Caged **** (1950, Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby, Hope Emerson, Jane Darwell, Betty Garde, Jan Sterling, Lee Patrick) – Classic Movie Review 4699

Director John Cromwell’s exciting 1950 film noir crime drama Caged stars Oscar nominated Eleanor Parker, who is outstanding as Marie Allen, a naïve 19-year-old teenager jailed for her innocent share in her husband’s gas-station heist crime, during which he was killed while she stayed in the car outside.

From the start, she has a very rough time in jail from hardened criminals and sadistic guards, especially from the butch and cruel matron Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson) and the nasty isolation matron (Jane Darwell). While in prison, she has a baby, but she must give it away to foster parents. The caring warden Ruth Benton (Agnes Moorehead) tries to help Marie, but she becomes a hardened con to survive and falls into the hands of a hooker service in return for an arranged parole.

The colourful performances from the excellent cast and Cromwell’s sharp direction give very considerable impact to this crisp, hard-nosed and splendidly unsentimental if unsurprising story about how prison corrupts. Screen-writer Virginia Kellogg researched her story and characters in women’s jails. Kellogg’s screenplay is based on the story Women Without Men by her and Bernard C Schoenfeld. Kellogg and Schoenfeld were Oscar nominated for Best Story and Screenplay.

Parker also picked up an Oscar nomination (Best Actress) and so did Emerson (for Best Supporting Actress) as the sadistic, obviously lesbian prison guard. Parker won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 1950.

Gertrude W Hoffman steals all her scenes as Millie Lewis. Also in the cast are Ellen Corby, Betty Garde, Jan Sterling, Lee Patrick, Olive Deering, Gertrude Michael, Joan Miller, Sheila Stevens, Marjorie Crossland, Lynn Sherman, Queenie Smith, Naomi Robison, Esther Howard, Taylor Holmes, Don Beddoe, Charles Meredith and George Baxter.

Eleanor Parker died on 9 December 2013, aged 91. She was also Oscar nominated for Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4699

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