Jeff M
Obviously made in light of earlier successes like PSYCHO and especially WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, this film feels like it was tailor made to become a CAROL BURNETT SHOW spoof. It's not a good movie - occasionally laughably bad - but I would watch it again and would even recommend it to old movie buffs, if nothing else as a time capsule of what was considered "terrifying" 56 years ago. In fact, at the end of the trailer for the film, a crawl comes across the screen stating that theater management recommends no one see this alone. Obviously hyperbole was alive and well in 1964. Double Oscar winner de Havilland milks it for all it's worth, and It's fun to see a VERY young Caan in maybe the most despicable role of his career. Actually, with a lot of tweaking and updating, I could see this being remade rather successfully - the central concept I think has potential. But the sight of seeing a group of hooligans ravaging a house while its owner is stuck in an elevator that looks like it came from a Tweety bird cartoon - well, this probably deserved to be lampooned and satirized even before it was released. Whether you love it or hate it, you won't be bored.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/11/24
Full Review
ronald h
There's something about bad movies from the 1950's and 60's. They're somehow better than bad movies today. Perhaps it's because they were less pretentious. They knew they were trash, whereas there are scores of bad movies today that actually think they're works of art.
Clearly influenced by such creepy flicks as "Psycho" and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," this one is a real stinker, but it's definitely worth a watch for kitsch lovers.
It stars a fading Olivia de Havilland, a Hollywood goddess in the 1930's and 40's, reduced by the early 60's to appearing in sleazy B films. James Caan and Scatman Crothers, so young that they're practically unrecognizable, are featured, too.
De Havilland plays Mrs. Hilliard, an aging rich widow who lives in an opulent three-story house. Having broken her hip, she has an elevator to take her up and down. Her weird son (William Swan) has apparently written a suicide note and tells her that he's going away for three days with friends. After he leaves, Mrs. Hilliard gets into her elevator and becomes trapped when the power goes out. She has an alarm bell, operated by batteries, but all it does is attract George Brady, a slovenly wino (Jeff Cory, unbelievably hammy in this part) who breaks into the house, sees all the expensive antiques and rack of wine, runs to find his partner in crime Sade (a tawdry Ann Sothern), and enlists her to come back and help him ransack the place.
Meanwhile, three young hoodlums (Caan, Jennifer Billingsley, and Rahael Campos) have seen the wino hocking an expensive toaster, and they decide to follow him to see where he got the loot. Once they're inside the house, sex, murder and torture ensue. Caan is especially despicable.
This is pure exploitative garbage, loaded with unintentional (and some intentional) laughs. It has not one shred of "redeeming social value," to quote the censors of the era. There is a bit of commentary regarding incorrigibles and the tax dollars spent to pay for their incarceration, but don't worry; it only lasts for a couple of minutes.
The suicide note pops up in the final act. You'll be amused.
Even the theater poster is hilarious, proclaiming the movie "not for the weak, perhaps not even the strong" and warning people not to see it alone. What a hoot!
It sounds like I'm defending this film. I'm not. It's reprehensible. But it's just so campy, so utterly bad, so politically incorrect decades before that term even existed, it's hard to resist.
If you're in the mood for cinematic slumming, here you go.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This long drawn out film is weighed down by silly dialogue, unrealistic scenarios, and over the top music score. The protagonist is the typical helpless female of the 1960's. The antagonist is portrayed by James Caan, the only good acting in the film up until his final scene (which was so phony, it was laugh out loud), but is held back by a weak script and even weaker set. The storyline hints at an inappropriate relationship between the protagonist and her son. The ending makes no sense at all; the blood on the antagonist's eyes looks like he smeared chocolate on his face. This ain't no Hitchcock... Overall, it stunk.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Good and bad at same time. Idea good, movie bad. (Want make Blobbo lose faith in human nature.)
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Director: Walter Grauman Writer: Luther Davis Stars: Olivia de Havilland, James Caan, Jennifer Billingsley---------
Released during the period when aging actresses were being recruited for pulpy thrillers, this movie is probably the least horrific of the bunch, but it's pulpy AF. It features Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sothern, Scatman Crothers, and a very young James Caan doing his best Brando impression. The opening credits themselves are a paradigm of insane imagery and sounds of rotten America: a young African-American girl running her roller skates on a sleeping bum's legs; a radio announcer laments "Is there an anti-Satan missile?"; and a dead dog rots in the middle of a busy suburban street. The movie is a mess. Massive plot points are left unresolved. The acting is ludicrously broad. And the characterizations are wildly over-the-top.
And yet, I love it. It's pulpy lunacy that descends into batshit crazy chaos. From the credits ripped off from Saul Bass to the score ripped off from the Twilight Zone. This film, along with "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" transcended the genre. Olivia de Havilland plays a inappropriately doting mother of a grown man, and she becomes trapped in her private elevator when the power goes out on the holiday weekend. Her house is then invaded by a crazy wino with "repent" tattooed on his hands, a "plump" prostitute played by Ann Sothern, a one-eyed pawnbroker, and a trio of teenage junkies led by James Caan sporting pantyhose on his head. They bathe, fight and kill each other while de Havilland quotes her own overwrought and melodramatic poetry to herself ("He who unleashes the terror, reaps the terror!"). Occasionally she pleads with them, "I'll pay you to stop this animal orgy!". And she even pities them, "You're one of the bits of awful produced by the welfare state. You're what so much of my tax money goes to feed and care for." Olivia de Havilland is still stunning beautiful ; she was 47 during filming.
Lady in a Cage holds up as an entertaining, overwrought piece of shlock cinema. Little is known about its origins or production. Here's hoping a bluray release soon emerges with an updated transfer and some bonus content.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I'm of two minds about this movie. Taken at face-value, it's just conservative fear-stoking. As camp, it's hilarious. The production values are high and it's handsomely made. It's well acted and the cast gives it their all. The credit sequence is itself propaganda, albeit artfully made. It depicts the neighborhood as being a powder keg of drunks, drug addicts and minorities. There's footage of a young black girl prodding an unresponsive body with her roller skates that's particularly incendiary and unnecessary. By turns despicable and fascinating. The welfare state the script bemoans, threatens to ruin everything before the movie even properly begins.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
Full Review
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