Prima colpa

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.

This is the angry story of the beautiful Marie Allan (Eleanor Parker) , an one-mistake girl , the men betrayed her and the law forgot inside the big house for women , she can't afford to let stay at large now . We have seen what the matron (Hope Emerson) does to women in the prison , we have seen women tortured , sweated and mistreated and a sensational scandal rock women's prison .

This film dared to tell the whole hideous truth about brutal cruelty by a villain jailer . This is a new kind of picture , it's a scenario writer's idea (Virginia Kellog screenwriter's "Women without Men") of a women's prison , authentic experiences of convicts in a gaol that is a hell on earth . Screen's most gripping drama of violence and gals on rampage in prison riot . It's a story about it what happens to women without men , the shocking tale of one warden against sixty inmates . The movie arises a questions : Will she come out woman or wildcat? , is the coming out good or is the coming out to avenge the torments and terrors that make a jail for women a college for the crime? . Hope Emerson as a cruel , sensation-hungry nasty warden is magnificent , she organizes a crack newspaper campaign announcing against prison chief , the great Agnes Morehead . Former L.A. Times reporter and screenwriter Virginia Kellogg's exciting plot surpasses even ¨I am a fugitive from a chain gang¨ film . Virginia Kellogg pulled some strings to incarcerate herself in a woman's prison . She then wrote a book about it , which was a kind of almanac of everything she witnessed while in prison , then had her write the script , which was nominated for an Academy Award . Warner Bros has filmed with all of the power and realism at its command . The thrilling musical score by the classic Max Steiner . And John Cromwell, under contract at Warner Bros directed with genius . The picture obtained three nominations for Academy Award : the best principal actress (Eleanor Parker) , support cast (Hope Emerson) and the best original screenplay (Virginia Kellogg).

The film is remade as ¨House of Women¨(1962) with Shirley Knight and originated a real sub-genre and spreading several sequels , imitations and copies as ¨Women's prison¨(1955) with Ida Lupino and ¨Girls in Prison¨ with Joan Taylor. Besides , exploitation flicks as ¨Naked cage¨ (1982) directed by Paul Nicholas and ¨Chained Heat¨ with Linda Blair .

This movie is probably the best example of the "women in prison" genre. It's a delightful combination of noir, camp and drama. Eleanor Parker gives an excellent performance. Her slow transformation from a naive young woman to a hardened prisoner was fascinating and very realistic. This is especially evident at the end of the film when there is the photographic comparison between her character when she enters prison to when she leaves. I also like that the film does not end on a positive note. It ends bittersweet. On one hand, it's good that she's out, on the other hand, you know that Agnes Moorehead's character has correctly predicted Parker's destiny.

Moorehead's prison superintendent character was excellent and is what keeps the film from being over the top. She remains the calm, collected heart of the movie. She's a nice contrast from Hope Emerson's bonkers matron. If Moorehead and Emerson's respective characters had both been over the top nasty, then this film would have definitely been more campy. Likewise, if both characters had been like Moorehead's, then the film would be unrealistic. Emerson's matron was so delightfully horrid that you actually cheer for the Kitty Stark character in the dramatic cafeteria scene.

Lee Patrick is such a fantastic character actress and she can play so many different types of characters very well. What's delightful about many of her characterizations is that no matter how refined her character appears on the outside, there's always a layer of trashiness. The possible exception to this from the films of hers I've seen is The Maltese Falcon. In this film, she's known as "The Vice Queen" who runs a shoplifting syndicate and ends up having to serve a short sentence in the prison.

Ladies They Talk About is another favorite women in prison film of mine, but it is more of a country club prison than the one Eleanor Parker ends up in.

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.