Caged (1950 film)
| Caged | |
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Theatrical release lobby card
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| Directed by | John Cromwell |
| Produced by | Jerry Wald |
| Written by |
Bernard C. Schoenfeld Virginia Kellogg |
| Screenplay by | Virginia Kellogg |
| Based on | Women Without Men by Kellogg and Schoenfeld |
| Starring |
Eleanor Parker Agnes Moorehead Ellen Corby Hope Emerson |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Carl E. Guthrie |
| Edited by | Owen Marks |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Caged is a 1950 film noir directed by John Cromwell and starring Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby, and Hope Emerson. It was nominated for three Academy Awards.
The movie tells the story of a teenaged newlywed sent to prison for being an accessory to a robbery. Her experiences while incarcerated, along with the killing of her husband, change her from a frightened young girl into a hardened convict.
Caged was adapted by Virginia Kellogg from the story "Women Without Men" by Kellogg and Bernard C. Schoenfeld. The studio had originally intended it as a vehicle for Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, but reportedly Davis had said she did not want to make a "dyke movie" (a movie with partial homosexual content) and turned it down.
A married 19-year-old, Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker), is sent to prison after a botched armed robbery attempt with her equally young husband, Tom, who is killed. While receiving her initial prison physical, she finds out that she is two months pregnant.
Marie has trouble adjusting to the monotonous and cutthroat world of the women's prison. She meets Kitty Stark (Betty Garde), a murderous shoplifter, who says once Marie gets out, Kitty will get her a job "boosting" (shoplifting). Marie does not want to get involved in crime, but Kitty explains the realities of prison life: "You get tough or you get killed. You better wise up before it's too late."
Told she can be paroled after 9 months, Marie witnesses prisoner after prisoner being "flopped back" – granted parole, but then not released from jail because no jobs had been arranged by their parole officers. One flopped-back prisoner, June (Olive Deering), kills herself given the hopeless situation. This saps Marie's hopes of getting out early.
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