CAGED: Blu-ray (Warner Bros., 1950) Warner Archive

We’ll give it to the usually uber-glamorous, Eleanor Parker, who allowed her gorgeous auburn tresses to be bleached, then shaved for director, John Cromwell’s Caged (1950) – a gusty/gritty, ‘ripped from the headlines’ melodrama a la the sort Warner Bros. (the studio footing this bill) almost exclusively marketed during the dirty thirties with an enviable stable of macho, male reprobates, including Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, George Raft and Edward G. Robinson. On this outing, female bondage…of a kind…is the order of the day with Parker cast as doe-eyed innocent, Mary Allen, convicted as an accessory to a crime she did not commit and thereafter, sent to the big house where tough/butch gals have axes to grind. Ever since 1932’s I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, producer Jerry Wald had been itching to give the dial of prison reform another twist, hiring newshound, Virginia Kellogg to come up with a solid angle, rife for exploitation. Kellogg, behind the Kay Francis classic, Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933), as well as articles later to morph into T-Men (1947) and White Heat (1949) came well-versed to the concept of a prison reform melodrama where women’s suffrage behind bars unanticipatedly transforms a basically ‘good girl’ into a bad seed, destined to return to these dark and dingy halls of justice, more ruthless than ever.

Caged is imbued with authentic prison lingo of its time and meticulously detailed in its depiction of the fierce caste system that holds everything and everyone in their place. For their efforts, Kellogg and co-writer, Bernard C. Schoenfeld received an Oscar nomination – lost to Joseph L. Mankiewicz for All About Eve. Hope Emerson, previously to appear as comic relief in the Tracy/Hepburn classic, Adam’s Rib (1949) proved she could also play unnervingly cruel with a tinge of lesbianism as prison matron, Evelyn Harper, while Agnes Moorehead is put to excellent use as reformist/warden, Ruth Benton is stymied in her quest for prison reform by corruption and graft on all fronts, including ineffectual political jockeying by Commissioner Sam Walker (Don Beddoe) and Sen. Ted Donnally (Taylor Holmes), briefly to threaten Benton with dismissal. This, she narrowly avoids by turning the tables on her back-biting superiors.  The who’s/who of familiar faces continue in cameo, with Ellen Corby as inmate - neurotic simpleton, Emma Barber, Jane Darwell - empathetic ‘isolation’ matron, and Lee Patrick as Elvira Powell, who feigns an air of ‘society’ but runs a fairly lucrative shop-lifter’s ring on the outside. Look closely to find brilliant character actress, Esther Howard – utterly wasted, as Grace, a non-speaking background extra, and, Caged’s one unforgiveable sin.

For the rest, Caged is a tightly scripted and expertly wrought excursion into the inner machinery of the prison life that, far from rehabilitating its inmate population, despite some best intentions and efforts, takes novice crooks and hardens their resolve into becoming even more sinister and slick cynics, rife for the criminal class and organized crime once their parole kicks in. We first meet Mary upon her arrival to the state penitentiary. Barely nineteen, and pregnant with her late husband’s child after he has been killed in a heist gone horribly awry, Mary is unprepared for what is in store for her now. Placed in isolation at the outset, to ensure she has contracted no communicable diseases, Mary is eventually assimilated into the general population and quickly discovers the women who share her life now hail from all walks and are guilty of everything from petty crimes to cold-blooded murder. Mary meets Warden Benton who is empathetic to her plight. Recognizing the good in Mary, Benton implores Mary to put her time being bars to good use so she can become a better citizen after her parole. Benton also promises Mary light duties in the prison’s laundry to ensure her healthy pregnancy. Alas, the ward’s matron, Harper, tempts Mary by showing her the room in which she resides, filled with trinkets and treats supplied to her by inmates who can pay to have her go easy on them. As Mary is poor, Harper takes it upon herself to put her to work doing hard, manual labor.

Mary’s child is born premature, but healthy. Tragically, Mary’s self-involved mother, Mrs. Warren (Queenie Smith) is more concerned with pleasing her latest husband than looking after Mary’s baby. The child is taken away from Mary and placed into the state-run adoption facility. Mary will never see her baby again. Fellow inmate, Millie Lewis (Gertrude Hoffman), the elder stateswoman of the ward, attempts to imbue her philosophy on Mary; to steer clear of any temptations, while serving time and, more importantly, once on the outside. Alas, as Mary’s hopes are stripped from her one at a time, Millie’s advice falls on deaf ears. Mary’s first stab at parole is denied, causing her to momentarily go mad. She is carted off to solitary confinement where she further loses her grip on reality. Emerging from ‘the hole’ gaunt and bitter, Mary endures another humiliation when Harper elects, with the aid of her crony, Mrs. Foley (Frances Morris) to hold her down and shave her head.

Meanwhile, the arrival of Elvira Powell into the general prison population usurps the authority of fellow inmate, Kitty Stark (Betty Garde) who is so severely beaten and tortured by Harper she is left a shell of her former self. This latest brutality causes the rest of the inmates to rebel. Harper loses her grip on controlling the inmates through fear and is eventually stabbed to death with a fork by Kitty in the commissary. Mary revels in the murder. At the end of her stint, Mary is encouraged by Benton to reconsider her future. But Elvira has already promised Mary a lucrative underworld connection – a pathway certain to achieve the spoils she has otherwise been denied by attempting to live honestly, but just as certainly to land her back in jail. And thus, Mary callously tosses her wedding ring back at Benton. Sufficiently toughened by her horrendous experiences while an inmate, and, in her resolve to do no better for herself now, Mary departs the penitentiary, heading straight for a life of crime. From her window, Benton sadly suggests to save a cell for her inevitable return.

Reportedly, Caged was originally offered to Bette Davis, who turned it down on the understanding she had zero interest in making ‘a dyke movie.’ For its time, Caged proved a rather startling indictment of America's penal system as the deciding factor in criminal recidivism. Kellogg and Schoenfeld’s screenplay offers us some truly distressing and occasionally despicable exposition; all of it brilliantly handled with artistic deftness by director, John Cromwell. I will venture a guess Eleanor Parker was never nineteen (or rather) always to look uber-sophisticated and elegant beyond her years. But her efficiency and awe-inspiring performance here almost convinces us of Mary’s initial naïveté ultimately corroded beyond all repair by the final fade out. Parker’s talent outweighs her innate physicality as irrefutably, one of the most gorgeous women ever to appear on screen. See either Scaramouche (1952) or The Sound of Music (1965) for definite proof of this. Agnes Moorehead, best known to the public for her turn as the belovedly bitchy Endora on TV’s Bewitched (1963-72), though amongst the Hollywood community as ‘mother to all’ in her willingness to extend her outstretched helping hands of tolerance and compassion, herein delivers a heartbreaking performance as the warden who knows all too well that no matter how much she strives for reform, her endeavors are failing the women she has committed herself to help save themselves.

Caged arrives on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive (WAC) in a predictably appealing hi-def transfer. The B&W elements are in very fine shape with solid contrast, expertly resolved grain, and sharpness throughout. Tonality in the gray scale is superbly rendered. There is no hint of age-related artifacts to consider. This is a reference quality release and one to surely please upon renewed consideration. The 2.0 DTS mono audio is likewise, excellent. Caged’s riot sequences deliver an unexpectedly prominent acoustic flourish. Dialogue is front and center, but clean and crisp. The intermittently brief score by legendary Hollywood film composer, Max Steiner also gets its due. Extras are limited to a Playhouse radio adaptation from 1951. At just under an hour, it is almost as long as the movie, running an hour and thirty-six minutes. There is also a prison-themed Bugs Bunny cartoon and the movie’s original trailer. Bottom line: Caged is a harrowing and invested trek into the perils of prison life. Although some of its power has been blunted with time, it is still well-worth your time and coin for the finely wrought performances and expertly scripted drama. The Blu-ray is another first-rate effort from WAC. Very highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

5

EXTRAS

2