Femmes en cage

This film, of the genre, women in prison, or incarcerated.... is the best.. I cant understand why its not available on VHS or DVD !!!?? Brilliant performances by Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, and especially, Hope Emerson, as the prison matron... were all outstanding!! Parker & Emerson were Oscar nominated, and in a year (1950) which gave us, "All About Eve" , "Sunset Blvd", and others, that was no easy feat!!...Parkers beauty and innocence gave the film its sensitivity & vulnerability... Moorehead was also outstanding (as always) but Emerson defined the role of prison matron.. forever!!.wow what a monster....!!! what a performance.. !!watch for the lesbian moments as Emerson attempts to control the "girls" esp. Parker.. Nice moments by Gertrude Hoffmann (later Mrs Odettes in TVs "My Little Margie",) as the older inmate.... and the entire cast... a gem... dont miss.... and please reissue on video......

"Caged" is the rare kind of movie that works both as a film to take seriously and as a camp classic.

Eleanor Parker plays Marie Allen, a naive 19-year-old who goes to prison as an accomplice in an armed robbery staged by her loser husband. She doesn't really belong there, but despite the efforts of the prison administrator (Agnes Moorehead) to help her get paroled, she remains locked up, only to be turned into a jaded criminal by the very institution that's supposed to reform her.

The film is full of rough stuff, atrocities and indignities heaped one after another on Marie or the other inmates. Women are beaten, subjected to psychological abuse, thrown into solitary confinement. Their heads are shaved, they have babies who they're forced to give up for adoption. One woman freaks out and breaks a window with her bare hands, and we see the blood spurting from her severed arteries. Another woman hangs herself. Presiding over all is sadistic warden Evelyn Harper, played memorably by the gigantic actress Hope Emerson, who abuses her power so egregiously that she eventually gets stabbed in the chest with a fork by one crazy inmate while Parker's character hisses "Kill her! Kill her!"

The screenplay tosses out one memorable line after another -- my favorite is Parker's departing words to Moorehead when Marie finally gets her parole: "Thanks for the haircut." But for all the women-behind-bars sensationalism, the film is no joke. It's well directed by John Cromwell, who clearly wanted to make a serious indictment of a flawed system, and if it's lurid, it's also effective. I laughed a lot, but I also found myself outraged.

In addition to Parker, Emerson (both Oscar nominated, by the way) and Moorehead, the cast also includes Jan Sterling and Betty Garde as two of the more memorable inmates.

Grade: A

At nearly fifty years old, 'Caged" isn't quite like today's women-in-prison sexploitation flicks--and that's good. But this could certainly be a prototype for those movies. Many of the same elements are here: an innocent young woman wrongly sent to prison, tough and bitter cons, unfeeling and corrupt matrons--there's even a shower scene! You'll have to look hard for any allusions to homosexuality, however; the references are so oblique that they're practically nonexistant. Still, this movie pack a wallop. It's effective and affecting.

It's a manipulative film but you won't mind. Eleanor Parker projects all the innocence and vulnerability of a wounded fawn in the starring role. As one rotten break after another befalls her in the joint, she loses that innocence and becomes transformed into a classic hardened con, a transformation greatly aided by the seemingly simple device of a head-shaving she receives from a cruel matron. The film has a plainly understood message: if no effort is made to rehabilitate inmates, all a prison is good for is to educate criminals in their chosen vocation, crime. That's another big difference between this film and the junky sexploitation pictures of more recent years--the latter don't have a message.

For reasons I cannot fathom, this film sometimes ends up on lists of the worst movies of all time; this despite Oscar nominations for Eleanor Parker and Hope Emerson. It has some of the best acting performances around, runs the gamut on "stock" characters, but well done and great black & white filming and lighting. It's terrifically engaging and one quickly gets wrapped up with the characters, some of whom are morally ambiguous and some of whom are just evil, and how they choose to cope in unbearable circumstances. It's a great movie and deserving of a lot more credit than it's gotten in the past. 10/10.

No need to repeat the plot.

Catch that long tracking shot of Harper (Emerson) taking inmate attendance one-by-one. It goes on much longer than expected as each inmate gets a brief moment on screen. Importantly, we see that each is a perfectly ordinary looking woman far from the usual Hollywood glamour type. I single out this minor scene because it's director Cromwell's way of showing the film's serious intent despite all the gripping melodramatics.

What the movie does so effectively is combine first-rate melodramatics with a powerful case for liberal reform. That's because, despite its mission, the prison amounts to a breeding ground of criminality. For example, nineteen-year old Marie (Parker)"flops" in as a wide-eyed innocent but leaves as a hardened criminal; guard Harper's sadism and influence-peddling flourishes; day-to-day routines strip inmates of self-respect; the medical dispensary remains under-funded and filthy; while the entire package is held together by state politics, skimpy budgets, and behind the scenes string-pulling. Apparently screenwriter Kellogg researched her subject, so likely the subtext mirrors much of the reality of the time.

Understandably, this message part is over-shadowed by some of the strongest and most unusual dramatic acting of the period. Seldom has any film featured as many mannish women as this one, and at a time when feminine stereotypes not only prevailed but excluded all else. The producers went out on a limb with this one. But it paid off with two memorable performances-- Emerson's shambling gait and slow-motion cruelty, along with queen-bee Garde's sudden descent into hollow-eyed dementia. The results here are both exotic and unforgettable.

One scene has stayed with me over the years. Marie expects some relief as lights go out on her first night in prison. But then the real horror starts. All the pent-up emotions and adjustments of the day come tumbling out—the crying, the coughing, an animal scream. Marie hunkers down in the sheets, wide-eyed awake. Now she knows. There is no relief. Not even in the dark. The prison nightmare never ends.

This is one of the daring gems of the noir period before the Cold War retreat of the 1950's. Thanks to a powerful convergence of movie-making, the movie's as riveting now as it was then. Don't miss it.