THE REST OF YOUR AUGUST 2003 RANDOM MOVIE CLUB RESULTS ARE IN!
The Random Movie was CAGED. This was a great double bill with THE WINDOW, as they are both noir-ish movies that came out a year apart (1950, 1949).
This movie has all the trappings of being a cliche, but because of great characters and acting, it's pretty great.
It's the story of Marie Allen, a 19 year old who is doing 1-15 because she was an accessory to a crime her husband committed (she wasn't really, her husband was killed in the crime and she tried to save him). So, naive Marie is tossed in the slammer with 60 lifers and hopers.
So here are your cliches of how prison will take this lamb and make a lion out of her. Not to mention the matron, who watches over the prisoners. She plays her part big, which I believe is the exact way to play it. This character carried the whole movie. She's wonderful, and you hate her so much. It's almost a Nurse Ratched role, not slam dunk, but juicy.
And there's a lot of great subplots too; Kitty, the tough prisoner who runs the place (on the inside), and what happens when her nemesis gets arrested and tossed in with her. And the prison's warden, played by Agnes "Endora" Moorehead. Even she has an arc as she tries to reform and rehabilitate the prisoners, only to be undermined by the matron. But she does have the last and most corny line of the film.
Lots of psychological games all around. Sorry, no Linda Blair in this prison. But here's another one I recommend, although it may be hard to find. I don't think it's on video.
