Femmes en cage

John Cromwell's Caged is an exceptionally made film for the most part, a bold expose for its time on the prison system. There are many overt visual techniques which make the cinematography cloudy and suggestive, very impressive acting and a fair deal of realism.

Eleanor Parker fashions one of the most stunning screen transformations in recent memory. From the beginning, she delineates all the chastity and defenselessness of an injured yearling. As one foul interval after another follows her, that unworldliness rusts, her clean hands are continuously stained and she boils over into the vintage hard-bitten felon. If no attempt is made to adjust felons, all a prison is good for is to further indoctrinate criminals in their pegged rackets.

Of all of them, the most indelible impression is made by the gruff voice and towering physicality of Hope Emerson, who mustered all of the feelings of inadequacy one frankly imagines she suffered in her time to scald the morale of the inmates over which she abuses the power she sadistically relishes. That's not to say she is a "cow" surrounded by sumptuous, insatiable inmates. Cromwell indeed surrounds Parker with jowled, bug-eyed, bony, gnarly women. The corporeal presence of the vast majority of the convicts speaks volumes to why, in 1950 America, these women led the lives they did. And Parker, sent to prison, after a botched armed robbery attempt by her equally young husband who is killed, leaving her with an accomplice technicality as a curious wedding gift, is pitted among them in nightmarish situations. Her entirely unnatural experience inside begins with her discovery that she is pregnant. She gives birth to a healthy baby and grants custody to her mother to get the baby back after she is released, but her apathetic mother gives the child up for adoption for good because the child does not harmonize with the grandmother's habits.

Parker is then left with all the abandonments of the most deeply felt order: Her husband, her freedom, her child, her mother. Subsequently, one need just run down the characters surrounding her to map the bearings of the angle the drama will take: Manipulative and vicious superintendent Hope Emerson, hard-boiled ringleader Kitty Stark played by the boldly unglamorous Betty Garde, and corruption matron Lee Patrick. How does a sympathetic warden, Agnes Moorehead, match the impact of the environment she finds that she provides someone like Parker? The final handful of shots endure.

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......

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.

I saw this movie in Hollywood as part of the annual film noir festival at the American Cinematheque. This film has lost none of its ability to move an audience. Not only is it a good prison drama, but it is a good example of film noir moviemaking as well.

It was a bit of daring to show how corrupt the prison system can be and "inmates decaying" as one character put it.The lead character (Eleanor Parker) goes from being an innocent to becoming as hard as anyone else in the prison system due to the efforts of her matron and chief tormentor (Hope Emerson). It is because of this transformation that the film goes from being a routine prison drama to a first-rate noir thriller.

Jan Sterling, who plays "Smoochie" in the film, was at the screening and spoke afterward. She said director John Cromwell (father of character actor James Cromwell) did a great job of making you feel like you were in prison. She said by the end of the shoot, the performers felt like they were really confined. Parker, Emerson and the script by Virginia Kellogg and Bernard C. Schoenfeld were nominated for Oscars.

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.