Cage of Evil
Directed by	Edward L. Cahn
Screenplay by	Orville H. Hampton
Based on	story by Orville H. Hampton and Alexander Richards
Produced by	Edward Small (executive) Robert E. Kent
Starring	Ron Foster Patricia Blair Harp McGuire
Cinematography	Maury Gertsman
Edited by	Michael Minth (as Michael J. Minth) Grant Whytock
Music by	Paul Sawtell Bert Shefter
Production company	Robert E. Kent Productions (as Zenith Pictures)
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	July 1960 (US)
Running time	70 mins
Country	USA
Language	English

Cage of Evil is a low-budget 1960 crime film starring Ron Foster and Patricia Blair.^[1][2]

Plot

Scott Harper is a frustrated police detective who is constantly passed over for promotion. When he is assigned to gain the confidence of Holly, the girlfriend of a robbery suspect, the couple fall in love and then plot to murder Holly's boyfriend and run off to Mexico with the loot.

Cast

• Ronald Foster as Scott Harper
• Patricia Blair as Holly Taylor (billed as Pat Blair)
• Harp McGuire as Murray Kearns
• John Maxwell as Don Melrose
• Preston Hanson as Tom Colton
• Doug Henderson as Barney
• Hugh Sanders as Martin Bender
• Helen Kleeb as Mrs. Melton
• Robert Shayne as Victor Delmar
• Owen Bush as Sgt. Ray Dean
• Ted Knight as Dan Ivers
• Howard McLeod as Kurt Romack

Reception

In a contemporary review for the New York Daily News, critic Maxine Dowling called Cage of Evil "a bitter and contrived tale...It's an uninteresting, slowly paced melodrama that does nothing for anyone concerned, least of all our much maligned police."^[3]

The New York Post commented that "performances are better than fair," and that the film "is a shoot-it-out opus with little surprise. The audience knows from the beginning that detective Ron Foster is unhappy with his lot. Much work, no promotion. We wait for him, on the trail of a diamond thief, to go over to the other side. This he does, not only because he envies the spoils, but because he has fallen for the crook's moll, Pat Blair. They get theirs!"^[4]

TV Guide wrote that "it's not bad for grade-B crime drama."^[5]

• Shown on the Turner Classic Movies show 'Noir Alley' with Eddie Muller on October 22, 2022.