Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Charlene Lydon 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!

writers_reign One of the hallmarks of a superior screenplay is the way it deals with 'awkward' questions whilst one of the hallmarks of a good movie is that 'awkward' questions don't begin to raise their quizzical heads until long after you reach home. So: Having established in the first minute of screen time that Olivia de Havilland is perfectly able to walk, albeit slowly, with the aid of a walking stick and further established inside another minute - via an exchange of dialogue with her son, about to leave her alone in the house for several days - that she will be able to dispense with the walking stick in just a few weeks, why, we wonder, has she seen fit to install an elevator that would not be out of place in a four-star hotel, in a modest-sized house in which the only stairs on view are straight and number no more than twenty treads at the outside. Why not install a stairlift? Okay, let that one go for a moment; after eleven minutes screen time the power fails leaving her suspended some six or seven feet above the ground. Eventually she presses the alarm button which rings, not, as we might suppose, in the local police station/doctor's surgery etc but in an alley at the side of the house which depends on 1) someone passing by at the exact time the alarm sounds and 2) no noise from traffic on the large highway that runs in front of the house. Okay, let THAT one go, too. When a passing wino (Jeff Corey) stumbles into the kitchen deHavilland, who can't see who it is, launches into what SHE thinks is logical exposition: A few months ago she broke her hip and had the elevator installed until it mended. This is where it falls down. To design, build and install such an elevator would take about three times as long as it would for the hip to heal so immediately the whole premise is out the window. When you're thinking this whilst WATCHING the film you know they're in trouble. Having said that it's certainly watchable; deHavilland, clearly anxious to put Melanie Wilks behind her, reveals a backbone (if not a hipbone) and Corey and Ann Sothern turn in fine support. Worth a look.

dbdumonteil 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!

dougandwin "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.