1955 British film
The Glass Cage (American title: The Glass Tomb) is a 1955 British second feature[2] mystery film, directed by Montgomery Tully and starring John Ireland, Honor Blackman and Sid James.[3] It was made by Hammer Film Productions.[4] The film is based on the novel The Outsiders (a.k.a. Common People) by A.E. Martin.[5]
Plot
Showman Pel Pelham s contacted by an old friend Tony who has received a blackmail letter signed "Delores". Pel agrees to check her out as she lives near a friend of his. Reaching her apartment he discovers she is an old pal, Rena, who has fallen on hard times and got mixed up with someone she regrets. She agrees to withdraw her blackmail attempt as it wasn’t her idea.
In the apartment downstairs Pel offers to set up his Russian friend, Sapolio, in a "starvation act" to break the world record. A party is hastily arranged for that night for their carnival pals. In the evening Sapolio sees a man going up to Rena’s room. During the party Rena is found murdered. The chief suspect is Tony as his blackmail letter was discovered near the body.
Unsavoury character Rorke first attempts to blackmail Stanton who he knows had motive, then also Tony but the latter draws a gun and in a struggle it is Tony who is killed. Rorke tries to frighten Pel by kidnapping his wife but she escapes and the police arrest Rorke. Pel tries to get Sapolio to remember who he saw on the night of Rena’s murder while he is "starving" in a glass cage. But someone passes strychnine-laced food inside the cage and Sapolio, suffering from the poisoning, breaks the glass and accidentally kills himself. His death is covered up by Pel and the police to tempt the poisoner back to finish the job. He falls for the trick and returns to be confronted by police and shot dead trying to escape.
Critical reception
Monthly Film Bulletin said "Whatever possibilities were latent in this crime story, the result is so disjointed and jerky as to suggest that at some stage some fairly heavy cutting has taken place. The film’s more melodramatic incidents are naively handled, and little is done effectively to exploit its fairground settings and characters."[6]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "poor" and wrote: "Fragmented, unsatisfactory thriller bears signs of heavy cutting."[7]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, calling it a "bungled yarn".[8]
