Strait-Jacket

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Strait-Jacket
Rsz strait-jacketposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWilliam Castle
Written byRobert Bloch
Produced byWilliam Castle
StarringJoan Crawford
CinematographyArthur E. Arling
Edited byEdwin H. Bryant
Music byVan Alexander
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
William Castle Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • January 8, 1964 (1964-01-08)[1]
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2,195,000 (rentals)[2]

Strait-Jacket is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by William Castle, written by Robert Bloch and starring Joan Crawford. Its plot follows a woman who, having committed a double-murder of her husband and his lover decades prior, is suspected of a series of axe murders following her release.

Released by Columbia Pictures in January 1964, the film was the first of two written for Castle by Robert Bloch, the second being The Night Walker (1964). Strait-Jacket marks the first big-screen appearance of Lee Majors in the uncredited role of Crawford's husband. The film's plot makes use of the psychological abuse method known as gaslighting.

Plot[]

After finding her husband asleep in bed with his mistress, Lucy Harbin decapitates them both with an axe. Her three-year-old daughter, Carol, witnesses the murders. Lucy is committed to a psychiatric hospital and deemed criminally insane. Twenty years later, after she is found to be mentally sound and reformed, Lucy is released from the institution. She takes up residence at the farm of her brother Bill Cutler and sister-in-law Emily. Carol, now an artist and sculptor, also lives on the farm, having been adopted by the Cutlers after Lucy was committed.

Carol swiftly makes attempts to bond with Lucy, encouraging her to dress and act the way she did in the past. When Carol attempts to introduce her wealthy fiancé, Michael Fields, however, Lucy is evasive. Lucy's stress is compounded by apparent auditory hallucinations in which she hears children singing a nursery rhyme comparing her to Lizzie Borden, as well as disturbing nightmares in which she finds herself lying in bed with her husband and his lover's severed heads.

Lucy eventually meets Michael at a dinner party, and Carol is angered when Lucy is overtly flirtatious with him. When Lucy has a subsequent emotional breakdown, her sanity is questioned by Dr. Anderson, the psychologist following her. Later that night, Dr. Anderson is brutally murdered and dismembered in the Cutlers' barn after visiting with Carol to discuss Lucy's mental health. When Dr. Anderson is reported missing, Carol hides his car on the farm, as Lucy fears she may have killed him during a blackout episode. Leo, the handyman on the Cutler farm, witnesses Carol hiding the car, and subsequently takes it for himself, threatening Carol with blackmail. He is subsequently decapitated in the barn.

Lucy and Carol visit Michael's parents' home for dinner, during which Lucy is harshly judged by Michael's mother, Allison, who believes Carol is of a low class and is not fit to marry into the family. This results in a confrontation, after which Lucy storms out of the house in a rage. She is pursued by Carol and Michael, leaving Michael's parents alone at their home. Michael's father, Raymond, is butchered by the killer while alone in his closet. Allison is subsequently confronted by the killer upstairs, donning a latex mask and dressed like Lucy—at this moment, Lucy herself also enters the room, having returned to the house. Lucy fights with the killer, removing the mask and revealing the murderer as Carol, who has been impersonating Lucy while committing the murders. Michael appears, and Carol admits to the killings, which were driven by a love-hate relationship with her mother. Carol hoped to murder Michael's parents and frame Lucy for the crimes, effectively allowing her to marry Michael.

Sometime later, Lucy, accepting responsibility for her daughter's mental illness and hatred, looks on at various props Carol created in an attempt to drive her mad, including a tape-recorded nursery rhyme, and fake severed heads she sculpted and placed in Lucy's bed. Lucy departs to visit Carol in the psychiatric hospital where she is now confined.

Cast[]

Production[]

Development[]

After the success of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Joan Crawford and other older actresses, including Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck, made numerous horror movies throughout the 1960s. Strait-Jacket is one of the more notable examples of the genre sometimes referred to as psycho-biddy or Grande Dame Guignol.

Casting[]

Crawford replaced Joan Blondell in the role of Lucy Harbin after Blondell was injured at home prior to shooting and could not fulfill her commitment. Crawford's negotiations included script and cast approval, a $50,000 salary, and 15 percent of the profits. Anne Helm, who was originally cast in the role as Carol, was replaced by Diane Baker, reportedly at Crawford's insistence. Baker and Crawford had appeared together in the film The Best of Everything (1959). Baker asserted that the original actress for her part, Anne Helm, had numerous problems with Crawford. According to Baker, Crawford said, "it wasn't working out, her timing was off, she wasn't getting it, she wasn't seeing eye-to-eye, or she wasn't working the way Crawford wanted to work" on the 'making-of' featurette on the DVD of the film.[3]

Promotion[]

During the film's original release, moviegoers were given little cardboard axes as they entered the theater. At the end of the closing credits, the Columbia logo's torch-bearing woman is shown in her traditional pose, but decapitated, with her head resting at her feet on her pedestal.

Reception[]

Critics disliked the film but praised Crawford's performance, the general critical consensus being that she was better than the material. Variety noted, "Miss Crawford does well by her role, delivering an animated performance." Judith Crist commented in the New York Herald Tribune that "it's time to get Joan Crawford out of those housedress horror B movies and back into haute couture...this madness-and-murder tale...might have been a thriller, given Class A treatment." Elaine Rothschild in Films in Review wrote, "I am full of admiration for Joan Crawford, for even in drek like this she gives a performance."[4]

Bosley Crowther, however, wrote a scathing review of both the film and Crawford's performance in The New York Times, declaring, "Joan Crawford has picked some lemons, some very sour lemons, in her day, but nigh the worst of the lot is "Strait-Jacket". He goes on to call the film a "disgusting piece of claptrap."[5] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post also hated the film, calling it "likely to stand as the worst picture of the year ... Apart from the absurdity of the plot and the chilling predictability of lines and situations, 'Strait-Jacket' is inexcusable for its scenes of violence."[6]

The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.[7] The film also maintains an 80% rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 5 reviews.[8]

Assisted by Castle's promotion gimmicks, including in-person appearances by Crawford, the film was a big hit,[9] making in 2019 adjusted grosses $60.8 million at the American box office.[10]

Home media[]

Strait-Jacket was released on Region 1 DVD on March 12, 2002. On February 4, 2014, it was re-released on Region 1 DVD as part of the Sony Pictures Choice Collection online program.

Shout! Factory released the film on Blu-ray on August 21, 2018. Mill Creek Entertainment also released the film along with Berserk! on a double feature Blu-ray on October 2, 2018.[11]

Legacy[]

An excerpt from the film is seen on TV in the 1994 John Waters film Serial Mom.

The promotion of Strait-Jacket by the studio, the director and Crawford is addressed in the episode "Hagsploitation" of the 2017 television miniseries Feud.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Strait-Jacket". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  2. ^ "Big Rental Pictures of 1964", Variety, 6 January 1965, pg. 39.
  3. ^ Battle Axe: The Making of Straight-Jacket, documentary, ç2002, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment DVD
  4. ^ Lawrence J. Quirk, The Films of Joan Crawford (The Citadel Press, 1968)
  5. ^ Bosley Crowther, The New York Times (January 23, 1964)
  6. ^ Coe, Richard L. (January 11, 1964). "For Collectors Of Awful Gems". The Washington Post: B8.
  7. ^ Wilson, John (2005). The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-69334-0.
  8. ^ "Strait-Jacket (1964)".
  9. ^ TCM
  10. ^ "Joan Crawford Movies | Ultimate Movie Rankings". 31 May 2015.
  11. ^ Strait-Jacket and Berserk: Double Feature Blu-Ray Mill Creek Entertainment

External links[]

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