CAGE OF EVIL. United Artists, 1960. Ronald Foster, Pat Blair, Harp McGuire, John Maxwell, Doug Henderson, Helen Kleeb, Robert Shayne. Director: Edward L. Cahn.

   A standard entry black-and-white crime movie that more than likely wasn’t considered noir when it was made, but there’s no doubt that it was (or is) one.

   Passed up for promotion too many times, when police detective Scott Harper (Ronald Foster), somewhat of a hothead, is assigned to get close to blonde nightclub hostess (and good friend of gangster Kurt Romack) Holly Taylor, played to icy perfection by Pat Blair, he ends up getting a little too close, and it doesn’t take much more to get him started down the path to ruin.

   At first it’s only a small fortune in uncut diamonds that’s at play, but after two murders are committed, the stakes are raised a whole lot higher. Harper is smart but not lucky, and eventually, without giving away more than I should, his own brand of fortune runs out.

   The story plays fast and loose on the details regarding proper police procedure, I should like to believe, and looking back at the last hour and ten minutes it took to watch it, there really isn’t a lot of action in this small budget crime film.

   Nor do any of the cast have any name recognition, I don’t believe, but all of them have long resumes. (Pat Blair, the very lovely femme fatale in Cage, did have a long run on Daniel Boone, married to Fess Parker.)

   They all know their marks, in other words, and while no new territory is broken, I wasn’t bored, either. There’s been no official DVD release, but the movie has played on TCM, so copies should be easy to find on the collector-to-collector circuit.