The Lady in Red

The Lady in Red is a 1979 American crime drama about Polly Franklin, a young woman from a poor farming family who leaves home for Chicago during the Great Depression. There she finds only low-paying work and is drawn into a life of prostitution and crime. Her circumstances change when she becomes involved with a man she later recognizes as the gangster John Dillinger, and she is caught between the criminal underworld and the authorities closing in on him. The film was directed by Lewis Teague, the first of nine features he made, followed by Alligator, Fighting Back, Cujo, Cat's Eye, The Jewel of the Nile, Collision Course, Navy Seals and Wedlock. John Sayles wrote the screenplay, Julie Corman produced, and the large credited cast of thirty is led by Pamela Sue Martin as Polly, Robert Conrad as Dillinger and Louise Fletcher as Anna Sage.

The film centers on Polly's experience rather than on Dillinger himself, following her from an abusive home through prison and into a brothel frequented by Chicago's criminal elite. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.3 from around 1,700 votes, while on TMDB its rating is 5.6 from a much smaller base of 48 votes.