Post by StevePulaski on Feb 28, 2017 20:28:17 GMT -5
Lady in a Cage (1964)
Directed by: Walter Grauman
Directed by: Walter Grauman
Olivia de Havilland desperately tries to escape her in-home elevator in Lady in a Cage.
Rating: ★★★½
Lady in a Cage shows what happens when eyes purposefully avoid looking at a troubling or dangerous situation and the people that are effected as a result. In the film, the wealthy widow Cornelia Hilyard (Olivia de Havilland well past the prime of her career) is recovering from a broken hip and uses a tall elevator, constructed like a cage, to get from one floor of her mansion to another. Soon after her son Malcolm (William Swan) leaves, a power failure occurs while Mrs. Hilyard is riding the elevator, leaving her trapped and suspended about nine-feet above ground.
She does all she can to scream for help as well as constantly pushing an emergency button, which sounds a loud bell on the bustling city streets outside of her home, but everyone, whether they're on foot or riding in a car, passes the bell without concern. Despite the bell reading to phone the police if it's rung, nobody stops to pay any mind, at least, until it inconveniences or effects their daily commute, as we see later on.
The only one who stumbles his way in after Mrs. Hilyard is stuck for a couple hours is an alcoholic derelict named George (Jeff Corey), who rustles through her belongings and accidentally breaks a bottle of wine while trying to get his fix. He lumbers back to Sade (Ann Sothern), a prostitute who serves as his confidant, and informs her that not only is this local mansion filled with sterling silver and invaluable treasures, but the homeowner is trapped in her elevator. The two arrive back to Mrs. Hilyard's home only to be followed by a trio of thugs - Randall (James Caan), Elaine (Jennifer Billingsley), and Essie (Rafael Campos) - who also intend to rob the home.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Hilyard remains helpless and frightened with nothing to do besides passively watch her house destroyed, her belongings confiscated for petty cash, and a gang of thugs conduct an orgy of violence through her home with total disregard for her situation.
Lady in a Cage traps us, the viewer, as well, making us feel like those driving or walking by the bell outside of the complex that Mrs. Hilyard keeps ringing. The only difference is, unlike those passersby, we are seeing what we are not helping and what countless people have so carelessly passed. Mrs. Hilyard, in the meantime, at least before the wire for her bell is cut by George, tries to construct a lengthy pole with a stray piece of plywood in the elevator in addition to her walking-cane in order to be prepared to knock the phone off of the hook in case her son rings. That's really her own method of defense as she comes to be taunted by the thugs, particularly Randall, the leader of his own pack.
Mrs. Hilyard is played by Olivia de Havilland, a real talent given how thankless of a character she plays, victim to poor circumstance and the violent torment of others. Her convictions as well as director Walter Grauman's new wave suspense aesthetic allow her to be a bit more of a transformative character than a basic damsel in distress. Damsels aren't supposed to be this convincing nor this enticing to watch, and as we witness the prolonged exhaustion and fatigue of Havilland's Mrs. Hilyard, right down to the point where she's made uncomfortable by disrobing just so she doesn't pass out from heatstroke, is a simultaneously quaint observation on the conservative female and a low-key subversion of the archetype too.
James Caan does some fine work here in a very early role, owning his menacing character especially in the final act when pervasive, contentious interactions between him and Mrs. Hilyard eventual begin to prompt physical violence. Caan often works in conjunction to his character's sidekick, played by Rafael Campos, in a role that prompts some darkly comic absurdity late in the film as Caan begins to hit his stride.
There's a recurring idea of people "turning a blind eye" that's as present in Lady in a Cage as its early use of Hitchcockian devices of suspense in an early, though admittedly less refined sense. Pedestrians and drivers who hear Mrs. Hilyard's bell ringing turn a blind eye, George initially turns the other cheek as he collects the belongings in her house while ignoring her cries for help, the criminals turn a blind eye to morality in a world where it pays in the momentary to be violent and barbaric, and even Randall winds up blind in a climactic moment. These thematic consistencies on top of some deeply suspenseful moments that often don't need to be bothered or trivialized by the use of excess blood and gore make Lady in a Cage a deeply entertaining and wickedly sinister gem, debatably as effective now as it was then.
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, James Caan, Jeff Corey, Jennifer Billingsley, Rafael Campos, and William Swan. Directed by: Walter Grauman.