The Gilded Cage

Here we are again in the Fifties' world of trench-coats and trilbies and another American with a brother gone astray in London. A situation shared by John Gilling's earlier and more successful THREE STEPS TO THE GALLOWS, but THE GILDED CAGE suffers from a contrived plot which is hard to follow in places, with inconsistences in the character of its chief villain. Much to enjoy however including Stanley Black's apposite and resonant score, and Monty Berman's photography including London locations. Also the polished performance from Clifford Evans who appears to be enjoying himself whatever he may have thought of the script, while Ursula Howells, sadly to disappear early on, suggests as usual someone made of flesh and blood beneath those severely tailored outfits.

I notice that one or two reviewers on this site have been quite kind to THE GILDED CAGE, a British crime potboiler set in the murky world of art forgery. I thought it was quite the bore, and certainly no masterpiece given the assured direction of John Gilling whose films were usually reasonably entertaining. As is the norm, this is a Tempean picture produced by the hard-working team of Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman.

The film features the flat footed Alex Nicol as the imported American star who randomly gets drawn into the hunt for a forged stolen painting when a beautiful woman (Ursula Howells) is murdered. As usual there are numerous criminals to contend with, as well as the unhelpful police force. THE GILDED CAGE emulates plenty of British B-movies of the period but lacks the right pacing and easy scripting of the entertaining ones. When the highlight is an early cameo from Michael Balfour you know you're in trouble. There are a couple of interesting faces in support, particularly Clifford Evans in a stock role and the great Elwyn Brook-Jones, but they're no reason to tune in.

Quite an unremarkable crime caper that sees the theft of a valuable portrait - quite a smudged one at that - of an un-named woman. Poor old "Harry" (Michael Alexander) is front and centre on the suspects list, but luckily his beefcake brother "Steve" (Alex Nicol) arrives from the US just in time to look into these shenanigans. Any art historian would have conniptions at the manner in which this supposedly priceless work of art is handled - especially at the end when the cunning deception is cleverly exposed. What budget there was went on Nicol's air fare - the rest of the thing is seriously basic with pretty banal dialogue and though the principle of the conclusion is quite quirky, the execution is a bit shoddy. By no means the worst film ever made by John Gilling, but it's twenty minutes too long and the love interest from a very matronly looking Veronica Hurst ("Marcia") just clutters up the pace.

Alex Nicol comes to visit his brother, Michael Alexander in Great Britain. After a brief reunion, his brother has to work that evening, so Nicol goes to a night club to meet with some of his brother's friends. He escorts Ursula Howells home, leaves, then realizes he has her handbag. When he returns to her apartment, she's dead. Who did it, and what has a painting called "The Gilded Cage" got to do with it?

It's an all right movie, with Nicol running around anonymous sets and nearly anonymous streets. When it comes to the mystery itself, there's an awful lot of fluff in the film.

Nicol had had a contract at Universal, but it was leading him nowhere, so he packed his bags and headed to Great Britain, where producers might feel that having an American in the leading role would offer entree to American screens. Nicol also started to direct. He died in 2001, age 85.

"The Gilded Cage" is an invaluable portrait of some legendary lady supposed to have been painted by Degas, while he of course never painted such a portrait. The thriller intrigue is spun around this portrait, which some rogues plan to steal from its well established gallery, but of course such a theft could never be accomplished without help from the inside. Some ladies are involved, and the American Harry is involved with one of the ladies, who tries to warn him to stay out of the racket. His brother (Alex Nicol, a bit like Dennis O'Keefe) arrives from the states to find his brother vanished. When he tries to get a clue of how to find him from the actress his girl-friend, she gets murdered, and so the mess keeps developing with more murderous attempts, kidnappings, fisticuffs and all kinds of intrigues and atrocities, until the brother finally gets shot, and then you don't hear of him again, although he is said to still be living. It's an ordinary thriller with interesting London settings trying to muddle up the intrigue to puzzle the audience, and finally things get sorted out. The most interesting actors are Ursula Howells and Elwyn Brook-Jones, who both get murdered, and Clifford Evans, but the best thing in the film is the music by Stanley Black. The smiling man Ronan O'Casey adds some creepy spice to the intrigues but isn't the most dangerous man in the plot.