A gentle, naive, pregnant 19-year-old widow is slowly, inexorably ground down by the hardened criminals, sadistic guards, and matron at a woman's prison. Will she be the same person when her... Read allA gentle, naive, pregnant 19-year-old widow is slowly, inexorably ground down by the hardened criminals, sadistic guards, and matron at a woman's prison. Will she be the same person when her sentence is up?A gentle, naive, pregnant 19-year-old widow is slowly, inexorably ground down by the hardened criminals, sadistic guards, and matron at a woman's prison. Will she be the same person when her sentence is up?
- Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 1 win & 5 nominations total
- Helen
- (as Sheila Stevens)
- Inmate
- (uncredited)
- Jeffries
- (uncredited)
- Mr. Cooper
- (uncredited)
- Commissioner Sam Walker
- (uncredited)
- Inmate
- (uncredited)
- Inmate
- (uncredited)
- Man in Car
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAfter I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) led to prison reform in six states, Warners producer Jerry Wald wanted to do the same for women's prisons and sent former newspaper reporter Virginia Kellogg out. She had written a novel that became a Kay Francis film, Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933), about a doctor who bears a child out of wedlock. She had also written well-researched original stories that were the basis for T-Men (1947), about treasury agents, and White Heat (1949), starring James Cagney as a psychotic gangster. She spent months doing research for Caged (1950) at prisons around the country, and was even briefly incarcerated in one of them. Her research is evident in the script with authentic prison slang of the era, and details of prison life, such as the caste system, and the tedium of daily life. Virginia Kellogg and Bernard C. Schoenfeld received an Oscar® nomination for Caged (1950)'s story and screenplay.
- GoofsAn inmate, Georgia Harrison, gets hysterical and breaks the window in her corridor. In this case, the window was inside the bars, which is why the glass would be in a protected and unreachable position. Instead, the bars would have been placed first inside, then the glass further away. The glass would probably be re-enforced glass with wire or even safety glass. Otherwise, an inmate could do just what Georgia did, break it. Then pieces of the glass could be used against other inmates or even prison employees. But then if the glass was safety glass, the scene with Georgia breaking the window would not have been quite so dramatic.
- Quotes
Marie Allen: I feel a little sick.
Infirmary Nurse: Get that way often?
Marie Allen: Yes, the last week or so.
Infirmary Nurse: Say, you expecting company?
Marie Allen: [mumbles] I don't know.
Infirmary Nurse: [cynically] Another pregnant one! Get up!... You know who the father is?
Marie Allen: My husband.
Marie Allen: [sarcastically] Well, ain't we gettin' respectable! Could he help with the expenses?
Marie Allen: He's dead!
Infirmary Nurse: [with contempt] Another bill for the state! Get dressed!
- ConnectionsEdited into House of Women (1962)
It's a manipulative film but you won't mind. Eleanor Parker projects all the innocence and vulnerability of a wounded fawn in the starring role. As one rotten break after another befalls her in the joint, she loses that innocence and becomes transformed into a classic hardened con, a transformation greatly aided by the seemingly simple device of a head-shaving she receives from a cruel matron. The film has a plainly understood message: if no effort is made to rehabilitate inmates, all a prison is good for is to educate criminals in their chosen vocation, crime. That's another big difference between this film and the junky sexploitation pictures of more recent years--the latter don't have a message.
- Hermit C-2
- Nov 14, 1999
Details
- Runtime1 hour 37 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1