*MILD SPOILER*For years, I have thought that this is one of the great films nobody ever talks about: a harrowing, beautifully enacted account of one woman's descent into Prison hell. Although I haven't viewed this film in many years, I remember being quite impressed with the memorably gritty and realistic performances from a great many of the performers. Eleanor Parker was great as the young girl, a semi-innocent type who was in bad company & in the wrong place at the wrong time: her metamorphasis into a hardened inmate is wholly believable. Hope Emerson is unforgettable as the brutally cruel and sadistic amazonian matron: her comeuppance is probably the film's most memorable scene. Agnes Moorehead is dignified as the kind superintendent who tries to help Parker to no avail while Lee Patrick & Betty Garde do great jobs in their roles as fellow female inmates. A memorable scene is when Parker is talking to an older woman who states "now I'm a lifer". Not an upbeat film by any means, but probably the finest, most effective film about women in prison ever made.
Review of Caged
