Flickering Opinions: Lady in a Cage

Film Details:

Directed by Walter Grauman (the original TV manifestations of "The Untouchables" and "The Fugitive")

Written by Luther Davis (Kismet, The Hucksters)

Starring
Olivia de Havilland (Hush... Hush Sweet Charlotte, Gone With the Wind, The Adventures of Robin Hood)
James Caan (The Godfather, the original Rollerball)
Jennifer Billingsley (The Rookies)
Jeff Corey (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, In Cold Blood, Miracle on 34th Street, The Killers)
Ann Sothern (A Letter to Three Wives, The Whales of August)
Rafael Campos (Blackboard Jungle, "V")

Review: by Melissa (e-mail your faithful reviewer)

Okay, all you fans of 60's B-grade misanthropic thriller dramas! This is the film for you. I had never even heard of this film before I saw it, but I was pleased to find that it was a chewy, trashy treat.

The premise of the film is incredibly intriguing -- it's the sort of character-driven narrative that would look good on The Twilight Zone. Olivia de Havilland, who had been aging gracefully at that point, plays a smothering, partly-invalid mother who can't let go of her possibly gay son. The son leaves for the holiday weekend, leaving mum to get trapped in her home elevator during a power outage. She rings the alarm, only to draw the attention of winos and crooks, who barge into her house, break stuff, threaten her, beat each other up, and generally act like 60's movie thugs. It all leads to an unusually grotesque climax, which is all the more bizarre when you think that this film came out in 1964.

It could have been great in more capable hands. Hell, it could have been fantastic if it had been handed to Hitchcock, who, at that time, had just released The Birds and was getting ready to unleash Marnie. Instead, Lady in a Cage winds up sinking into the quagmire of its own misanthropy. The characters are so uniformly awful as human beings, that we as viewers don't care about any of them. Even though there's something really engaging about a movie that casts an aging, invalid woman in the role of the protagonist (and Olivia de Havilland pulls it off reasonably well), even she is a pretty nasty, cloying person. The film also has dangling plot-strings, some downright laughable dialogue, and really, really bad poetry.

Of course, this means that Lady in a Cage has that sick, train-wreck appeal that makes it really fun to wallow in. There should be a drinking game for this movie.

That aside, the movie is at least fairly capable, even if it is a misfire of sorts. The performances range from good to hammy (15-year-old James Caan is particularly goofy -- how he got into The Godfather, I'll never understand). The directing is actually quite decent, even clever at times, though the pacing tends to drag a little by the end. The writing is at least entertaining, if not hysterically funny in places. The characters are downright bizarre. No matter whether you think it's bad or good, this film won't bore you.

If you're into film history, this film might particularly intrigue you. Not only does it include performances by a young James Caan and a past-prime Ann Sothern, but it also includes some very unusual things for a film of its day. The three female characters are unusually strong and, interestingly enough, just as rotten as their male counterparts. The violence is incredibly graphic for a film of its day. There's a kick-ass title sequence that was obviously inspired by the title sequences of North by Northwest and Psycho.

If you are not into film history, just kick back and get ready to be alternately amused and repulsed. The poetry is bad. Really, really bad. Don't say I didn't warn you.