A man tries to break into an apartment in a low rent apartment building. He is shot and falls down the second-floor stairs to the ground. The police are called by a woman who leaves the phone off the hook. Lt. Max Westman (John Hoyt) and Sgt. Jeff Bradley (Bob Kelljan) are dispatched to investigate. The man appears to have been a prowler who was shot by the apartment’s tenant, Ellen Sawyer (Arline Sax). The only witness is a wacky artist that lives in the building next door, and he only heard the noise. He couldn’t actually see what was going on. The victim turns out to be a local businessman.
Ellen has been given a sedative, so the police wait until she awakens the next day to interview her. She freely admits that she killed the intruder, but her story is a little off. Ellen herself seems to be a little off. She appears rather fragile in temperament. Westman attributes it to shock but Bradley thinks that there may be something else going on that may have contributed to her state of mind. When asked about her family she tells them that her mother is dead and that her father lives in Albuquerque. Whenever they ask about her father, she changes the subject. She also tells them that she has a sister, Ruth Sawyer (Arline Sax) who is two years older than her. When they visit the sister, she is not home.
Westman and Bradley investigate the killing as self-defense. Ellen had been asleep and the intruder broke in. Ellen shot the man with a gun she said she got from her sister Ruth. As he investigates, Bradley becomes attracted to Ellen, and she to him. Unfortunately, her mental state, and forces outside of herself, bring her world crashing down. Ellen’s decent into mental illness started a long time ago.
“The Glass Cage” AKA “Bed of Fire” AKA “Don’t Touch My Sister” was released in 1964 and was directed by Antonio Santean. The film was written by John Hoyt and Antonio Santean. It is an American mystery.
Noirish, hardboiled, and low production values make this a strange brew. It is a police procedural that is experimental cinema with undertones of psychological thriller. Parts of the film are riveting while parts look very sloppy. For example, the continual appearance of the boom mike in one scene disrupts the flow of the film. Outside of that the movie is a very interesting look at the psychological defense of mental displacement. In the final climax the film uses a series of freeze frames and instant replays to denote fractured psychological aspects of the various characters and the film's action. Despite its flaws the movie is quite good. Most of that is due to the performance or Arline Sax.
After this film, Arline Sax changed her name to Arlene Martell or Martel. She then changed it to Tasha Martell or Martel appearing in various television series. Her best-known role is probably as Spock’s betrothed, T’Pring, in the Star Trek episode “Amok Time”. In the duo role of Ellen and Ruth Sawyer she is excellent. The film is worth watching just to see her.
King Moody plays the equally unbalanced neighbor, Tox Milner. Moody’s over-the-top character is balanced out by Sax’s quiet demeanor. They are both broken people but reflect it differently. Moody also played Ronald McDonald in the McDonald’s commercials from 1969 to 1985. He was also in “Teenagers From Outer Space”1959 and the “Get Smart” television series.