Caged

Plot synopsis:
A married 19-year-old, Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker), is sent to prison after a botched armed robbery attempt with her equally young husband, Tom, who is killed. While receiving her initial prison physical, she finds out that she is two months pregnant.
Marie has trouble adjusting to the monotonous and cutthroat world of the women's prison. She meets Kitty Stark (Betty Garde), a murderous shoplifter, who says once Marie gets out, Kitty will get her a job "boosting" (shoplifting). Marie does not want to get involved in crime, but Kitty explains the realities of prison life: "You get tough or you get killed. You better wise up before it's too late."
Told she can be paroled after 9 months, Marie witnesses prisoner after prisoner being "flopped back" – granted parole, but then not released from jail because no jobs had been arranged by their parole officers. One flopped-back prisoner, June (Olive Deering), kills herself given the hopeless situation. This saps Marie's hopes of getting out early.
Despite the hardships under sadistic matron Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson), Marie gives birth to a healthy baby and wants to "temporarily" grant full custody to her mother. The intent is to get the baby back after she is released. Marie's callous step-father has decided not to allow the baby into his house. Marie's mother uses the excuses that she's "too old" and "hasn't a penny in [her] name" as reasons why she can't help Marie. Marie is denied a parole. She half-heartedly tries to escape, but is not punished. The prison forces her to permanently give the child up for adoption.
The arrival of "vice queen" Elvira Powell (Lee Patrick) sets off a rivalry with Kitty. Elvira bribes Harper to put Kitty in solitary confinement, where Kitty is beaten. When a kitten is found in the jail yard, Marie attempts to make it a pet. When Harper tries to take the kitten away, a riot ensues, during which the kitten is accidentally killed, and Marie is put into solitary confinement as well.
Before taking Marie to solitary confinement, Harper shaves Marie's head, symbolically stripping her of her innocence. Harper has disagreements with the sympathetic reformist prison superintendent, Ruth Benton (Agnes Moorehead), especially after this latest incident with Marie. However, since Harper is a political appointee, the police commissioner refuses to fire her, and asks for Benton's resignation, instead. When Benton declares that she will request a public hearing, the resignation issue is dropped.
Out of solitary confinement after a month, Kitty is distraught and mentally ill. After being picked on by Harper in the cafeteria, Kitty stabs Harper to death as the inmates watch and make no attempt to stop it. After her exposure to hardened criminals and sadistic prison guards, Marie actually urges Kitty on.
Up for parole once again, Marie has found a "cashier's job" outside—actually just a ruse to join Elvira Powell's shoplifting gang—and leaves prison a hardened woman after 15 months. Benton asks Marie why she is going into crime when she could go back to school. Marie says she got all the education she needed in prison.
After Marie leaves, an office assistant asks Benton what to do with Marie's file. Benton replies, "Keep it active. She'll be back."

Tags: revenge, neo noir, murder

Review:
somewhere between Giallo and soft core. I came across this DVD while visiting the Netherlands. The sleeve of the DVD looked promising and it was filed in the shop under 'horror'. But I can't really classify it under that label. There are of course some scary moments but there's more going on. I guess that the director Stephan Brenninkmeijer had some kind of Giallo in mind. This is more a whodunit then a horror.Why I do refer to the giallo's is because in the torture room he used saturated green and purple lights. Reminded me of Suspiria. But the movie had on problem. There's a bit too much of talking going on especially when Stella (Chantal Demming) is visiting Mike (Victor Reinier). It's more about her past life then what is happening when she's caged.I can't classify it with Amer (2009) or Les nuits rouges du bourreau de jade (2009), 2 Belgium Giallo's. Therefore it should have some more red stuff in it. But what this flick do offers in stead of 'nederhorror' is a lot of nudity. Sometimes it's close to explicit sex. Chantal Demming comes really close to soft core. She's almost nude all the times. In fact, all the girls in this soft core movie goes full frontal. There are a lot of close ups of pubic hair and shaving. One scene even got some actual sucking by Chantal.The weirdest thing for me was that you see actors that I knew from Dutch series like Westenwind and Baantjer going in their nudies. Strange that it didn't had any subtitles, how can it be sold outside the Netherlands? I saw the uncut version but if it will be sold in the UK for example it will be heavily cut due the nudity scene's. Still, I kept watching to know who was behind the 'cage'.Gore 0/5 Nudity 4/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5. Bad porn. Seen better on pornhub. What were they thinking making this. It's literally porn with a bit more dialogue.