Review: Lady in a Cage

Olivia De Havilland is a wealthy middle-aged woman with a broken hip, who travels up and down stairs in her house via a special lift, hence the film’s title. Her son (William Swan) has left for a weekend away with friends, having left behind a letter that seems to suggest her dependency on him has taken its toll on him severely. When the power lines outside accidentally get knocked out, De Havilland finds herself stuck in her lift between floors, with Swan not due back for days (if he comes back at all). A filthy wino (Jeff Corey) breaks in, takes possession of a few items and pawns them off, hoping to go back for more. Unbeknownst to him or De Havilland, Corey has attracted the attention of some young hoodlums (James Caan, Rafael Campos, and Jennifer Billingsley) who follow him to the house and set about running riot, frightening the bejesus out of a helpless and vulnerable De Havilland. Ann Sothern plays a plump hooker whose help Corey enlists to reappropriate De Havilland’s belongings.

 

Although it has dated in some areas, this 1964 terror flick from director Walter Grauman (“633 Squadron”, and many TV shows like “Murder, She Wrote” and “The Streets of San Francisco”) and writer Luther Davis (“The Hucksters”, “Across 110^th Street”) has some really effective moments. Particularly in the first half, Grauman manages to ratchet up the tension to a bone-chilling, almost unbearable degree. The Herrmann-esque music score by Paul Glass (“To the Devil- A Daughter”) playing over the titles (very Saul Bass-esque) immediately made me feel uncomfortable. And whilst some of the scenes where De Havilland’s pleas for help are drowned out by other sounds are a little implausible (one of the dated elements I was referring to), some of the time, the sound design is pretty damn effective. The idea of De Havilland’s predicament falling on the deaf ears of a seemingly uncaring society is a valid point to make, but it is done so with mixed results, because some of the sounds used to drown out De Havilland’s screams or alarm bell simply wouldn’t be loud enough in the real world. Good idea, doesn’t quite convince.

 

I also found some of De Havilland’s inner monologues a little corny and dated (especially when she starts getting poetic), but they’re probably necessary, and overall, she gives a typically excellent performance. What I liked most was that in her performance are hints that she is a rather overbearing and smothering person and one can see the problems between her and her son. Hell, it borders on incestual, or at least Oedipal. A protagonist with flaws isn’t necessarily an unsympathetic protagonist, and this is a real tour-de-force for the fine actress. I also loved the hammy, frankly revolting work by veteran character actor (and acting teacher) Jeff Corey as a filthy, rotten drunk thief. It’s a bit of a silly performance, but he’s not the chief menace in the film, so that’s fine.

 

Less effective indeed are the chief villains played by a young James Caan, Rafael Campos, and Jennifer Billingsley. All three have their moments, but between Caan’s obvious Brando-isms (According to IMDb, he apparently based his performance on Brando in “A Streetcar Named Desire”- why?), and the fact that they behave more like typical wise-acre 50s hipster youth hoodlums (ala Brando’s motorcycle gang in “The Wild One”), they simply lack menace for the most part. I thought they were going to start calling everyone ‘Daddy-O’ at some point, and it renders them almost as ineffectual as the campy killers in “Last House on the Left”. It hampers what is an otherwise pretty stark, unrelentingly ugly film, albeit not to a degree that the film is poor. Caan (in his first major film role) is brooding and unpleasant, but it seems like his idea of being menacing is burping. Really? Burping? I must be a serial killer, then. I know this is a film from the 60s, but it really felt more indicative of the 50s to me, especially in the method stylings of Caan and co. who seem to think they’re in an AIP juvenile delinquent flick. Campos in particular seems to have taken acting tips from Timothy Carey, and even then, only half paid attention to his advice. And yet, the home invasion plot is more indicative of the 70s, films like “Last House on the Left” and “Straw Dogs” (though there are definitely shades of the underrated “Kind Lady” from 1950).

 

I also felt the ending was a bit of a mess, leaving the fate of at least two characters if not unexplained, then certainly not satisfyingly explained. I’ve heard the film was cut of scenes that explain the fate of these characters, and unless it was for censorship reasons, I can’t for the life of me see a reason for them to have been cut. The film ends on a real sore point as a result.

 

It’s still a solid film, just not a great one, and certainly not as good as similar films like “Kind Lady” and “Sorry, Wrong Number”. Nonetheless it’s a B-movie with an irresistible and watchable premise and worth a look. Best thing is the excellent B&W cinematography by Lee Garmes (“Duel in the Sun”, “A Big Hand for the Little Lady”), really giving you a sense of just how helpless De Havilland is stuck up there. Look for a youngish and surprisingly thin Scatman Crothers as a pawn shop employee.

 

Rating: B-