Caged (1950)

A naive nineteen year old widow is sent to a woman's prison and is exposed to hardened criminals and sadistic guards. [imdb]

Nominated for 3 Oscars:

Best Actress: Eleanor Parker
Best Supporting Actress: Hope Emerson
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay

I went into seeing this film with hope that I'm going to see something enjoyable, cheesy, relaxing, dated, with good performances. It's a women's prison film, so come on: I wasn't gonna take it that seriously! And in the end the film had ups and downs, but it always kept my interest, even in the bad scenes. Because, in the end: bad is better than boring.

I didn't really fall for Hope Emerson's tough performance, even though it's a character lovely to watch and the other supporting ladies were just ok. The screenplay could've been better, and the star of the film is undoubtedly Eleanor Parker. She's very good when the screenplay helps and the flaws in the performance are not really her fault. My biggest problem with the film itself were those rushed final 15 minutes, which didn't make too much sense and didn't help in fully developing the character's arc.

My rating for the film: 7/10. More on Eleanor next week, on the other blog.