One sister tries to keep another from getting lost in the clouds in the horror-tinged drama of co-dependency THE MAFU CAGE, on Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing.

Ellen (Lee Grant, DAMIEN: OMEN II) is a spinsterish astronomer charged by her parents with the care of her unstable sister Cissy (Carol Kane, WHEN A STRANGER CALLS), who has thoroughly immersed herself in the world of her late father who studied primate behavior in Africa (where the two sisters grew up). She has devoted herself to continuing her father's work and spends her days with her pet ape Mafu (Budnar). When Cissy violently kills the animal, she emotionally and physically manipulates Ellen into getting a new Mafu from family friend Zom (Will Geer, IN COLD BLOOD). With Cissy placated, Ellen finds herself reluctantly becoming interested in co-worker David (James Olsen, AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION) and spending more time with him than Cissy. Cissy, however, goes off the deep end when she realizes that she has a rival for Ellen's devotion.

Based on Eric Wesphal's French play "You and Your Clouds," THE MAFU CAGE is more arthouse than grindhouse, although distributors played up the exploitation elements of hinted incest, lesbianism, bestiality, and more overt psychosis by retitling it DEVIATION, MY SISTER, MY LOVE, and even DON'T RING THE DOORBELL! at some point. Director Karen Arthur (LADY BEWARE) benefits as much from the extreme dedication of seasoned Grant and relative newcomer Kane (terrorized the following year as a babysitter whose obscene "calls are coming from inside the house" in the more conventional WHEN A STRANGER CALLS) as from the contributions of cinematographer John Bailey – credited as "visual consultant" which was the credit given to production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti (THE LAST EMPEROR) in Paul Schrader's AMERICAN GIGOLO and CAT PEOPLE which would both be shot by Bailey – editor Carol Littleton (WYATT EARP), and composer Roger Kellaway (THE UNSEEN). Although the film belongs to Kane – despite what we have heard about horrific incidents between primates and unsuspecting humans, we remain constantly apprehensive about what Cissy might do to Mafu rather than the other way around - Grant sensitively plays the enabler with understated weakness, sorrow, and devastation as she knows better than to feed her sister's madness but knows of no other way to protect her. Approached as a serious drama rather than exploitation, THE MAFU CAGE is quite compelling and deliberately paced despite the intentional - and arty - atmosphere of languor.

Released theatrically by Jerry Gross Organization under a number of titles in cuts both complete and trimmed of roughly five minutes with a bit of narration imposed over the opening credits, the film first appeared on VHS from Wizard Video as MY SISTER, MY LOVE (the title imposed at the start and a lightning strike added in place of the cut where the original title card appeared) and then THE MAFU CAGE (the title added back to the film as video generated text before the fade-in). The film was reissued on VHS a few years later from Magnum Entertainment as THE CAGE with that title video-generated superimposed over the original card. When Scorpion released the film on HD-mastered DVD, the rights owner could only supply the cut version (95:33) with the title card DEVIATION (the title appearing after the lightning strike optical where the original card and footage under it was removed) and the cut scene shown in context as a video-sourced extra.

Scorpion's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from the original interpositive, which was discovered by cinematographer Bailey who also supervised and approved the 2K restoration. The element is unblemished but the white specs that pop up rarely are nothing to complain about compared to the DVD transfer's element in spite of Scorpion's admirable efforts back then to make it presentable. The sometimes subtle use of colored lighting, differentiation of hues in the art direction, and textures and in clothing and the African art all come across nicely for a low budget 1970s film in which Bailey was often using natural light as the primary source. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is very clean, affording better appreciation of the African music and sound effects collages and the contrast brought by the pointed harpsichord notes of Kellaway's scoring. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided.

Both audio commentary tracks have been carried over from the DVD. On the first, director Arthur discusses the differences between the source play and the screenplay and the importance of those changes in conveying the dynamics of the sibling relationship, her admiration for Grant and Kane, working with orangutan Budar, the important contributions of Bailey, Littleton, and Kellaway, her psychiatric research for the project carried out in England and New York at Bellevue, and Cissy's drawings by Roger Landry who was working with mental patients in using art to express emotions and thoughts they could not convey through speech. Some of her remarks about the "old release print" used for the DVD remain. The second track features director of photography Bailey and editor Littleton. Littleton discusses the sound collages and how Kellaway's score is sued to contrast the primitive and scientific but equally introverted worlds of Cissy and Ellen while Bailey recalls using colored lighting to create contrasts of flatness and depth to delineate the worlds of the two characters within the same house, while production designer Conrad Anglione painted the walls and used his art world connections to secure the use of authentic African artifacts (Anglione was known at the time for cataloguing Native American artifacts).

"Vision of Clouds" (44:32) is an interview with director Arthur which repeats some information from the commentary but is most interesting for discussing what came before. Arthur was touring film festivals with her first film LEGACY when she saw "You and Your Clouds" in Cambridge and went to France to option the rights from the playwright (who plied her with white wine and oysters) and then returned to Los Angeles to convince ex-lover Don Chastain (an "amazing writer who never finished anything") to write the screenplay and did anything she could to make sure he kept writing. She was working in the camera department at Universal to support herself while raising funding for THE MAFU CAGE when she approached old friend Michael Gleason (REMINGTON STEELE) and showed him her film in order to be considered for a directing job on the miniseries RICH MAN, POOR MAN II which netted her the second DGA membership for a female (the first being Ida Lupino). She also discusses the programs that were opening up for women in the industry around the period, including a directing program at the American Film Institute.

"Cissy and Her Clouds" (20:05) is an interview with actress Kane who recalls being attracted to the character, working with Grant, and with an orangutan, her contract concerns more so about nudity than money, and her greater concern for Budar's emotions than her safety when Cissy had to be violent with him. "Solar Flare" (16:49) is an interview with actress Grant who recalls being "in heat" for Olson for the length of the shoot but not after, bonding with Kane, and criticizing Arthur's upbeat approach to the shoot as not being what was needed by herself and Kane to work through the "depravity" of the scenario. "Shot & Slice" (26:58) is an interview with cinematographer Bailey and editor Littleton in which they both discuss the fulfilling experience of working with Arthur previously on LEGACY and how both that film and THE MAFU CAGE concentrated on the mental disintegration of female characters and how they both considered the latter to be as much of an art film as the former until the distributor hyped the exploitable elements with the cutting and title changes.