Lady in a Cage
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Movie Reviews of Lady in a Cage
Movie Review: Great psychological dark comedy!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this movie back in the early 90s on AMC one evening while I was flipping channels, and came across it. I instantly loved it and it became an instant favorite, even though I had only seen the last half of it. The opening theme has a haunting sound to it, because it indicates that there will be some scary moments to see. I had taped it when it came on again, and now I have this timeless classic on DVD. I had tried to get it on DVD for a while, but found out that it had been discontinued, and had to buy it on ebay. A great movie with excellent acting, and a wonderful script. Olivia de Havilland plays a handicapped woman who broke her hip recently and has to resort to going up and downstairs in her small private elevator. Her grown son (who lives with her) goes away for a holiday weekend, but shortly after he leaves, there is a mysterious power outage and she is trapped in her elevator. She then sounds her emergency alarm bell, but only to attract a group of thugs who break into her house and vandalize her stuff. This was one of James Caan's first movies (here he plays the nasty guy named Randall). Jeff Corey is brilliant as George L. Brady, Jr., who is the "old wino" or also known as "Repent, Repent, Repent", because he has the word stamped on his hands several times. Ann Sothern's performance is brilliant, as well. It saddens me that this movie is no longer on DVD, but if you want a copy, just get a used one. No special features to be found; just a main menu, chapter selection, subtitles, and an audio selection (doesn't matter to me). Two thumbs up...WAY UP to this movie, the cast, and the brilliant sound.Movie Review: LADY IN A CAGE - One of the great camp shockers of the 60's
Summary: 5 Stars
At least four films deserve to be enshrined in the "camp shocker" hall of fame: "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" (Davis and Crawford), "Die! Die! My Darling" (Tallulah Bankhead), "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (Davis and De Havilland), and the just-released-on-DVD, "Lady in a Cage," with Olivia de Havilland. The cage is a private, in-home elevator. De Havilland is trapped between floors during a power outage, and a number of low-life characters enter her home to steal, terrorize and make our caged lady's life a living hell. The young James Caan is one of the really bad guys, and the wonderful Ann Southern is one of the exploiters who ends up being terrorized by Caan and company. The titles are 60's brilliant and the film score does the suspense proud. De Havilland is over-the-top hammy in many scenes and quite good in others; that's the beauty of these shockers when they have serious performers of a certain age and era doing a little Grand Guignol number. This one runs a tight 94 minutes and the time really flies, which is a tribute to the skill of director Walter Grauman. Here's a wonderful black and white camp shocker that is quite creepy in retrospect. De Havilland, who is around 88 today, is the only surviving female lead of the four films I mentioned above. I would have loved to see Davis, Crawford, Bankhead and De Havilland on Inside the Actor's Studio discussing these masterpieces of the macabre, because they truly don't make actresses or films like these any longer. Give "Lady in a Cage" a try. You'll be glad you did.Movie Review: HOLIDAY OF TERROR.....
Summary: 5 Stars
On a sweltering July 4th, a careless power failure traps a wealthy woman recovering from a broken hip in her home elevator. Her son has just left for the holiday and when she sounds the alarm, she unwittingly summons the scum of the earth as the town celebrates outside. First a wino gets in eager to rob her house and sell the goods to a fence, then he brings his hooker friend in to help him stay sober long enough to pull off the job. But three psycho hoods crash the party and terrorize everyone while the trapped woman is forced to watch helplessly. Olivia de Havilland plays the woman at the mercy of mindless thugs James Caan, Rafael Campos and a spaced out Jennifer Billingsly. Jeff Corey is the wino and Ann Sothern is the hooker. All are excellent in this truly gripping suspense thriller. As if watching the mayhem weren't enough, a letter from her son is found by the thugs and read aloud---revealing the true nature of their relationship as Caan mercilessly taunts her with it. Strong stuff from 1964 and surprisingly rough. Filmed in b&w, this just adds to the starkness of the story which takes place in bright daylight. As much a commentary on the dehumanization of society as a thriller, one watches as the animals run amok and the human is caged. The ending is pretty graphic for the time as well. Worth watching and very recommended.Movie Review: Unsung masterpiece of the 60's.
Summary: 5 Stars
In the early 60's hollywood churned out films that would fall under the title of "hag-horror" or older women-in-peril films. The genre's explosion began with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and most of those films starred the aged and heavy handed Joan Crawford. Lady in a Cage was the lesser known of the genre but the social commentary that it held then, still holds an impact now. The violence in Lady in a Cage is exaggerated for the time period but is commonly read about in today's newspapers. The old woman in peril (DeHavilland) viciously battles mental and physical attacks from a preaching wino, a aged prostitute and three grimy hoodlums all while trapped in her own house, in an elevator (the cage) on a hot summer afternoon. Films like these spawned into a more bizarre type of films in the late 60's called "roughies" in which the damsel in distress became a young beauty instead of easy targeted elderly. I highly recommend this movie for the fans of the above mentioned genre's or even for fan's of Lynch and Cronenberg.
Movie Review: A Very Bad Day...
Summary: 5 Stars
Olivia De Havilland stars as Ms. Hilliard, the title character in this 1964 grabber. Stuck in her private elevator due to a power outage, she can only watch as increasingly repugnant criminals enter and ransack her home. First, a homeless wino breaks in, scopes the place out, and steals a toaster and some wine. He returns w/ a hooker friend (Ann Sothern from The Killing Kind) and the two start gathering up the silver. Uh-Oh! It seems they weren't very careful, and a trio of young, psychotic crazies has followed them! Now the real fun begins. Led by the downright evil Randall (James Caan from Misery), these punks take over the operation, and they've got more than robbery on their deranged minds! Meanwhile, Ms. Hilliard goes through mental anguish while trying to find some way of escape. LADY IN A CAGE is a blunt, fairly graphic little movie w/ plenty of surprises for everyone involved. Highly recommended... P.S.- Watch for a young Scatman Cruthers (The Shining) as a thug...