison but gradually her misery is relieved by the many close friends she makes there.

Directed by J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear, The Guns of Navarone) and starring Glynis Johns, Diana Dors and Sybil Thorndike, this is a powerful and sympathetic drama.