What happens
Marie Allen, a nineteen-year-old convicted of accessory to armed robbery, arrives at a women's state prison and is quickly drawn into its harsh routines. Pregnant and frightened, she is assigned to scrubbing duty under the cruel matron Harper, while Superintendent Benton oversees the institution. Marie befriends fellow inmates including the outspoken Kitty Stark, the gentle June, and the troubled Georgia. Heard as part of NBC's Screen Director's Playhouse, this presentation adapts the 1950 film Caged, starring Eleanor Parker and Hope Emerson. The broadcast tells Marie's story as she struggles to protect her unborn child and plan for her future behind bars.
A women's state prison, including its reception and isolation areas, the laundry, and the bullpen cell block.
Characters: Marie Allen, Harper, Mrs. Benton, Kitty Stark, June, Georgia Harrison, Millie, Smoochie
Listen for: Marie's struggle to keep her baby, and the warnings about Harper and the prison's pressures on the inmates.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.