Lady in a cage – 1964 (Currently on Netflix UK)
This film is a diamond in the rough, the main character Mrs Hilyard (played by Actress Olivia de Havilland, Who is 98 years old and still going strong!) is trapped in a safety elevator in her home, after a power cut shuts down the motor. She knows someone will be at the house shortly so she calms herself and plans to wait for help to arrive. That’s when she realises that in fact it’s the start of the Independence Day weekend and she may not be found at all…
On the elevator is a call button connected to one of those big bells that they have in army barracks or schools, as it rings in the street she has no idea that good or bad people can answer a distress call. In this case just bad people come!
So the film then begins to take a strange form, it goes from a formulaic classic movie with ordinary shots and well rehearsed dialogue and begins to seem scattered and untidy, if you can imagine watching say the first half hour of ‘The lost weekend’ and then imagine somehow, that the movie was given to a young Tobe Hooper or even rob Zombie to finish.
The first man and woman who enter the house to rob the lady and not help her are then hustled by a gang of teenagers – the teenagers plan to kill the other robbers who begin to beg for their life like the home owner begged them for her own life… the lead of the gang is sexually perverted and has plans for the homeowner but not before killing the other robbers...
Then out of nowhere the tables are drastically turned to leave the ending of the film a complete shock and surprise! If you haven’t seen the film I recommend it, it really isn’t what you might expect for a film made half way into the 60’s. If you have seen the film and I am remembering it wrong I apologise. But this is a keeper.
This is also actor James Caan's first credited film apperance! and his roleas the lead (sexual deviant)thug is unforgettabe!
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