My friend and I saw an old black and white movie during a sleepover when we were kids. From what I remember, it was about an old lady who was trapped in an elevator between floors of her mansion during a robbery. The robbers needed to get to her for some reason but they couldn’t reach her because the elevator was stuck between floors. She ended up jumping down and crawling to the front door, and that’s where my memory ends. Some details may be off since I was about 12 when I saw it, but it’s been nagging me ever since.
Lady In A Cage. It starred Olivia de Havilland as the woman, and James Caan’s big screen debut as the lead thug. I loved that movie when I was a kid! Olivia de Havilland (Melanie in Gone With The Wind) did this movie back-to-back with Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, another favorite of mine.
Btw, the ending…
James Caan runs out into the street (I think the cops had gotten there and were chasing him) and gets his brains splattered by a car. It showed a closeup of his dead face all black&white bloody and eyes staring. It was pretty shocking for its time.
Olivia de Havilland trivia from IMDB: She was born in Tokyo in 1917, and had a (much hated) sister who became an actress too, Joan Fontaine. She was a 5-time Oscar nominee, and 2-time winner. She won Best Actress for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). She was nominated Best Actress for Hold Back The Dawn (1941) (which she lost to her sister Joan) and The Snake Pit (1948). She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Gone With The Wind (1939). She lost to the first black actor ever to get one, Hattie McDaniel. She’s a hero among actors because she bucked the studio system and sued the studio for keeping her in servitude as nothing but property. She won, and actors thereafter, until the studio system died, could only be signed to a 7-year contract which included suspensions (studios could suspend actors and not give them work, but the time wasn’t counted so actors could be in servitude for decades). She was the first ever female jury president at the Cannes Film Festival. She’s still alive at 90 and active, lives in Paris and is a Sunday School teacher. Melanie would approve.
“Playing good girls in the 30s was difficult, when the fad was to play bad girls. Actually I think playing bad girls is a bore; I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress.” OdH
Awesome, thanks. I’m going to go Netflix it.