As a fan of this genre, I'm predisposed to like "House of Women" anyway. But I was surprised by the amount of professionalism and thoughtfulness that went into what's clearly an early-'60s Warners B, riffing on the then-12-year-old "Caged" and adding some trendy contemporary refs, like inmates arguing over the relative merits of Troy Donahue. Shirley Knight, always wonderful, is the naive young thing who took a five-year rap for assisting her boyfriend in a robbery, and is entering the Big House with a baby on the way. She quickly allies with the brassy Barbara Nichols and the hard-as-nails Constance Ford (she's excellent), and snags a relatively comfy job in the home of warden Andrew Duggan, who goes from rat to sympathetic to rat again. (Also in his domestic employ: Virginia Capers, who won a Tony some years later for "Raisin.") There's the usual we're-taking-over-this-joint roistering and unsympathetic parole board, and a somewhat not-credible climax where the prisoners get everything they want. But it's pretty well directed, and certainly well acted.