I watched this yesterday via the Magnum VHS which is re titled THE CAGE. The box says the film had previously been on video as THE MAFU CAGE missing footage. I can't elaborate on this but Magnum's version runs the full 102 minutes. Maybe a TV print got released under the original title?
The movie is well directed, and the acting is top notch. It's based on a play and really only has 4 characters, but it's Lee Grant & Carol Kane's film all the way. Kane is really too good here, her portrayal of mental illness is disturbingly on target and the way she flips out and yells MAFU over and over I found unnerving. I don't know if Mafu is a pet name or a African word for primate, but if you watch this movie, it's a word you will hope to never hear again.
The story concerns Grant caring for her sister Kane in the aftermath of their father's death. Dad spent time in Africa studying primates and Kane loved it there, Grant dislikes aminals and hated Africa. Now back home, Kane is clearly unhinged and has a bad habit of killing her pet monkeys.
Sub plots involve Grant's affair with a co worker and the sister's incestuous past.
It's rare that a movie is so well done on all levels but remains hamstrung by a story that's slow and depressing.
I am glad I finally got around to watching it, but I can't imagine who'd I'd recommend it to.

There's always McKee.

Prediction: This will be remade someday as THE MOFO CAGE. ;)

Wizard Video previously released it as THE MAFU CAGE. I have a copy but haven't gotten around to watching it so I don't know if its cut.

Is there nudity in it?


Just kidding.

It's been so long since I saw THE MAFU CAGE (on a UK VHS rental), but I don't remember it been all that depressing. If you want to see a really depressing Carol Kane movie, then check out WEDDING IN WHITE.

THE MAFU CAGE was interesting in that it was very much a women's film, and while it's borderline horror, a serious one too. Director Karen Arthur's next film was the mildly exploitative and quite enjoyable (especially for Diane Lane fans) LADY BEWARE, which is probably as perfect example as you could find of the 80's straight-to-video erotic thriller (so I'm sure Marty would love it!), while the rest of her work has been mostly for TV.

I saw this on videotape as MY SISTER, MY LOVER (a bit of underhanded mis-direction there, really) but it was a few years ago so I couldn't tell you the label, and since it was the first time I saw it, I have no idea if it was uncut.

I really liked it. It is disturbing, and sad, and depressing, but very engaging. One of those oddball, "something like this probably wouldn't get made nowadays, when small scope is considered lack of ambition". But it seemed very personal, which intensified the horror aspects. A particular bit that sticks in my mind is some bit of Kane psycho-babble where she mentions watching the previous ape-pet get erections - her delivery is so mentally disturbed and yet childlike at the same time, it's creepy.

I've always had a soft spot for Carol Kane ever since her days on TAXI (in particular, an episode where she - Simka to Andy Kaufmann's Latka, of course - plays successful matchmaker for the entire cast of characters ... but blows it with Alex's match) and I like watching her on the screen. Her little cameo on SEINFELD, as the tough broad who gets hit in the head by the palm pilot thingee - cracks me up everytime ("I'll leave! I wouldn't want to take attention away from the HOOKERS!").

Give it to Marty. He'll watch anything! He likes it, he really likes it.

Daaaammmnnn...you guys are ripping me a good one. :P

I'm desperately seeking a film that has a pre-directorial Karen Arthur in the cast, namely LIKE IT IS (1970, later resissued in 1975 as NOT MY DAUGHTER). Besides Arthur, the cast also features Belinda Palmer (never to be forgotten as Faye Dunaway's "sister-daughter-sister-daughter" in CHINATOWN), and Judy Strangis from TV's ROOM 222 and ELECTRA WOMAN AND DYNA GIRL. The film had its world premiere in Seattle under bizarre circumstances, and has since disappeared (although it was issued on Australian PAL in the early eighties under the reissue title NOT MY DAUGHTER).

Spoiler alert (assuming that you can find the damn film in the first place):

Karen Arthur portrays the unwilling stepmother of a female teenage graduate who only wants to smoke pot, in this turgid melodrama. The girl (Belinda Palmer) runs out of money and answers an ad for a lesbian exploitation flick. Her father, unaware of that development, books a stag film for his country club. Unfortunately, he's booked the one film he shouldn't have picked...

If memory serves, THE MAFU CAGE was released by Jerry Gross under THE CAGE. We all thought it was more of a horror film, but got surprised to see a well made, but yes depressing, film about seriously mentally ill sisters.

Creepy film ,though. Recommended, if you can find it.

The Wizard tape begins with the video generated MAFU CAGE title before the Jerry Gross credit and has a jump cut (covered in the soundtrack by a thunder crack) where the other title would've appeared after Lee Grant and Carol Kane were credited.

There is apparently a budget DVD out of this under the MAFU title but its probably sourced from the Wizard tape. The video release is definately cropped on both sides of the frames as the titles are hard to read.