- Directed by John Cromwell and based on a story by Virginia Kellogg (who also wrote the screenplay), Caged relates the tragic tale of 19-year-old Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker), who enters the film riding in the back of a paddywagon headed to prison. Marie is facing a sentence of up to 15 years as an accessory to the armed robbery that got her late husband killed. Now she finds herself behind bars, where the guards know you by your number and the other inmates refer to you as "new fish." Just when it seems that things couldn't get any worse, a medical test reveals that Marie is also pregnant with a due date that will arrive long before her first parole hearing.
- As far as prison superintendents go, the progressive-minded Mrs. Benton (Agnes Moorehead) doesn't seem so bad, encouraging and championing Marie at every opportunity. Undermining Mrs. Benton's noble sentiments, however, is the prison's ruthless and corrupt matron, Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson). I must admit that I had no idea who Hope Emerson was even one year ago, but this film and Cry of the City have quickly convinced me of her inestimable value as a character actress. It's not just that Emerson is physically intimidating (which she absolutely is!), but that her characters always seem to be getting such perverse enjoyment out of their work. When she hollers "Line up, you tramps!", it's just impossible to imagine anyone refusing.
- Although Marie is understandably terrified at her predicament, she does manage to make a few friends (Ellen Corby, Sheila MacRae, Jan Sterling, Olive Deering), all of whom orbit a ringleader named Kitty Stark (Betty Garde). A former shoplifter in prison for murder, Kitty is one of the few women who doesn't fear Matron Harper, if only because she bought her off. Kitty tries to recruit Marie, too, but the girl is still a little too much in love with the idea of being innocent. Prison has a way of changing a person's mind on that point, though. Whether it is giving up her newborn baby, a friend's suicide, her shaved head, the crushed kitten (!), an influential new arrival (Lee Patrick), or the accumulation of all of these events, Marie slowly transforms into the type of woman for whom prison is a gateway to future crimes. In the film's chilling final lines, Mrs. Benton says of Marie: "She'll be back."
- I have to hand it to Caged for refusing to grant Marie even one break throughout her entire miserable ordeal. Things go from bad to worse and stay there, simple as that. Marie's attitude changes plenty, though, and Parker does a good job selling the transformation from innocent lamb to riot-inducing criminal. The eclectic cast of characters is memorable, too, and the film is probably unique in the annals of noir by having its ten most important characters all be women. Still, Matron Harper steals every scene she's in with a performance that outshines the film's many other virtues. The only thing more striking than her is perhaps the revelation that Kellogg based many of the events in her book on things she actually observed in a real women's prison.
