La gabbia (1985)

A woman becomes obsessed with a man she can't have, and carries the torch for more than 15 years.

Director:

Giuseppe Patroni Griffi

Writers:

Francesco Barilli (story), Lucio Fulci (screenplay),

Stars:

Laura Antonelli, Tony Musante, Florinda Bolkan

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Laura Antonelli	...	Marie Colbert
Tony Musante	...	Michael
Florinda Bolkan	...	Hélène
Blanca Marsillach	...	Jacqueline
Cristina Marsillach	...	Young Marie
Laura Troschel	...	Marianne
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
José Maria Bastos
Achille Brugnini
Manuel Tienda

Storyline

A woman becomes obsessed with a man she can't have, and carries the torch for more than 15 years.

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Plot Keywords:

masturbation | breasts | obsession | panties | voyeur | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Italy Spain

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

11 September 1985 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Dead Fright

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anem Films, Bridas, Visione Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

User Reviews

Masochistic male sex fantasy with a very decent cast

As another reviewer mentioned this movie is bound to be dismissed as a "Fatal Attraction" rip-off, even though it was made two years earlier and is a lot better, and certainly a lot more sexy, than that reactionary piece of Hollywood crap. After seeing his girlfriend (Florinda Bolkan) and her son off for the Christmas holidays, an obnoxious lothario (Tony Musante) realizes that his girlfriend's landlady was a girl who he knew fifteen years earlier and had seduced and abandoned after taking her virginity. He introduces himself again to the women, hoping to score some cheap sex while his girlfriend is away. Since the now middle-aged woman is played by Italian sex diva Laura Antonelli he's certainly not disappointed. He doesn't realize, however, that the woman has become obsessed with him (god knows why), and he soon finds himself tied to a bed and at the mercy of the deranged woman and her "very curious" teenage daughter (Blanca Marsillach).

Laura Antonelli is very sexy in this movie although curiously she never really takes her clothes off (even during a masturbation scene). She still looks great; this was about the same time she appeared in the naked sex romp "The Venetian Lady" with a much younger man (Sean Connery's son Jason). Antonelli was always reputedly kind of snooty actress, so maybe she considered this role beneath her, but she certainly didn't hold back in any other way. Florinda Bolkan's role, on the other hand, is kind of phoned-in, sometimes literally (she spends a lot of time on the phone with her boyfriend's secretary, inquiring about his whereabouts). A lot of the sex appeal though is provided by the sexy Spanish Marsillach sisters. Blanca is muy caliente in a role eerily similar to the one she played in Lucio Fulci's last decent movie "The Devil's Honey" where she also took "revenge" on a poor middle-aged man by making him her sex slave (although if you do the math her character here would have to be less than fifteen years old!). Cristina Marsillach plays the younger version of Antonelli and has a ridiculously gratuitous full-frontal bondage scene that should really appeal to all her male fans from Dario Argento's "Opera".

There are other absurdities to this movie besides the Blanca Marsillach's age and Cristina Marsillach's B-and-D style de-virginizing. The biggest one is why any of these gorgeous women would be psychotically obsessed over the likes of Tony Musante. But I guess it's supposed to be kind of a masochistic male sex fantasy. And it certainly succeeds on that level (even if no one will exactly confuse it with Italian neo-realism).