i just received an email from amazon touting something called lady in a cage. has anyone seen it? here’s part of the amazon summary. (the full summary at amazon gives the entire plot away so beware.)
In Lady in a Cage, Olivia de Havilland plays an aging, wealthy widow who is recuperating from a recent hip operation and is forced to use an elevator to get from one story of her home to the other. While she’s headed for the upper story of the house, a power failure occurs that leaves her stranded in the elevator car 12 feet off the ground. The elevator’s alarm bell arouses the curiosity of a passing wino, who comes in and helps himself to the widow’s wine cellar. The transient and a friend begin looting the house until they are one-upped by a trio of feral, neobeatnik thugs (led by a very young James Caan). All the invaders merely ignore the widow’s pleas for help as they toss her house in an orgy of violence.
i don’t know that i’m going to buy it but if netflix gets it i’m definitely renting it.
Yes, I’ve seen it–Caan makes a decent psychopath and deHavilland, one of my least favorite actresses, is suitably hysterical. I believe this film is one of the series that put old/aging actresses in Gothic situations of great distress/emotional extremity: Whatever happened to Baby Jane, Who Slew Auntie Roo, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, What’s the Matter with Helen (with Shelley Winters again!!), etc. the key was an aging “golden age” actress and a title with a question. Geraldine Page and Bette Davis are best at playing these sinister battle-axes.
I think this film also intersected with the handsome-young-man-as-psychopath genre–so between deHavilland’s typical melodramatic simper and Caan’s scenery-chewing, it’s quite an acting-fest. I’d recommend it on a double bill “Who ate Granny’s lunch?” where Doris Day is terrorized by a young Bill Culp. chilling!!
also “wait until dark”?
ah, yes, Audrey Hepburn in jeopardy. let me add two joan crawford movies: Strait-Jacket (1964; william castle) where she’s the psycho, and her segment of the Night Gallery movies where–at least according to my dim memory–she’s a terrorized blind woman (like audrey hepburn in wait until dark). at least barbara stanwyck had Big Valley and got to run a ranch.