Caged (1950) Reviews

Warner Bros.was famous for its crime dramas,and this offbeat classic is a perfect example of why."Caged" is a lean,tough,no-nonsense,hard-hitting story of a poor and pregnant young widow who goes to prison for aiding her desperate dead husband in a robbery.The brutal treatment she receives causes her to come out a hardened criminal.Strikingly shot in black and white by Carl Guthrie,and with a sparse but effective Max Steiner score,the film benefits enormously from John Cromwell's powerful direction and an excellent Virginia Kellogg-Bernard C.Schoenfeld script. The movie's best feature,howver,is the brilliant performances of its marvelous cast. Eleanor Parker and Agnes Moorehead were never better,while Hope Emerson and Ellen Corby steal the movie as the vicious matron and the inmates' leader who brutally murders her out of revenge in the movie's most memorable scene. It all adds up to a riveting and highly entertaining movie.
Close this Review

Wow what a good movie. Nothing sugar coated here. What great acting where you can see Marie go from innocent to hardened "tramp". That Evie the matron made you want to just strangle her. I was truly swept up in the raw emotions in the scene with the kitten and with Marie's mom regarding the baby. Just a good movie and the ending will be a suprise or will it? ~ Susan L.
Close this Review