CAGED (1950)

Sober-minded (as in not much fun) Women’s Prison pic, something of a throwback to the muckraking ripped-from-the-headlines films Warner Bros. made in the early ‘30s*.  At the time, largely fallen into B-pic fare, here it’s classed up (three Oscar® noms) with ‘serious’ director John Cromwell, and something close to a ‘name’ cast.  Eleanor Parker, a young innocent jailbird soon to be hardened by fellow convicts & corrupt guards; Agnes Moorehead, in sympathetic mode, the fair-minded warden unable to provide justice or safety; startling Hope Emerson, a sadistic/venal matron with political connections to protect her; Jan Sterling, friendly recidivist trying out her Judy Holliday impression (for a tour of BORN YESTERDAY?); Jane Darwell; Ellen Corby, etc.  But while the flesh is willing, the spirit is weak in this retread.  Jail yet again an institution where reform and even punishment take a backseat to the matriculation of professional criminals.  Further tamed by the passage of 70 years, it’s neither strong enough for straight drama nor sent up & stylized to play as camp.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *In turnabouts from the ‘30s: No Black inmates to be seen, integrated or segregated.  And far more undertones of lesbian longing among the prisoners & staff than visible twenty years back.  Both changes the opposite of what you expect.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Had this been ‘30s Warners, B-pic producer Bryan Foy would have soon brought out his very own low-budget knock-off.  He’s still doing it, now at Columbia in the preferable WOMEN’S PRISON/’56.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/09/womens-prison-1956.html