This article is written for the annual blogathon in celebration of Turner Classic Movies’ 31 Days of Oscars. The blogathon is hosted by classic movie bloggers Outspoken and Freckled, Paula’s Cinema Club and Once Upon a Screen.
Want to see the prototype for Orange Is the New Black? In the 1950 Caged, Eleanor Parker (who died last year) played the naive young woman plunged into a harsh women’s prison filled with hard-bitten fellow prisoners and compassion-free guards. Parker was nominated for an acting Oscar, but her performance pales next to that of Hope Emerson, whose electric portrayal of a hulking guard also got an Oscar nod.
Caged is a Message Picture, editorializing that the prison experience unnecessarily molds inmates into criminals. Although its trailer (available on IMDb), with its breathlessly sensationalistic narration, makes the film appear overwrought, Caged is edgy enough to have currency with modern sensibilities. Parker’s newbie is NOT innocent and wrongly convicted – as the movie opens, she’s one of the crew in a bank heist. She experiences hellish brutalization behind bars. There’s also behind-the-bars pregnancy, inmate suicide and implied lesbianism. The ending, when the protagonist is finally released and can choose between going straight or going bad, is filled with the cynicism and despair of film noir.
Eleanor Parker hit every note on her character’s slide from the Good Kid who made a dumb mistake all the way down to a Hard Case seasoned with hopelessness. (In a stunningly competitive year, she lost the Oscar to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday, along with Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard, and both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter for All About Eve.)
But this is Hope Emerson’s movie. Emerson draws the audience’s attention every moment that she’s on-screen. Her prison matron is not just harsh but sadistic. Emerson was able to radiate meanness with every glance, and took full advantage of her dominating physicality. It’s a performance that still works today.
This was the apex of Emerson’s career. She stood a big-boned 6″2″, and then as now, Hollywood didn’t have many parts for an actress with her appearance. She started on Broadway in her early 30s (as an Amazon in Lysistrata), was successful in radio voice-over work and managed 43 screen credits. She was 53 years old when she made Caged.
Caged also features the fine character actresses Agnes Moorehead, Jane Darwell (Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath) and Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton here as a young woman).
Sixty-five years later, Caged might still be the best women’s prison movie ever. TCM is featuring Caged on February 20 during its 31 Days of Oscar. It’s also available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Xbox Video and Flixster.
Wonderful post! I agree- CAGED may very well be the best female prison flick out there. Parker and Emerson deserved their Oscar nods as they both make this film work as well and as enduring as it does. Thanks so much for joining our blogathon! Look for my promo post as I have you scheduled on day 2 (tomorrow) of our ACTORS week for 31 Days Of Oscar Blogathon. …Kellee
Your “Orange Is The New Black” subtitle stopped me dead in my tracks and brought me to your post. Great job!! And so true. “Caged” is the Daddy of ’em all. Or should I say the Momma? Eleanor Parker is a dream of an actress, different here as she is in “The Sound of Music” or “Detective Story” or anything she’s done. But who am I kidding…of course it’s Hope Emerson’s picture all the way. The menace she conveys is, well…menacing. And how she taunts the girls when she’s off her shift and is going out on a date with her man. Oh my!! I must give a shout out to those ‘baritone babes’ who also shine: Lee Patrick ( Sam Spade’s Girl Friday in “The Maltese Falcon” ) and Betty Garde. Why do I envision Patrick and Garde laughing all throughout their scene. And also, a shout-out to my weakness: Agnes Moorehead, in one of my favorite of her performances in her stellar career ( “Dark Passage” tops ’em all for me. )
Hope Emerson showed herself to good effect in “Cry of the City” “Adam’s Rib” and “Westward, The Women” but you’re right…at 6’2″ how could Emerson Hope ( sorry! ) to capitalize on this in Hollywood. I enjoyed your tight concise piece and will take lessons from you on HOW to grab an audience with one single line. Enjoyed reading this.
The great ensemble and Eleanor Parker’s torment make this film one that draws the viewer in with a knot in your stomach. John Cromwell’s next picture “The Company She Keeps” follows an ex-con and her travails – an interesting subject matter for a double bill from the classic director.
Caftan Woman, I’ve seen Jane Greer and Lizabeth Scott in “The Company She Keeps” and enjoyed the movie. Of course I didn’t understand why either of these two ladies would be fighting over Dennis O’Keefe, but hey, to each his own. I liked the bit of casting against type. One might moreso think of Lizabeth Scott as the jailbird, while Jane Greer’d be the nice girl, but the way it’s cast makes things interesting. One of my favorite moments in this movie is when Greer’s in jail and she’s getting schooled by this other inmate played by my favorite, Theresa Harris, who had played Greer’s maid in “Out of the Past.”
How have I not seen this movie? I MUST! Your write up is terrific. Plus I enjoy watching movies that get Oscar love that typically shouldn’t (I’m specifically thinking of all the nominations for The Bad Seed).
And then there’s the idea of seeing The Baroness behind bars. Though you make this movie sound more adult than lurid.
I first saw “Caged” on daytime TV around 1970. I was in grade school, sick in bed. What an amazing movie! The entire cast is riveting, especially Olive Deering, whose doomed nurse June just broke my heart.