Nominated for 3 Academy Awards and starring Eleanor Parker and Agnes Moorehead, from 1952, this is Caged.
19-year-old Marie Allen (Parker) is sent to prison after a botched armed robbery attempt by her husband, Tom. Her husband is killed during the robbery so somebody has to pay and she was sitting in the car waiting for him...
Marie is charged as an accomplice, convicted and sent to prison where she learns she is 2 months pregnant.
Hoping to be paroled in ten months, Marie tries to keep her head down and stay out of trouble until she can have her baby and make it to parole.
There are obstacles.
Sadistic matron Evelyn Harper is an unrelenting bully, continually abusive towards Marie, hoping to make her break and get herself into trouble. Just so Evelyn can act even more harsh towards Marie.
Kitty Stark, a convict in for shoplifting and murder, is another source of stress for Marie. Kitty is a tough old broad who is still running a criminal operation from the inside and wants to put Marie to work on the outside when she gets out. Marie says no.
Marie goes into premature labor but the baby is healthy. Marie's plan is for her mother to take care of her baby until Marie is paroled.
But her mother's current husband (Marie's step father) doesn't want a baby around and so mom won't help. Without a family member to provide a home for the baby, the child will be taken from Marie with all her rights to the child stripped away as the child will be placed in the foster care system to be adopted.
Well, this stresses Marie right out.
And things get worse when she's up for parole.
The parole board (all men, of course) do not think that Marie is fully rehabilitated from her criminal ways and deny her parole.
God damn it! Marie was just sitting in the car when her husband got out to go commit armed robbery.
Denied her child and her freedom, Marie spirals into depression and matron Evelyn just turns up the juice on her unrelenting bullying.
Evelyn forcibly shaves Marie's head and throws her into solitary.
And then there's this whole thing with a kitten and damn it, it's too depressing to talk about here.
Every single shred of Marie's innocence, any semblance of hope are destroyed and when she does finally get paroled, it's to go to work for a shoplifting gang.
As Marie Allen leaves the prison, the warden's assistant asks what should be done with Marie's file, The warden glumly replies, "Keep it active. She'll be back."
Well...
Damn!
This is one distressing and depressing movie. Props to Eleanor Parker for a very raw and compelling performance as she tracks Marie Allen's journey from a waif railroaded by an unrelenting and unforgiving legal system to a cold, hardened soul whose on recourse outside of prison is to turn to crime which will likely lead her back to prison.
A word about Agnes Moorehead in a rare sympathetic performance as Benton, the prison warden. Her prison might be rife with abuse and corruption but she's fighting an uphill battle to make things better.
People like the cruel and terrifying prison matron Evelyn can't be fired as they have their jobs through political patronage.
Benton's budget to run the prison is continually slashed by men who do not give one single damn about the women incarcerated there.
Benton does what she can to intervene on Marie's behalf but with limited time, even more limited resources and a prison to run, Benton can't stop Marie from being ground up in the unholy gears of the prison system.
Side note: some film critics suggest that Benton is a lesbian. If it is true, it's tamped down by the Hays production code.
I also suspect Marie being recruited for a "shoplifting ring" is a code acceptable alternative to her being forced into prostitution.
In 1950, the review of Caged in Variety described the film as "grim, unrelieved study of cause and effect" that "still adds up to very drab entertainment".Nevertheless, Variety was very complimentary of nearly all aspects of the film's production, including its direction, editing, set designs, music, and cast performances.
Eleanor Parker gives a strong performance as Marie that is raw and very much lived in. No veneer of Hollywood glamour and no East Atlantic accents here. Every moment of Marie's time in prison is brutally honest and reminds the viewer that every moment we witness of Marie's time in prison is her time in hell.
In 2007, critic Emanuel Levy in 2007 wrote of Caged that "director John Cromwell coaxes excellent performances from his female-dominated cast. Caged walks a fine line between a socially conscious drama (and wake-up call) and exploitative, borderline campy fare."
If you find Caged to be "exploitative", well, you're on your own. What I found when I watched this movie was the horror story of woman cast into hell for the least egregious of sins but suffers as if she has committed the worst.
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