Caged (1950)

A young girl (Eleanor Parker) whose husband was killed in a hold-up is sent to prison as an accomplice to the crime. Instead of rehabilitating her, the excesses and cruelty of the penal system make her evolve into a hardened career criminal. Directed by John Cromwell, sixty years after its release, CAGED still packs a punch. True, prison conditions have improved and become (somewhat) more humanitarian but I'm still not so sure that prisons are set up to rehabilitate rather than merely punish. Eleanor Parker is pretty spectacular here, subtly going from the naive 19 year old and systematically broken down until she emerges an an iron butterfly. The casting is first rate down to the smallest bit part, each woman with a face that tells a story even if she never opens her mouth. Hope Emerson as the matron from Hell justifiably received an Oscar nomination but she's matched by Betty Garde and Agnes Moorehead. With Jan Sterling, Olive Deering, Ellen Corby and Lee Patrick.