In 1964, Olivia de Havilland made a movie called Lady in a Cage. It’s considered a “psychological thriller”. Her character has a broken hip and in order to get up and down the stairs in her mansion, she has a small elevator installed. While she is home alone, the power goes out at the house, trapping her between floors on the elevator. Ringing the alarm on the elevator only attracts the attention of teenage hoodlums who come into her house to rob it and terrorize her. This film features James Caan in his first credited role. It also features some gruesome scenes of violence that were controversial for 1964.
I first saw this film in the late 1970’s on our local channel that ran movies after the late evening news. I had no knowledge of this film before it came on. I recognized the stars and was intrigued by the story. It was a lot like the movies I stayed up and watched by myself every night during the summer during my mid to late teens. I remember the film taking a dark turn in the middle. The teens were terrorizing a man in the upstairs bedroom of the house. They took a pillowcase and put it over the head of their victim. Next, they took a table lap and started swinging it around the room. It was obvious that they were about to hit their victim in the head with the lamp. I didn’t really think about how violent this scene was getting until a warning popped up on the screen cautioning viewers that the upcoming scene was violent and viewer discretion was advised. This was literally seconds before the lamp came into contact with the head of the victim. If a viewer was going to be disturbed by this scene, the warning came way too late to do any good. I remember this movie because of this scene, less because of the brutality of the acts being depicted but mainly because the late arrival of the warning.
