Cage of Evil

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-

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.

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.

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.

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.