Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

calvinnme 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.

mark.waltz That leaves out Agnes Moorhead as the moral superintendent fighting against veteran matron Hope Emerson who brings her charges anything but hope. She's of the belief that the women deserve to be treated like animals, often passive aggressively being cruel with seemingly kind words. For newcomer Eleanor Parker, a 19 year old accused of being accessory to armed robbery, she learns a great deal in her stint in prison, going from sweet innocent to cynical as she views the shocking cruelties. Betty Garde, as a small time vice queen, faces her hatred of Emerson's Evelyn Harper with the arrival of higher class vice queen Lee Patrick. This is degradation of women by women at it's highest, with lots of hints of sadistic lesbianism thrown in as well.Terrifically written and acted, this was a star making part for Parker, already a veteran but much praised for her detailed performance. Moorhead is excellent as well, presented softer than normal as to increase the maliciousness of Emerson's vile matron. Smaller roles played by Jan Sterling, Ellen Corby and Gertrude Hoffman are other standouts. Wearing little to no makeup, Patrick makes her lust towards Parker plenty obvious. Unlike other women's prison movies, this lacks the camp quotient, although there's plenty of opportunity to make some of the more melodramatic moments into something humorous.Holding it's own nearly 70 years after release, this is going to be the film for which Hope Emerson will always be remembered. Along with Margaret Hamilton's wicked witch and Judith Anderson's Mrs. Danvers, her sinister matron is one of the best female villains in movie history. This made important points about the abuse of authority and the inhumanity towards inmates that makes no effort to rehabilitate those who have become desperate enough to break the law. There had been women's prison movies before ("Ladies They Talk About", "Sorority House") and after ("Women's Prison", "House of Women") that tried to limit the camp elements (and many more that did not), but "Caged" is the best of the lot on every level.

gkeith_1 Spoilers. Observations. Opinions. Eleanor Parker is a young, pretty inmate. She is also naive. How does she survive? Parker was later in The Sound of Music, as fiancé of the captain. In Music, she is older, jaded and not exciting. This time, she isn't the ingenue. That position is taken by Julie Andrews. Andrews also got the captain. The matron is old, huge and aggressive. She is mean and vindictive, and she rules with an iron boxing glove. She seems jealous of the inmates. The swaggering blonde woman is creepy. She appears very mannish, and is rolling in cash. She wants to buy people, especially Eleanor Parker. There are strong homosexual innuendoes in this character. Eleanor Parker all of a sudden becomes jaded, hardened and is no longer the young innocent.A woman gets thrown into the hole by the matron. This woman gets beaten to a pulp (is this off-camera?) while in that dungeon. She ran all the rackets before the swaggering dame showed up. The woman gets out of the hole, and is speechless and dumbfounded. She has extreme rage. She is boiling over. All of a sudden in the mess hall, she uses a dinner fork to stab the ugly old matron. There is a prison riot. All the beds get turned over, and everything else in the dormitory gets thrown into the melee. The woman are irate. Meanwhile, Eleanor Parker has found a kitten outdoors. She tries to hide it in the dormitory, but during the riot it gets its life ended. This is terrible. It was a very cuddly, darling little kitty. This film was smashing, interesting and quite sad. These women were thrown from the outside world into a very harsh environment.

SnoopyStyle Scared 19 year old Marie Allen arrives at a women's state prison. She was sentenced for 1 to 15 years after her late husband Tom tried to steal $40. She is found to be two months pregnant. Caring superintendent Ruth Benton (Agnes Moorehead) offers hopes of probation in ten months. She loses that hope under the sadistic matron Evelyn Harper's cruel control. Her stepfather refuses to let her mother take custody of her new baby. She is forced to put it up for adoption. When inmate Elvira Powell arrives, there is a rivalry with hardened head criminal Kitty Stark.On the surface, one expects this to be an exploitation affair but that's not the case. It's actually a serious movie about a young woman sent to prison. It is harsh without being camp. It's almost a scared straight and social commentary movie. Eleanor Parker does a good melodramatic innocent. This is good for its time and surprisingly has several nominations.