CAGED (1950)

Amid the new entrants of Women’s State Prison, Marrie Allen is an odd new misfit entry. She’s just 19 years young, beautiful first offender sentenced for 15 years imprisonment for being accessory in armed robbery with her husband who’s dead now. She’s frightened and feels lonely amid regular bullies. During medical check up, it was found that she’s pregnant. Isolation in prison brought the terrible despair leading either to suicide or decay. The bossy, corrupt, heavy bodied Matron Harbor is the real pain in ass for inmates.

Though the film belong to noir genre that pulls some of the parts so well in the beginning and the end but the middle one is quite repetitive melodrama with tad slow pace. This is an absolute ladies noir without a single male character to watch in the entire film except that doctor who attended Marie’s child delivery in prison. Eleanor Parker performed well but it’s the character of Matron Harbor played by Hope Emerson that made us feel the tension, surely a lady villain to watch. Agnes Moorehead as an upright and sincere superintendent fighting against corrupt bureaucrats and crooked matron is worthy to mention.

Average watch.

Ratings-6.5/10