User reviews

Cage of Evil (1960)

This totally defines the B-movie, or the average B-movie. We sometimes think of great B-movies (like "Detour" or "Naked Kiss") and see how a small budget only encouraged breaking rules, or ignoring them, and finding a new kind of intensity that worked on its own terms. Well, in "Cage of Evil" the acting, writing, directing and filming are firmly compromised without finding that special territory of audaciousness, or raw violence, or innuendo, or simple believability that makes these things special.

That said, this isn't half bad. I mean, it's like seeing an episode of Law and Order or some show you already like, and it's interesting and often captivating, and there are little moments of surprise and sympathy, and you finish it thinking it was pretty decent.

The lead is a cop, a detective named Scott Harper, and it turns out he's corrupt, and at risk are a cache of rough diamonds. The interactions between the cop and his boss, and his colleagues, is believable if slightly stiff, but in particular, as Harper (played by Ron Foster) goes from one side to the other, we come to see his duplicity from the inside. He's really good.

There are so many well worn clichés here you might flinch, but they're good ones (convertibles at night, night club dames, suspicious mobsters, cops on the prowl) and it's edited fast enough to survive its glitches. Of course, for the diamond heist to succeed it helps to have a cop on the inside, casual and confident, and a dame to fall in love with him. Foster is a regular in films directed by Edward L. Cahn, who is a standard for B-movies (made for small time Robert E. Kent Productions under a variety of names). In a way this is the equivalent of a television series with less frequency--meaning they were made to formula, and fairly cheaply. By 1960 old Hollywood was thoroughly dead, and television thoroughly alive, and this was one of the ways it kept going. There's enough going on in movies like this to keep a second feature audience, and to play on television itself shortly after.

But I enjoyed it partly because it takes itself very seriously. There isn't that corny or airy edge to some television, even crime dramas, at the same time. This is a late comer to the crime/noir cycle of the previous 20 years. Never mind the canned overdub narration. Sit through some scenes that talk too much. You might find the rest of it pretty decent.

Disgruntled cop Ron Foster, passed over for promotion one time too many, is seduced by B-girl Patricia Blair into a diamond theft scheme. And then things go downhill! Considering the general run of director Cahn's many B-pix of the 1950s and early 1960s, this one is rather above average. The look is more standard b/w TV of the late 50s than film noir, but the two leads are very good and put some life into it. There is more outdoor shooting than usual, and the ending adheres to the Production Code of the day.

Pretty good little "B" crime movie. Granted the plot was nothing new but movies are still being made with the same story. Ted Knight was a riot. It seemed like he tried to steal every scene he was in (which wasn't that many). I like the narration, it made the story seem better. I guess this film would be a good candidate for MSTK but certainly wasn't awful. Our hero/antihero? was a little stiff and his slang didn't quite jibe with his stiff suits and clean cut demeanor. It was funny watching "squares" cut loose though. Recommended time filler but not a whole lot of action. Gotta watch out for that plumber though.

Ten years earlier this programmer would likely have been a noir. As is, it's a pretty good little crime drama. Detective Harper is a violence prone cop, probably why he doesn't get promoted. And being a cop appears his whole life; that is, until he meets spider woman Holly who's connected to a jewel heist that Harper's investigating. Well, one thing leads to another, and soon he's caring more about her than solving the crime. Still, he's a sharp cookie in covering his tracks, especially now that he's got Holly and a bead on the jewels, and maybe a new carefree life away from an unappreciative detective bureau.

The principals do pretty well in their roles, while I couldn't help noticing a resemblance between actor Foster and the better known Tony Curtis. The screenplay does a pretty good job tracking Harper's absorption into the cage of evil. However, veteran budget director Cahn adds little to the filming. One story change I think would have deepened things is that of giving Harper a home life, maybe a wife. That way his down-spiral would have had a tragic dimension as well as being an unfortunate tale of woe.

Anyway, the flick's better than I expected without being anything special.

Ron Foster (who ??) is Detective Harper, gunning for a promotion (get it?) Harper is put on a jewel heist in Los Angeles, and the case kind of starts out like an episode of Dragnet. Keep an eye out for Ted Knight... as one of the cops! Harper tries to cozy up to the suspect's girlfriend (Pat Blair). the girlfriend cozies back, and has some dark, heavy-handed suggestions of her own. Now Harper is in deeper than ever, and he's not sure what to do. All hell breaks loose, and everyone is figuring out their own next step. It's pretty good. rated pretty low, as of today. i liked it more than some of the others. Directed by Ed Cahn.

Los Angeles police detective Ron Foster is assigned to a diamond heist. He falls in love with the heister's girl friend, Patricia Blair, who helped set up the job. Never mind, she's a perfectly nice girl, and there are also the diamonds, as Foster finds himself trapped in this brightly-lit noir.

It's one of almost thirty films directed by Edward L. Cahn over a three-year period, so if you're looking for a masterpiece, this ain't it. What you have is the bones of a good story, some performers who do their best with nonsense, and a behind-the-screen crew that could have managed something pretty good, were they given time and money: camera man Maury Gertsman, Grant Whytock supervising the editing. But with the studio system collapsing, people needed work, and when B-producer Robert Kent came a-calling, a man without a job could hardly say no. So everyone worked for a couple of weeks, and then went scrounging for the next dead-end job.

"Cage of Evil" is a B-movie from United Artists. And, like a typical B, the story lasts around an hour and the cast is filled with mostly unknowns.

Scott is a detective sergeant with ambitions of becoming a lieutenant. However, his focus completely changes when he's working an undercover case involving some stolen diamonds. He is supposed to woo the prime suspect's girlfriend...in the hopes that he can get her to divulge where the diamonds and her boyfriend are. However, the ruse goes over too well, as she soon falls for him and they both decide to kill the boyfriend, keep the diamonds and end up spending the rest of their lives on a tropical beach somewhere. Unfortunately for them, their plans don't go exactly as they hoped.

Despite no-name actors and a quick shooting pace, the film is very well told and exciting. My only small gripe is the narration. First, it isn't necessary. Second, it really wasn't written all that well and often didn't add anything to the story. Still, this IS a minor quibble in an otherwise enjoyable movie.

TCM Noir Alley host Eddie Muller spent about ten minutes during his intro to "Cage of Evil" trying to convince me that I would hate it. And then he came back after the movie was over and tried some more. Seriously, why? I really liked this movie. It's certainly no worse than any number of other B noirs I've seen over the years.

This one stars a cast of people I've mostly never heard of, led by good looking Ron Foster and fetching model-turned-actress Patricia Blair. Foster, a police officer looking for a promotion, gets himself in a fix over a dame, as such men will in movies like this, and spends the movie becoming increasingly desperate for a way out. It's a cheap, raggedy film, and when it comes to B noirs, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Grade: A-

We follow the course of police officer Scott Harper, who has been doing a good job for the police for seven years, when he is recommended for a promotion - but passed over, because of his occasional tendencies to brutality; but a fair lady (Patricia Blair, involved in a diamond heist of $250,000) diverts his mind from his job as she appeals to his softer sides and by her involvement offers him an opportunity to have a grab at the diamonds, but in order to do this he has to change sides. The interesting part of the film is his development from an honest cop to a fully fledged murderer, it happens gradually step by step, and you understand him all the way, as it is actually logical. Anyone would have done the same caught in the cage of the charms of Patricia Blair, who could charm anyone and who you just couldn't turn down, especially not after some tempestuous quarrels. It is a late noir but still a noir and convincing as such, while at the same time it's almost like a documentary, like those of the 40s by Henry Hathaway, told straight by Scott Harper's chief as a very much matter of fact case - the chief understands his officer too well not to give a thorough comment on his case.

I have never been deceived by an Eddie Cahn film, because I already know what I deal with one hour before viewing it, that's as simple as this. I watch it as a lousy grade b picture, not as a Marty Scorcese or Quentin Tarantino's movie. So, with this method, expecting the worse, the only thing that I risk is being positively surprised. See what I mean? I don't care about the holes in the story, the laughable situations, I don't care, but maybe I should? Anyway, this rogue cop show is not Dick Quine's PUSHOVER, starring Fred McMurray, nor Howard Koch's SHIELD FOR MURDER - starring Edmond O'Brien either: famous rogue cop films, among the best in the film noir history. His forever best film will be for me the ALIEN DNA called IT THE TERROR FROM OUTER SPACE.

Cage of Evil (1960)

** (out of 4)

Routine and rather lifeless crime picture has Detective Scott Harper (Ben Foster) getting assigned to a diamond heist, which left one man dead. The detective starts to investigate showgirl Holly Taylor (Patricia Blair) who has a connection the big crime boss but soon the two fall in love and the detective decides to go bad and get the diamonds for himself. CAGE OF EVIL features just about every cliché you can imagine from the crime genre and by the time it's over you'll be slightly entertained but there's still no question that you've seen this type of thing so many times before and this here doesn't add anything new. I mentioned being slightly entertained and the main reason for this is that the detective is simply so stupid and makes so many stupid mistakes that you really can't help but be entertained by how many dumb things he does. I mean, it's easy to believe that he'd turn bad after being passed over on a promotion but at the same time he just makes one mistake after another. A detective should know how to work around the system but this guy makes such boneheaded mistakes that even a newborn baby wouldn't do something of the things he does. Another problem is that director Edward L. Cahn really doesn't bother building up any real drama or suspense. The entire film comes off rather flat and it appears that the director was just wanting to get everything on film, on budget and he didn't stretch to try and do anything special. The story itself is pretty familiar stuff but the final ten minutes do start to pick up and lead to a nice ending. CAGE OF EVIL really isn't recommended to anyone except for those who must see every crime pic from this era.

Particularly Unremarkable, Stiff, and Dull is the Leading Lady, Former Model Turned Actress Patricia Blair, With the Screen Presence of a Mannequin and about the Same Range.

Not that Ron Foster as the Good-Cop Turned Bad and the Other Clunky Hunks Walking Around with Edward Cahn's Pedestrian Direction do Much Better.

From Top to Bottom, Stage-Left to Stage-Right, this Thing just Reeks of Rusty Familiarity with No Edge at All.

The Awkward Title that is Repeated in the Vapid Voice-Over is another Piece of this Puzzle of a Film lost in the Netherland of Police-Procedural, Film-Noir, Neo-Noir, and is so Mundanely Paced, Acted, Scripted and Presented, it's too Lame to Fit Snugly or be Welcomed Anywhere.

There are Worst Movies of this Type Out There, and Director Edward L. Cahn has a Better Prolific Track-Record than this Piece of Dullsville would Attest.

The Turn of the Decade from the 50's to the 60's was a Difficult and Uncertain Time for Movies and Pop-Culture in General.

It was Sort of the Calm Before the Storm, a Whirlpool Waiting to Break Out and Crash.

From 1959-1964 the Arts in America were Comatose, Unexpressed, Reluctant, and Atrophied.

When the Dam Broke and Pop-Culture Awakened from it Slumber...Well that was the Sixties.

"Cage of Evil", is one of those that is a good Example, along with the "Teen Idols" on the Radio that Replaced Real "Rock n' Rollers",

of what was Happening in that Dead Period, between the Death of "Staunch Conservatism" and the Birth of "Ultra-Liberalism".

It was a Period of Formulaic, Take-No-Chances, Stagnation and Boredom.

This is the Result.

In CAGE OF EVIL, police detective Scott Harper (Ron Foster) investigates a big diamond heist that also includes a murder. As Harper delves deeper into the case, he becomes romantically involved with Holly Taylor (Patricia Blair) the girlfriend of one of the thieves.

Meanwhile, Harper is passed over for a promotion causing him to rethink his career path. He's ultimately presented with a choice that could hurl him headlong into darkness.

This is a solid crime drama with a noir-ish edge. For lovers of hard-boiled detective stories...