Lady in a Cage (1964) User Reviews

Tense, Unpleasant, Claustrophobic, Sadistic and Scary Urban Tale

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 4 November 2005]

In a hot summer holiday, the incapacitated Mrs. Cornelia Hilyard (Olivia de Havilland), who broke the hip a few months ago, gets trapped alone in her private elevator in her huge house during an electricity failure. An old wino beggar is attracted by the alarm in the alley and decides to robber the house helped by Sade (Ann Sothern), a fat hustler. Meanwhile, a dangerous gang of punks leaded by Randall (James Caan) invades the house and decides to eliminate all the witness after the robbery.

I have never heard any reference about "Lady in a Cage", but I decided to buy the just-released DVD and I do not regret. I found a tense, unpleasant, claustrophobic, sadistic and scary urban tale, with outstanding and impressive performance of James Caan. The story shows the lack of attention and sympathy of the urban populations, the violence of criminals against their victims and it is very ahead of time for a 1964 movie. I recalled the also claustrophobic and excellent 1955 "The Desperate Hours", but "Lady in a Cage" is more realistic, frightening and brutal, and has not aged. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Dama Enjaulada" ("The Lady Caged")

Gritty, bizarre, not for the faint at heart

[helpless_dancer · 7/10 · 3 January 2002]

Excellent drama concerning 3 psychotic hooligans, a drunk, a hustler, and a fence and his gang all vying for a house full of booty. The terrified home owner is trapped and must try to survive the onslaught as well as keep her sanity. Highly emotional presentation with great acting by the 3 young thugs, particularly Caan's bit as the insane pack leader. A must see.

Intense

[nutty227 · 8/10 · 12 July 2003]

If one word could sum up Lady in Cage, it would be INTENSE!! For a 1964 film, this has loads of melodrama, fright, and sheer suspense.Check out a young James Caan, and a gorgeous, and cute Jennifer Bilingsley.This film is brutally straight-forward in terms of its characterization of the scum,thugs, and low-life of society,.. the acting in this movie, all across the board is outstanding.I give it an 8 out of 10, if not a 9/10.

Savage little gem, among the most arrant balls-out shockers of the sixties

[EyeAskance · 26 October 2003]

The presence of big-name Hollywood stars does not guise the fact that this is one of the most flagrant mainstream movies of the 1960s. Surprisingly professional treatment is applied to the very sordid thrills at hand, most notably in the leads' performances which range from entirely believable to wonderfully unrestrained. Exceptional, also, is the film's score which erupts occasionally into a semi-experimental, wild beat-jazz type of noise(particularly effective in punctuating the cool opening credits, an interesting Saul Bass-inspired merging of film and frozen shots with linear animation). I can only imagine how some viewers must have reacted to this at the time it was released...a grimy urban nightmare with implied taboo sex, doped-up punks, and some highly disconcerting graphic violence and cruelty for the time.

Many of the most cherished leading ladies of Old Hollywood's glory days turned up in very lurid lo-budge vehicles during the 60s, and LIAC would be exemplary of that trend for its inclusion of DeHavilland and Sothern. Both actresses are in top-form here, and their professionalism veils somewhat the meretricious nature of the material(DeHavilland an urbane, mollycoddling mother sidelined by an injury who becomes trapped between floors in her home elevator, and Sothern a wearied but soft-hearted cyprian/burglar taking sheepish advantage of DeHavilland's perdition). Making a memorably heady debut is James Caan(channeling Brando), in his joyously immoderate portrayal of a sociopathic and frighteningly cunning young criminal who strikes terror into the heart of helpless DeHavilland. As he gradually comes to understand this woman's patrician, maternal nature, a very personal and pitiable hostility ignites within him. She is the embodiment of all the love and nurture he's been denied throughout his tragic life, and this becomes his chance to settle the score.

Classic must-see stuff for fans of singular 1960s B films within a vague realm which might include WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, THE NAKED KISS, and BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING.

8/10

Crazy, man, like wow

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 5 September 2007]

Olivia de Havilland is a "Lady in a Cage" in this 1964 film also starring Ann Sothern, James Caan (in his debut), Jennifer Billingsley, Rafael Campos, and Scatman Crothers. de Havilland is an elegant, wealthy poetess who is recovering from a broken hip and is dependent on an elevator in the house - one of those European types that looks like a birdcage. After her son Malcolm has left for the weekend, an accident outside knocks out the power as she is going upstairs in the elevator. Though she hits an outside alarm, no one who can help hears it. The only ones that hear it? Any thief within a 5-mile radius. A homeless alcoholic (Jeff Corey) is first on the scene; he steals a toaster and alerts a cheap hustler, Sade (Ann Sothern, who resembles Suzanne Pleshette in this film). However, they're no match for the next bunch, played by James Caan, Jennifer Billingsley, and Rafael Campos, who seem like early Mansonites and decide everything is theirs. (Later a third group shows up, and they're the toughest yet.) All the while, the lady of the house sits in the elevator, powerless to do anything about the destruction around her.

This is a harrowing movie, very '60s in its music and the messages are familiar: the urban jungle, druggies, man's inhumanity to man, people not stopping to help, putting themselves and their own agendas first. The de Havilland character is driven to drastic measures - the movie will glue you to your TV set.

The beautiful de Havilland is excellent - as she always is - as the trapped woman who not only has to deal with enemies at the gate but the fact that one of the crooks finds an accusatory note from her son which ends with a suicide threat - and she has no idea there was a problem. "He sounds gay," one of them (Campos) says. James Caan is appropriately frightening, and so hairy it looks as if hair was taped onto his body. Jennifer Billingsley is good as his whacked out, drug-laden girlfriend. Sothern's story has a big continuity hole; it's never resolved. It's always a treat to see her in anything, and she plays this down and out loser very well.

Without de Havilland, this would have been a fairly lousy movie; with her, I think it's a cut above the horror films of other aging, classic film actresses like Crawford and Davis. If there is one thing de Havilland can always bring to a role besides great acting - and I write in the present tense because she's still alive - it's refinement, beauty, and class. Let's hope there's still a role she will agree to play.

Panic room

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 7 April 2008]

For Olivia de Havilland's fans like me ,"lady in a cage" is a delight.The actress ,often alone on the screen, gives a brilliant tormented performance ,just before her first "villain" part in "Hush hush sweet Charlotte".

From the very start ,we feel something is wrong:this luxury house ,with this son saying goodbye to his mom seems too good to be true.Trapped in her elevator ,the lady 's nightmare begins.The cast and credits over cars honking in the streets ,some kind of musique concrete was downright disturbing :is there somebody who cares?does someone show compassion? Are you all monsters? the heroine yells as five intruders are burglarizing her desirable mansion.James Caan matches De Havilland all the way and this odd pairing (they really come from two different generations of acting) works out fine.

It's the first time I've seen a Walter Grauman film and his directing impressed me: all the things ,all the pieces of furniture ,before the intrusion,seem to have a life on their own.And there's this letter the son has left.We are not given enough time to read it ,and we forget all about it but...

Who is finally the real monster? If you've seen Mankiewicz's "Suddenly last Summer" (1959),you may remember Katherine Hepburn's Mrs Venable in her elevator ...That over possessive mother...

For the sixties,an intense violent film ...not for claustrophobic viewers!

Sharply observed details elevate this lurid shocker.

[ags123 · 9/10 · 14 July 2005]

"Lady In A Cage" was far ahead of its time. Compared to the rest of the lurid shockers produced in the early 1960s featuring aging Hollywood stars (including de Havilland's other 1964 appearance in "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte") this film, along with "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" transcended the genre. But while "Baby Jane" had a lot to say about the price of fame, "Lady In A Cage" rightly predicted the impending chaos of a rapidly changing society.

Nothing about the basic premise (a middle-aged woman trapped in her house is terrorized by vagrants and thugs) suggests a deep sociological study. What elevates the ensuing events are the sharply observed details: the neighborhood in transition, the alienated masses isolated by endless traffic, the hoodlums' utter lack of conscience, and most of all, de Havilland's expert performance as the lone representative of the civilized world. Her undoing serves as a cautionary tale for a society on the brink. de Havilland makes this otherwise unsavory film exceedingly watchable. As her secrets are uncovered, she finds herself culpable as well. Everyone is caught in the inexorable downward spiral.

Despite the heavy themes, the film is highly accessible, even fun, if you take a jaundiced view. Not quite as campy as "Baby Jane" perhaps, but on some level, just as iconic. It's a film that stands up well to repeated viewings. Great graphic title sequence reminiscent of Saul Bass, compelling modern score by Paul Glass, sharp- focus black and white photography. Overall, fine work by everyone involved.

Imperiled Olivia

[jjnxn-1 · 7/10 · 10 May 2013]

Thriller has some contrivances but also enough touches of reality to make it unsettling and disturbing. Olivia is effective as she works up to different levels of hysteria at a believable pace rather than going full bore from the beginning. Ann Sothern is a sad blowzy mess managing to engender sympathy for her character even though she does some disreputable things. James Caan is full of menace and an uncomfortable sexuality in his feature film debut, his simpleton comrades are frightening in their careless disregard for humanity. This is economically directed with a minimum of wasted scenes and a talented cast but the theme of home invasion is to real to provide much in the way of escapist entertainment.

Olivia De Havilland shines in a gutsy role!

[Aussie Stud · 10/10 · 4 August 2001]

In this rarely-seen gem, Olivia De Havilland treads in the new-found territory of the 60's horror/thriller film movement that had been started by fellow predominant actresses of the 1940's such as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

Bette and Joan of course were well known their much-publicized stint in "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?". Joan went on to star in further classics such as "BERSERK" and "STRAIT-JACKET". Davis opted to choose more classier roles in films such as "THE NANNY" and "DEAD RINGER". Both Davis and De Havilland starred together in "HUSH HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE" which was coincidentally released the same year as "LADY IN A CAGE".

Why these talented Oscar-winning actresses chose to start this genre of now known 'camp-classics' will never be fully understood.

In this strange film, De Havilland plays a wealthy widow residing in a mansion in Los Angeles. She has a problem with her legs so an elevator has been installed by the staircase as an alternative for her traveling between floors.

She also lives with her son, now a young man. She is hell-bent on having him marry a pretty young lady as all mothers wish for their sons, but her son is different. There are suggested tones in the film that he is perhaps gay, but he leaves the film at an early stage and we are only given this hint later on when she finds a suicide note left by him.

When her son leaves the home, De Havilland finds herself trapped inside the elevator after an electrical circuit blows, leaving her suspended between the two floors, hence the title of the movie, "LADY IN A CAGE".

In another strange casting role, Ann Sothern plays a cat burglar who chooses to burgle De Havilland's home. Upon discovering her trapped in the elevator, she lets the word out to fellow crooks, including James Caan in his first film role. He and two other bandits decide to rob the mansion. And this is when the film gets rather ugly.

Released at such a 'restricted' time in the 60's for films with violent under-tones, this movie was originally banned in my home country of Australia. It was not until the 70's when it was actually released there, and after watching this movie, you can see why. There are definite early tones of "A CLOCKWORK ORANGE" in this movie.

Without giving too much away, several scenes depict graphic violence including a gouged eye socket, Ann Sothern getting peppered with bullets and extreme themes of brutality and misogyny as De Havilland is taunted and shamed in her stage of entrapment.

Sensing her terror and frustration as De Havilland can do nothing but watch as she is held imprisoned by her tormenters, you can't help but think of Joan Crawford's portrayal of this same character in "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?" Both actresses play the role superbly.

Filmed entirely in black and white, this will certainly leave a bad taste in your mouth afterwards. While this movie shouldn't be written off as being 'in bad taste and disgusting', it does achieve it's intended goal: a great deal of SUSPENSE. You will find yourself gazing at the ringing telephone as De Havilland tries her best attempts to answer it. You will find yourself sweating bullets as De Havilland drags her own body across the floor as she claws her way to freedom.

And yes, you will wonder what influenced the woman who once played Melanie in "GONE WITH THE WIND" to star in a film like this.

Overall, Olivia De Havilland gets my thumbs up for starring in this ground-breaking and generally misunderstood classic. The opening credits/title sequence is a real winner too.

10/10

Ten Quick Thoughts on This Winner

[henryonhillside · 7/10 · 14 April 2016]

1. This film ran today on the Movies! TV channel (a free channel) and this is why I like Movies! -- its willingness to unearth wonderful old stuff like this and air it free of charge. Too bad the network's commercials are so idiotic, frequent, and noisy.

2. Someone here writes, "Why would Olivia de Havilland accept a role like this?" Well, because she was an actor. Actors want to act. Female actors in their 40s and 50s don't get offered many roles.

3. James Caan is splendidly hammy. What a beautiful young man he was. But he was also amazingly stiff and armored in the shoulders and chest, and therein resided the source for many of his future problems with substance abuse (or so would opine Wilhelm Reich).

4. Jeff Corey plays George Brady, the vagrant dude, nicknamed "Repent." (Does the "Repent" tattoo on his hand owe a debt to the tats on Robert Mitchum in "The Night of the Hunter"?) Corey was one of the great character actors of his generation (see also his work in "Butch Cassidy", etc. etc.). He was also a distinguished teacher of acting, maybe the best-respected such teacher in Hollywood in the '60s and '70s. Among his students: Jack Nicholson, Barbra Streisand, Robin Williams.

5. There's something about a nylon pulled over the face that's just flat-out scary on a primal level.

6. Early in the film there's some pot-smoking going on in a car. This is by no means the first pot ever smoked in a movie but I'm wondering if it's maybe the first explicit, obvious case of pot smoking in a movie since the 1940s. There's an interesting list at Wikipedia called "List of Films Containing Frequent Marijuana Use" that supplies a bit of background - there was apparently a gap in pot use in movies between the '40s and the '60s. ("Lady in a Cage" doesn't qualify for the list because its pot scene is brief.)

7. The sequence at the end, where cars drive by and no one pays attention, seems to have been inspired by the Kitty Genovese murder case, which transpired in '64 and shocked the nation, and quickly interested Hollywood (Perry Mason had a Genovese-inspired case in '65). The Genovese incident was complicated and awful, half horror, half urban legend:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese

8. This film plus "The Incident" (which came out a year later) = a good double feature at the drive-in.

9. Caan's demise in the film - splendidly weird!

10. My thumbs are up for this watchable, trashy, fun picture.

Deliriously Awful, Wildly Amusing

[jtrapp · 1/10 · 20 February 2001]

This movie was ahead of its time, indeed. Released at the tail end of the *Leave it to Beaver* period, it is one of the most cheaply sensational and exploitative films ever made. Although the censorship laws of the times only permitted them to show SO much, its filmmakers have literally CRAMMED it with every conceivable depravity and vice (or what was considered vice at the time); *Lady in a Cage* contains: robbery, drug use, cheap sex, S&M, aimless violence, dead animals, religious blasphemy, murder, eyeball-gouging, prostitution, implied incest, alcoholism, hit-and-run car accidents, and bad poetry!

Look out, John Waters!

Shocking, disturbing but awesome

[searchanddestroy-1 · 10/10 · 21 October 2022]

This is a very uncommon, unusual, offbeat and unforgettable experience for any movie goer. Claustrophobic, not for all audiences - my wife left the room whilst she watched it mith me, accusing me to hurt her - but I persist and sign this is a masterpiece for many reasons. Directing, settings, acting, rythm, editing, everything, every scene is tense, taut, sharp as a razor blade. Yes, it is disturbing, not recommended, if you are depressed, and if you have suicidal tendencies. You can't miss this rare gem, diamond, chiseled diamond gem from Hollywood vaults. Nasty at the most, it could be considered as a guilty pleasure for masochistic reasons.

Lady caged;animals roam free.

[brefane · 7/10 · 10 April 2008]

This unpleasant exploitation film with allegorical overtones was released by Paramount in 1964, and is something of a landmark. A major studio release that spares no one. It contains nary a single redeeming character, and views people and society as indifferent, greedy, and animalistic. Even the lady of the title is seen as selfish and the cause of her son's unhappiness. Directed by television veteran Walter Grauman, the film pulls few punches, makes effective use of the set and exteriors, and beginning with the title sequence, it's grim, and compelling. Olvia deHaviland who appeared in Hush,Hush Sweet Charlotte the same year is well-cast. In support, Ann Southern and Wedell Corey are good while James Caan, Jennifer Billingsly and Raphael Campos are effective, if overly mannered, as the trio who invade the house.

Too camp to be considered shocking.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 3 September 2014]

The Saul Bass-inspired credits for 1964 psychological thriller Lady in a Cage immediately bring to mind the work of Alfred Hitchcock, as does the film's single location and its high-concept: a rich woman trapped in her lift is tormented by opportunist thieves who ransack her home.

But director Walter Grauman is no Hitchcock.

Grauman lacks the sheer class and style of Hitch, his film being a lurid, trashy little effort boasting a heavy-handed cynical message about how people in Western society have become indifferent to the suffering of their fellow man (or in this case, woman).

Walt's handling of his material is completely devoid of subtlety, and his cast follow suit by gleefully overacting at every available opportunity, with star Olivia De Havilland's hysterical, melodramatic central performance being particularly comical (her rapid descent into despair, her sudden outburst of 'Alouette' and the faces she pulls while writing terrible poetry in her head are all priceless!).

With a dead dog, a wino stabbing, talk of decapitated women, and assorted sadistic brutality courtesy of young thug Randall Simpson O'Connell (James Caan, channelling Marlon Brando), the intention was clearly to shock the audience, but the final product borders on high camp (something that lends the film a certain cult appeal) and frequently proves tedious, all of which prevents it from being the truly disturbing classic it was clearly intended to be.

A terrific, edge-of-your seat thriller with excellent performances.

[chad478 · 24 February 2001]

Released back in the mid-'60's, this sadly overlooked thriller was way ahead of its time and foreshadows the senseless violence that exists in our society today. Olivia de Havilland gives a stunning performance as a partially crippled woman who becomes trapped in her private elevator during a power failure. Meanwhile, three vicious thugs(led by James Caan in his film debut) ransack her house and contemplate murdering a hustler(Ann Sothern) and a wino(Jeff Corey) who are unwittingly along for the ride. It's a gripping, chillingly realistic tale, with first-rate performances by the superb cast. Not only did James Caan make his debut with this film, but LADY IN A CAGE also marked the return of the great Ann Sothern who had been absent from the big screen for ten years to star in the popular TV shows "Private Secretary" and "The Ann Sothern Show".

A Surprisingly Graphic Film for 1964.

[ThreeGuysOneMovie · 7/10 · 29 June 2013]

Lady in Cage! This is James Caan's first starring role (although not his first picture) and he plays a brutal character that he modeled after Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire.

Olivia de Havilland (yes that Olivia de Havilland) is Cornelia Hilyard, a wealthy widow who is recovering from hip surgery. In order to get to the second floor of her house she has an elevator installed. On this particular day Cornelia is taking the lift upstairs when the power goes out and traps her between floors. Fortunately for her she has an emergency button that rings a bell outside the house. Instead of someone coming to rescue her however, the bell lures a bum (Jeff Corey) into the house. He steals some bottles of wine and then walks off with Cornelia's toaster which he takes to a local pawn shop. Randall (James Caan) and his two lackeys Elaine and Essie (Jennifer Billingsley and Rafael Campos) also happen to be at the pawn shop and they decide to follow the bum and see what he is up to. The bum goes to visit Sade (Ann Sothern) a local hustler who he is enamored with. Together the two of them decide to go back to Cornelia's house and rob the place blind.

Check out the rest of our review at 3guys1movie.com

Lady In A Rage

[BumpyRide · 8/10 · 29 August 2005]

This is quite a quirky and disturbing movie. Olivia must be given credit for even accepting such a role, it seems quite a departure for her even coming off of "Sweet Charlotte." James Caan (who was never a favorite of mine) delivers a creepy performance as do the rest of the thugs. Ann Southern adds a touch of class in this otherwise dark, foreboding film. You may not want to watch this movie over and over again but it does deliver some nail biting suspense, especially when Olivia tries to escape only to be drug back into the house. There were quite a few continuity flaws especially when Ann Southern's character gets locked into a closet, never to be see again or the introduction of the living room wall safe, when no one bothered to look for it. You know you're in for a disturbing movie just by the opening credits where you see a dead dog laying in the street and a little girl running her roller skates over a bums leg causing it to bleed.

You can only watch it Once!

[dougandwin · 6/10 · 27 May 2007]

"Lady in a Cage" was banned in Australia for a long time, and has only just been released on DVD. I had read much about it, and now having seen it, have to say a lot of the criticism was justified mainly because of the terrible script writing - some of the things Olivia de Havilland had to say were so juvenile and out of context that I felt they destroyed one's interest. It is a film for viewing only once as the violence was so strong for the 60's, but way below what we are being served up today. If you could eliminate some of the script, and certainly fix the continuity as well as repair the poor ending, there is the basis of a good story. de Havillands acting was excellent, while James Caan made a very frightening villain, but for me, the performance of Ann Sothern as Sade, the Hustler, was the highlight. At the conclusion of seeing this Film, I felt dissatisfied in the fact that with some proper scripting and direction, it could have been very good.

A sleazy sixties classic!

[The_Void · 8/10 · 23 May 2006]

Isn't it great when you see a film that you've only just heard of and it turns out to great! Lady in a Cage is something of a bizarre film in that it looks and feels like an art house movie, but it's actually a really sleazy little film that takes in all the worst aspects of society. Lady in a Cage is really well put together, as there's only one idea in the film and most of it takes place in a single location. This idea is made to work by way of the characters and the way in which the situation is set up. The story follows an older woman who has had a private lift installed after breaking her hip. When her son goes away, there is a power cut and she ends up trapped in the lift. After using the alarm bell to call for help, her call is answered; but this becomes the start of her problems when the people that heed the call turn out to be a troupe of looters! The thing that makes this film so frightening is that all the violence and intimidation takes place in the central character's home; and it all happens in front of her, as she can see and hear from her prison - but can't do anything about it!

Lady in a Cage benefits from a plethora of great performances. Olivia de Havilland look a little too young to have a thirty year old son, but she is excellent at portraying the anxiety of the title character. Havilland's lead role garners a lot of sympathy and really makes the film work. The lead villain sees James Caan in an early role, and he delivers the sort of powerhouse portrayal that would lead to great acclaim in The Godfather. The rest of the support cast is good, with Ann Sothern and Jeff Corey standing out the most for me, as the slightly nicer pair of villains. Walter Grauman's direction is superb, as he allows the audience to take in the scene at all times and small, but vigilant uses of the camera ensure that the central situation comes across in a way that ensures it is as frightening as possible. The central situation is one of those that really allow the audience to think, as it's easy to put yourself in the situation of any one of the leads, and the intelligent script gives this film a believable and interesting way of playing out. For some reason, Lady in a Cage isn't one of the better known thrillers of its type, but if you're a fan of films such as Suddenly Last Summer, Wait Until Dark or Whatever Happened to Baby Jane - this film is highly recommended!

A view from the gutter ....

[Greensleeves · 7/10 · 26 October 2005]

From the opening credits we are in the gutter and that is where we stay until the end when Olivia De Havilland finally crawls out of her house after being terrorised by a gang of hoodlums when she becomes stuck in her home elevator. This is a cruel and nasty film and many will take offence at it, but it is not without merit. The opening credits are excellent, setting the scene well for the brutality which is to follow. All the characters we meet in the film are without morals and have no respect or compassion for anyone else. Stealing, terrorising, beating, murder and abuse is part of everyday life for these people. The performances throughout are excellent and thoroughly convincing although the characters portrayed are repellent. Jennifer Billingsley and Rafael Campos are frighteningly realistic as drugged up and dysfunctional teens with James Cann excelling as their psycho leader. He exudes a bold and magnetic but threatening sexuality and is only half dressed for most of the film. His eventual fate and his compatriots reaction to it are truly shocking. Jeff Corey and Ann Sothern are also outstanding in their roles as older, but just as irresponsible, members of the same breed. One major problem with the narrative is the unexplained fate of the Ann Sothern character, apparently the scene of her eventual murder was filmed but not used. This is probably a blessing as it would have increased the intensity of the film to an unbearable level and would have been very hard to take. As it is, it takes some will power to sit through the abuse and murder of Jeff Corey's drunk. This is a difficult and challenging film to watch but it is powerful and suspenseful and deserves to be seen.

Despite a highly sympathetic turn, it's no "Snake Pit" for Olivia

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 27 January 2002]

I always remembered this as a disturbing shocker, but having rewatched the film on AMC the other day, I was disappointed by the lame supporting performances and a frustrating lack of logic. The contrivances that occur to get Olivia de Havilland stuck in that elevator are unbelievable. And, although she is graceful and sympathetic, her actions after her house is broken into are full of ninnyisms (why not make a rope out of that long house-frock and slip down to the floor?). The punks (led by James Caan!) are menacing enough, but the actor playing the drunken bum is given way too much screen-time (and his overacting is positively painful--you sigh with relief when he is gone). The film has some thoughtful things to say about apathy in our society, and it has bits and pieces which come through with a terrific charge; but, for the sake of cheap thrills, the movie casts its harsh reality to the winds. ** from ****

A brilliantly made film about the paranoid relationship between generations.

[chaaa · 9/10 · 12 July 2010]

This is a one of those films where the set-up says it all. It caught my eye on Amazon and I thought it sounded like the greatest film ever. I have never heard anything about it but I figure if it attracted Ms. De Havilland, it have some merit, right? I was so titallated by the set-up that I had no doubt in my mind that this was going to be the best film ever. I was right! The film begins with a darling little setup of a 30 year old man, Malcolm, living with his kind but overbearing mother. He is going away for the 4th of July weekend, leaving behind a suicide note for her to find when he is already gone. It is clear that they have a strange relationship as he jarringly refers to her as "darling" (shudder!!). Soon after he leaves, due to a power cut, Mrs. Hillyard find herself trapped in an elevator they had installed since she broke her hip the year before. Hot and panicked, Mrs. Hillyard tries to free herself but soon finds she may be safer where she is when a string of nogoodniks break into her house with trouble in mind.

I don't want to give away too much about the plot but the reason I found this film to be so charming is the role of the villain. It starts out as a harmless, crazy homeless man accompanied by a down-on-her-luck ageing prostitute stealing silver to pawn but they soon become victims themselves when they are joined but three dangerous teenage delinquents. Later in the film, Mrs. Hillyard's own conscience places her as the villain, at least in her own mind. She sees herself as a monster, which in some ways she is, bringing the circle of villainry to almost a perfect circle.

The people around her are so busy getting away for 4th of July weekend that they fail to notice her strife despite her use of a fairly effective alarm a number of times. A shot, during the opening credits of a dead dog lying by the road, ignored by passers-by is gory and distressing and foreshadows a later scene in which Mrs. Hillyard tries to get help out on the busy road outside her house.

The relationship that is built between Mrs. Hillyard and the ringleader of the delinquents (a very young, very intense James Caan) is interesting, particularly an exchange between the two in which she begs him to show mercy on her as she is a living breathing human being, to which he replies that he is an animal. This is how the film ensues. He is an animal. He is a frightening, menacing character and the moral and physical content is quite shocking for a film from the 1960s.

Now, it should be noted that this is exploitation cinema. It is not your typical Olivia De Havilland affair. It is low-brow, it is visceral and it is full of (effective) shock tactics. Admirably gory for such an early film, Lady in a Cage delivers a string of unexpected twists and turns and never fails to deliver horror and melodrama in equal measure. Olivia De Havilland is a class act as usual, and the chemistry between her and James Caan illustrates the enormous generation gap that existed in the early sixties and highlights the running theme throughout the film which was integral in most of these fear-mongering, moral high ground films about juvenile delinquents; fear of the future.

This is a film that (at least for me) has everything. It has a classy leading lady, a truly frightening villain, a high-concept setup and a charmingly exploitative accusatory tone, rampant on the early sixties, regarding young juvenile deinquency. Highly recommended and you can pick it up here for the stupidly cheap price of £1.50. Enjoy!

What a spot for a legendary leading lady to be in!

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 27 August 2015]

If Katharine Hepburn can have a gay son Sebastian, why not Olivia de Havilland? This mother of all mothers, grasping and clinging in spite of her genuine love for her son Malcolm, has driven him out of her house with her determination to hang onto him. She has been in an accident which created the necessity for an elevator to be put into their upper middle class neighborhood home. Malcolm has left her a letter asking for his share of the estate and pretty much releasing him from her life. She is to give him her answer at a certain time when he calls, but unfortunately, fate is against her, with a power outage leaving her trapped in her elevator as a group of juvenile delinquents invade her home and terrorizing her.

An old hooker named Sadie (played by veteran Ann Sothern in one of her great performances) also invades with a pawn broker, and the terrified de Havilland is not only forced to watch her valuables be stolen one by one but be psychologically tortured when one of the thugs (a young James Caan) reads the letter to her, making her sound just as monstrous as the thugs invading her privacy. This horror drama is a metaphor for the way society turned after World War II with neighbors basically beginning to not be so neighborly and an antipathy towards humanity taking over the world where nobody seemed to care anymore about anybody but their own. With chilling music, eerie photography and a modern sensibility that still resonates today, "Lady in a Cage" is unforgettable.

Even if several moments become truly camp in the way in which they are presented, the fact is still there that in recent history, humanity has become very inhuman, that we pass each other by without a thought outside our own existences, and that we've left the basic rules of "Love thy neighbor" behind in church, even if we still go. De Havilland is at times totally over the top as when she talks to the buttons in her precious elevator, asking them "Now what the hell's a matter with you?" That's Rafael Campos, a veteran Latino actor from "The Blackboard Jungle" and "Trial", as Caan's violent side-kick, and he's unapologetic of making his thug character a total animal without any human feelings. Young Caan briefly does show a more human side as he looks on at De Havilland in horror as to realizing what kind of person she is and perhaps recalling his relationship with his own mother that made him head down wrong paths. So while this film at times can make you laugh at it, there's also a bit of guilt in doing so because such horrors still exist today and show no signs of disappearing.

an unintentional comedy

[rupie · 2/10 · 4 January 2000]

Maltin must have been on drugs when he gave this juvenile attempt at psychological drama three stars. "Bone-chilling?" Much of this terrible script elicits laughter (my favorite was de Haviland's "Stone Age, here I come!". She must have been cursing her agent as she delivered that one.) "Allegorical tale?" Yes; it's a good approximation of a junior high attempt at allegory, complete with forced Oedipal references. As subtle as the crash of the Hindenburg. "Truthful and prophetic?" Yeah; it foretells how bad movies were going to become. "Starkly directed?" The movie spares no pains to throw in as much cheaply sensational sex and violence as it can on its obviously limited budget, and within the standards of taste and decency that were beginning at that time to unravel. "Well acted?" Puh-leez!! Olivia deHaviland (cursing her agent) does as well as she can with this lousy material, and James Caan ditto (especially for his first leading role). But Jennifer Billingsley's idea of what drugged-out looks like is laughable, and Rafael Campos' level of wiredness is ridiculous. Ann Sothern's efforts here belong in the Acting Hall of Shame. The movie ends with no attempt to resolve or make sense of the portentous "allegorical" issues it tries to raise. This dog looks like something made for tv (badly), which figures from a look at the director's record. A worthy companion to "Plan 9 from Outer Space".