Lady in a Cage: A Campy Thriller!

Lady in a Cage is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed by Walter Grauman, written and produced by Luther Davis, and released by Paramount Pictures. It stars Olivia de Havilland and features James Caan in his first substantial film role.

Olivia de Havilland stars in this sensationalistic shocker as Mrs. Halyard, a wealthy widow recuperating from a broken hip. Inside her mansion, she becomes trapped between floors in her elevator. She activates an emergency alarm but succeeds only in attracting the attention of the wino (Jeff Corey), who steals goods from her house and sells them to a fence.

The wino visits Sade (Ann Sothern), a prostitute, who spreads the plight of Mrs. Hilyard's dilemma to three young hoods, Randall (James Caan), Elaine (Jennifer Billingsley), and Essie (Rafael Campos).

The trio follows the wino and the hooker back to the mansion, where they have an orgy, kill the wino, and lock Sade in a closet. Randall taunts Mrs. Hilyard and confronts her with a nasty suicide note from her son, Malcolm (William Swan). Mrs. Hilyard, mustering up her strength, attempts to fight back against Randall and the two other goons.
A Lady (Olivia De Havilland) gets trapped inside a home elevator after the electricity goes out.

 During a hot summer day, while she presses a button inside the elevator to summon help from the alley, she unknowingly attracts looters who in turn try hurting her and steal all her personal belongings.

When an electrical power failure occurs, Mrs. Hilyard, a wealthy widow recuperating from a broken hip, becomes trapped between floors in the cage-like elevator she has installed in her mansion.





With her son Malcolm away for a summer weekend, she relies on the elevator's emergency alarm to attract attention, but the only response comes from an alcoholic derelict, George, who enters the home, ignores her pleas and steals some small items. The wino sells them to a fence, then visits his prostitute friend, Sade, and tells her of the treasure trove he has stumbled upon. The expensive goods George fenced attracts the attention of three young hoodlums, Randall, Elaine, and Essie.

The trio follows George and Sade back to the Hilyard home, where they conduct an orgy of violence, killing George the wino and locking Sade in a closet. Randall then pulls himself up to the elevator and taunts Mrs. Hilyard with a note left behind by her son Malcolm, in which he threatens suicide because of her domineering manner.

 Shocked by the revelation, Mrs. Hilyard struggles with Randall, escapes the elevator, and crawls out of the house. Randall follows and, as he is attempting to drag her back inside, Mrs. Hilyard gouges his eyes and escapes his clutches.

 The blinded assailant stumbles into the street and is run over by a passing automobile, whereupon police arrive to arrest the surviving intruders and comfort the victim.

This mid-'60s entry into the suspense genre remains a potent and surprisingly nasty little piece of work. Some aspects of Luther Davis's screenplay have aged poorly (particularly the intermittent bits of internal narration for Olivia De Havilland's character) but he gets his message about the cost of being indifferent to your fellow man across with grim efficiency.

 Better yet, Lady in a Cage puts the screws to the audience when it focuses on the main character's plight: virtually the entire last half of the film is edge-of-the-seat material. Director Walter Grauman plays up the grotesque edge of the material, capturing the action with gritty, harsh black-and-white cinematography and getting a series of feverish, over-the-top performances from a well-chosen cast. De Havilland is quite sympathetic as the tormented heroine, aiding the film's claustrophobic feel by making us feel every bit of her pain.

Ann Sothern and Jeff Corey supply memorably hammy support work, but it's the young James Caan who steals the show, creating a perfect portrait of soulless, sociopathic evil as the angry leader of the teen thugs. It all adds up to one potent gut-punch of a movie. Lady in a Cage may be too nasty and outlandish for some tastes but fans of vintage suspense will enjoy getting a shock from this suspense workout.