Caged (1950)

Second viewing; first seen on December 15, 1990.

Marie is sent to prison for being an accessory to armed robbery (committed by her husband, who died). Inside she will get in touch with a world of corruption, humiliation, and suffering.

An excellent movie where practically every scene has become a template for the imagination of the prison world, every frame a cultural icon. The film has some possible imperfections derived perhaps from a supposed liberal agenda of denunciation of the penal system. This is a screenplay problem which pales in face of the film's artistic strength, but let's get down to it anyway. One example of a detail which I found puzzling: when Marie tells the prison interviewer she and her husband tried to rob a convenience store and were about to steal forty dollars, the interviewer tells her that "Five bucks less, and it wouldn't be a felony". It seems to me that the screenwriter was trying to convey the idea that her punishment was too harsh for such a small amount, and how arbitrary the sentences are. Well, I can't help wondering if this has any base in reality; I mean, does the criminal categorization and the sentence really depend on how much is available in the cash register at the moment? Doesn't pointing a gun at the store clerk count as a felony by itself? Anyway, these are just doubts of a man with little or no knowledge of the law. The reception of this film is also a factor of puzzlement. In the reviews I read, Marie is invariably described as an innocent person when she enters the prison, and yet, when asked if that was the first and only time when she accompanied her husband in a crime, she answers: "I don't want to talk about it, please." And the fact that she is emotionally fragile does not imply that she is morally irreprehensible. The way she progressively hardens herself is interesting and may be seen as the thematic center of the movie. In that regard, prison may be seen as a liberating experience for her. A variation of that theme is found in Pickpocket, where mere imprisonment has an immediate releasing effect on the protagonist.

Rating: 72 (up from 69)