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Strait-Jacket (1964) Joan Crawford, Diane Baker

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Movies : Crime : DVD Rip : English




After a twenty-year stay at an asylum for a double murder, a mother returns to her
estranged daughter where suspicions arise about her behavior.
Director: William Castle
Writer: Robert Bloch
Stars: Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, Leif Erickson | See full cast & crew »

Summaries
Lucy Harbin has been in an asylum for twenty years after axing her husband and his mistress
during a crime of passion, witnessed by her young daughter, Carol. While trying to renew ties with Carol, who is now a
young woman about to be married, heads begin to roll again. Is Lucy repeating her past?

—Ray Hamel
Twenty years after being sent to a mental institution for having killed her husband and his lover with an axe, Lucy
Harbin is released. She returns to her brother Bill Cutler's farm where she is reunited with her now adult daughter
Carol. Soon after her arrival however, there are a number of strange occurrences. She begins to hear voices and wakes up
seeing a bloody axe in her room which subsequently vanishes. Carol is very protective of her mother who is uncomfortable
in the presence of strangers but her situation apparently deteriorates. Things get more serious when one of Lucy's
doctors from the asylum visits but the disappears. Has Lucy started killing again?

—garykmcd
When
Lucy Harbin arrives early from a trip, she sees her husband with his mistress sleeping in her bed, so she kills them
with an ax. Her little daughter Carol witnesses the murder. After twenty years in an asylum, Lucy is released by her Dr.
Anderson and her brother Bill Cutler brings her back to her farm where he lives with his wife and Carol. Lucy meets her
estranged daughter and she learns that she is going steady with the wealthy Michael Fields. Soon Lucy has nightmares and
hears children singing a pejorative song about her. When Dr. Anderson unexpectedly visits her at home, she shows that
she is unbalanced and the doctor decides to take her back to the asylum. However he is axed in the barn. Is Lucy killing
again?

—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Lucy Harbin has been imprisoned in an insane
asylum for twenty years for murdering her husband Frank Harbin and his paramour that night, Stella Fulton, Lucy who
decapitated their heads with an ax before indiscriminately wielding it to other parts of their bodies. The murders were
witnessed by Lucy and Frank's then adolescent daughter, Carol Harbin, who was eventually adopted by Lucy's
brother and his wife, Bill and Emily Cutler. With only a brusque hand named Leo Krause helping, the Cutlers now live on
a farm in California, far away from the Harbins' house in Ohio where the murders were committed so that Carol could
get away from the public scrutiny of her mother's murderous act. The Board at the asylum, believing she now
reformed and well enough on new medications, is releasing Lucy into Bill and Emily's custody, the decision against
the advice of Lucy's physician, Dr. Anderson. Carol, an up and coming sculptress, is nervously excited about seeing
her mother after twenty years. Carol wants to be as open as possible about her mother's situation to others,
however she tells only one person not in the know about Lucy, namely her boyfriend, Michael Fields, the son of wealthy
dairy owners, Raymond and Alison Fields. As Carol and Michael are planning on getting married, Carol wants no secrets of
this nature from Michael. Seeing how scared and depressed her mother looks, Carol wants to brighten her life by
transforming her into the young, vivacious woman Carol remembers as her mother. However, that transformation as well as
other issues in general life evoke the murders and the incarceration for Lucy, who still seems to be suffering from
mental illness exacerbated by these emotional triggers. Eventually, some people within this situation go missing, the
collective, with the exception of the perpetrator, not knowing that the missing have been killed by someone wielding an
ax. Has Lucy reverted back into her ax murdering ways?

—Huggo
After a twenty-year stay at an
asylum for a double murder, a mother returns to her estranged daughter where suspicions arise about her behavior.

—mystic80

Spoilers
The synopsis below may give away important plot points.
Synopsis
Various flashbacks and images introduce Lucy Harbin [Joan Crawford], a young woman who comes home
unexpectedly to find her husband in bed with another woman. Carol, their very young daughter, is in bed right in the
next room, but she is awake. Heartbroken, Lucy suffers a moment of fury and confusion that leads her to spontaneously
pick up a nearby axe and decapitate her husband and his lover while they sleep. Carol watches in terror and shock as
Lucy hacks the two bodies to pieces. Lucy is declared insane and sent to an asylum, where she endures traumatic shock
treatments for her mental breakdown.

The narrator of the flashback is revealed to be Carol, now a young
woman. It is twenty years later, and Carol is opening up about her past to her boyfriend, Michael Fields. After
Lucy's incarceration, Carol was taken in by her aunt and uncle, Bill and Emily, and the family lives on a farm in a
rural location. Carol is revealing the family history to Michael because Lucy is being released from the asylum, and is
coming to live with the family. When Lucy arrives, she is skittish. She cautiously acclimates to the farm, exploring the
area with Carol and meeting the gritty-looking farm hand, Krause. But she is clearly thrilled to see Carol again, and is
touched by the lovely young woman Carol has become. Carol is a sculptress and has a spacious studio filled with her
work, and she thrills Lucy by giving her a bust of herself just as she was in her youth.

Things quickly start
to get strange. Carol shocks Lucy by presenting her with two bracelets she used to wear when she was a young woman,
large dangling charm bracelets that jangle when she walks. Carol seems intent on recreating Lucy as a young woman,
taking her clothes shopping and buying her a wig that mimics the hairstyle she wore the last time Carol saw her. Lucy is
uncomfortable with this, but agrees to dress this way to please her daughter, whom she desperately wants to make amends
with. While they are in the wig shop, Lucy hears strange voices, as if children are singing a morbid nursery rhyme about
her crimes. She dismisses it as nerves. Later, she suffers a terrible nightmare and wakes up to discover two bloody
heads in bed with her, with a bloody axe lying nearby. When she wakes the others, the items are gone from her room. Lucy
starts to think she is relapsing.

Things get worse when Carol attempts to introduce Michael to her mother.
When Michael stops by for drinks, Lucy seems to try and seduce him, all with Carol right there in the room. The
embarassing scene is interrupted by Lucy's former psychiatrist, Dr. Anderson, who makes an unexpected visit. When
he sees how unstable Lucy seems, Dr. Anderson makes comments to the family that suggest he would like to take Lucy back
to the hospital. When the doctor gets Lucy alone, his comments upset her and she runs off. As Dr. Anderson searches for
her around the farm, he enters the darkened barn and a shadowy figure corners him--it appears to be Lucy, the silhouette
revealing her hairstyle and figure, right down to the jangling bracelets she wears. The figure is holding an axe, and
quickly decapitates Dr. Anderson.

Carol returns to the farmhouse to find her mother alone in the darkened
living room. The doctor's car is still outside, and Carol quickly comes to the conclusion that her mother has
killed him. In a panic, Carol drives the doctor's car into a barn and locks it in, but she is spotted by Krause,
who is lurking the shadows. The next day, Carol sees Krause painting the car a different color and angrily confronts
him, but he smugly suggests that he knows what happened to the doctor, and that he'll turn Lucy in to the
authorities if Carol fires him. Lucy overhears the conversation from the window. Later that evening, Krause is stalked
and murdered with the axe.

Lucy prepares for an evening that she dreads, a dinner party intended to introduce
her to Michael's parents. If Michael and Carol are to be married, these will be their in-laws, and Michael's
family is very wealthy, his father being the proprietor of a very successful dairy farm. Lucy has a panic attack in the
powder room while at the Fields'--after spilling coffee on her dress, she retreats to the washroom and suffers a
flashback because of the wallpaper, which resembles the bars of a prison cell. Carol calms her down and takes her back
to the party. Mr. & Mrs. Fields are cordial until they plot to get Lucy alone so they can have a private
conversation with her: Mrs. Fields is suspicious of Lucy, and poor Lucy makes a terrible misstep by revealing to Mr.
& Mrs. Fields that her daughter and Michael are planning to be married. The Fields had not been informed of this
yet, and they react disapprovingly. Mrs. Fields in particular gets very haughty with Lucy, making suggestions about her
past, and Lucy suddenly snaps at her, revealing that she was in an asylum for twenty years. She says that under no
circumstances will she allow the Fields' to interfere with her daughter's happiness, and she storms out of the
house.

Michael drives Emily and Carol back to their house while he and Bill go out looking for Lucy, who has
disappeared. Emily sends Carol to bed, but Carol is restless and cannot sleep. With Michael gone from the Fields'
house, Mr. and Mrs. Fields are alone in their house and they hear sounds to suggest someone is prowling around. Mr.
Fields is oblivious, but when he goes into his closet to get undressed for the evening, he is attacked by the figure of
Lucy, brandishing an axe. Mrs. Fields becomes suspicious and goes looking for her husband, eventually finding his body
in the dressing room. Horrified, she retreats, only to be confronted by the figure of Lucy in the bedroom. Before the
axe can fall, the bedroom door opens and the real Lucy comes in; after scuffling with the other figure, Lucy tears off a
mask to reveal her daughter's face underneath. Carol has been committing the murders while dressing as her mother;
scarred by witnessing the double homicide committed by her mother, Carol's mind was unstable ever since. Certain
that Mr. and Mrs. Fields would never allow Michael to marry her without a great deal of trouble, she plotted to make it
appear as if Lucy murdered them in a rage, which would send Lucy back to the asylum and allow her to marry Michael. Her
mind shattered, Carol clutches the mask of her mother and screams at it "I hate you! I hate you! Oh I'm sorry,
I love you! I hate you! I love you!" Outside on the porch, Lucy hears her daughter's insane ravings and weeps,
perhaps remembering her own moment of insanity.

An epilogue reveals Lucy discussing her plans with Bill. With
Carol now committed to an asylum just as she once was, Lucy intends to stand by her daughter and be whatever kind of
support that she needs.


[center] 7/10
William Castle Presents Joan Crawford In
EMOTE-O-RAMA
gftbiloxi14 May 2005
Like all William Castle films, the story of STRAIT-JACKET is slight, full of
holes, and often silly to the point of absurdity. Long ago Joan Crawford came home to find her husband in bed with a
floozie and snatched up an ax. Adjudged insane, she is locked up in an asylum for twenty years, but now she's
home--and pretty soon some really weird things begin to happen around the old family farm. Could it be, oh, I don't
know... JOAN? Throughout his career, producer-director William Castle liked to build his movies around gimmicks: TINGLER
had "Percepto," 13 GHOSTS had "Illusion-O," and HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL had "Emergo." But
STRAIT-JACKET had something better: Joan Crawford herself, who plays in a style that can only be described as
"Emote-O-Rama." Say what you like about Crawford, she never gave any performance less than one hundred
percent, and in STRAIT-JACKET she gives one hundred and fifty. In the opening scenes, 60-something Joan has the
unmitigated gall to play Lucy in her 20s! Later, as Lucy in her 40s, Joan plays the role like a nice little old lady who
occasionally drops acid: when she's not busy with her nervous breakdown, she sucks down bourbon, attempts to seduce
her daughter's boyfriend (even to the point of putting her fingers in his mouth), knits like a fiend, lights a
cigarette by striking a match on a record album, raises hell at a dinner party... and all of it about as subtle as a
bulldozer.

But they didn't call her a star for nothing: not only does Crawford manage to carry it off
with complete conviction, she actually manages to endow the character with considerable pathos along the way. And I have
absolutely no doubt that THIS was the film Faye Dunaway studied the most when preparing to play Crawford in the infamous
MOMMIE DEAREST; watch both back-to-back and you'll know exactly what I mean.

The rest of the cast is
pretty interesting as well, featuring Diane Baker as daughter Carol, Leif Erickson as Crawford's brother, George
Kennedy as an unsavory farmhand, and a very young Lee Majors as the ill-fated husband--not to mention Mitchell Cox, a
Pepsi V.P. Joan was favoring at the time. There are cheap special effects (amazing, how she can neatly lop off a head or
two with a single blow), Pepsi-Cola product placements, and even some dialogue that would do Ed Woods proud. It's
all campy and bizarre and hilariously weird and ramped up to the nth degree by Crawford's full-force
performance.

With a somewhat better script and production values, STRAIT-JACKET
could easily have matched Bette Davis' more sophisticated HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE; as it stands, however, it is
a cult movie in all caps. The DVD release is very nicely done, with the film itself in excellent condition. A collection
of Crawford's costume tests gives a surprising insight to actress' personality, and a particularly nice little
making-of documentary includes comments from Diane Baker. (Note: don't watch the documentary, called
"Battle-Ax," until after you've seen the film: it's a spoiler.) Strongly recommended to Castle,
Cult, and Crawford fans! Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer
53 out of 55 found this helpful. Was this review
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 6/10

Crudely effective William Castle schlocker; Crawford's last
hurrah.
sdiner8215 September 2002

Warning: Spoilers

Following the unexpected smash-hit
"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," both Bette Davis & Joan Crawford saw their careers revitalized--as
crones in horror films. Davis took the high road ("The Nanny" features one of her finest, most subdued
performances.) Crawford apparently took whatever she could get, as witness "Strait-Jacket," an enormously
entertaining low-budget low-class William Castle schlockfest wherein our gal Joanie's released from prison years
after chopping hubby's block off upon discovering him in bed with another woman. When La Crawford is sent home to
stay with her daughter (the lovely Diane Baker, whose career had apparently fallen on hard times as well), heads begin
to roll again and guess who the cops think is wielding the axe? Like most of Castle's fright-fests,
"Strait-Jacket" is a crude, outrageous (for its time), often genuinely shuddery thriller that does indeed
deliver the goods--and benefits immensely from Crawford's undeniable star-power (whether you're a fan or not).
The isolated farmhouse setting provides a perfectly eerie backdrop for the ghoulish goings-on, the cast includes such
pros as Leif Erickson, George Kennedy and Rochelle Hudson, and when the battle-axe starts swinging, the chill-factor is
truly alarming. The surprise ending is a corker--and such a neat, nasty twist that the exact same gimmick was used four
years later when Ms. Crawford journeyed to England to take on the lead in the garishly Technicolored circus thriller
"Berserk." If you've seen the latter, you'll know exactly what I mean, so I shall say no more.
Except that, without Miss Crawford, both films could have easily come off as camp hoots. That they don't is a
tribute to this lady's amazing professionalism. In private life (according to her daughter's memoir), Joan
Crawford may have indeed been the mother-from-hell. In movies, however, she commanded the big screen right up to the
bitter end. More power to her!
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8/10

''The Best In Axe-ploitation!''
phillindholm5 August 2005
No matter what
script she was given to do, Joan Crawford was a pro. In this William Castle classic, she
proves it again. The plot has been rehashed in previous reviews, so I can get to the heart of the matter here. Joan
plays an ex-axe murderess with typical fury, beautifully combined with a poignancy which may be completely unexpected,
but nevertheless completely appropriate. Well supported by the underrated Diane Baker, Leif Erikson, Rochelle Hudson and
George Kennedy, she gives meaning and depth to what otherwise would have been just another horror film. Whether playing
scenes with daughter Baker's boyfriend (John Anthony Hayes) or his snobbish parents, (Howard St, John and Edith
Atwater), Crawford is on the money, using her years of experience to transcend her material. Thanks to her,
"Strait-Jacket" is a worthy thriller from a Legendary Star and a fondly remembered director. See Castle's
other collaboration with Joan, "I Saw What You Did" (1965). It's a winner, too!
28 out of 32 found
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 10/10

Who says Castle couldn't
direct?!?
David Atfield7 November 1999
This is one of the most enjoyable horror films ever. The closing
credits gag reveals the spirit of the picture - it is not to be taken seriously. By the way don't spoil a great
laugh by reading what that gag is, in the "crazy credits" section. This is pure camp fun, played brilliantly
by Joan Crawford in an Oscar worthy performance. The opening narration is hilarious - and Joan's get-up (black
fright wig, clinging floral dress and clanging bangles) is outrageous. You'll probably guess the surprise ending -
but that's not what this film is about. Besides the fun element there is also a subversive political statement -
Castle sets his axe-murder horror on a sweet little farm, that looks like a set from a family sit-com. And the family
that live in it are too good to be true as well. But all this is a facade, as insanity, lust and murder lie just below
the surface.

Also of note in the cast are George Kennedy - excellent as the twisted handy-man, and Diane
Baker as the perfect daughter. And apparently that's Lee Majors being hacked up at the start of the film. Castle
does a brilliant directing job, but it's Joan's film all the way - what she can do with knitting and matches
is truly amazing! And the scene where she attempts to seduce her daughter's boyfriend is nothing short of magic. I
can't believe that an actress who could play this scene with such good humour, could have taken herself as
seriously as "Mommie Dearest" suggests. Do not miss this over-looked classic.
27 out of 31 found this
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You can't afford to miss Straight Jacket.
ryonie5
January 2004
The movie opens with shocking betrayal. Lucy Harbin (Joan Crawford) returns from a journey only to
find her husband (Lee Majors) in bed with another woman. She spins into a murderous rampage. With an axe, she evens the
score by lopping of the heads of her adulterous husband and his mistress with a big, shiny axe. Her revenge is the fuel
for local legend, but the price is twenty years in a mental intuition.

When Crawford is released from custody
(fully recovered) the story begins.

The prison bus drops Crawford off at the home of her sweet and innocent
daughter, who is very popular and happens to be dating the richest boy in town. She also watched as her mother brutally
murdered two people, including her father, but in spite of life's little setbacks, Diane Harbin is perfectly
fine.

With such a humdrum cast of characters, it seems strange when headless corpses start showing up all
over town. Who could the murderer be?

This movie is one of the five best movies I saw in 2003. It's lots
of fun, and Crawford's performance outclasses any I've seen. It is a GREAT movie. It's got LOTS of
decapitations, but no gore or fake blood! A modern marvel!
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 9/10

Camp classic. Great!
Phil Clark22 July 2005
Warning:
Spoilers

This film is an out-and-out camp classic, and Joanie's finest hour post-"Baby
Jane". After she had pulled out of "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte", canny shlockmeister William Castle signed
Joan up to play a demented matriarch character in this campy horror-shocker and she did not disappoint. 

According to Castle's autobiography, Miss Crawford was actively involved in the production at several levels,
herself supervising rewrites of the script, changing the supporting cast to her liking and
also choosing the unlikely wig and costumes for her character. And from her first scene, getting off a train (in high
heels!), to the final showdown with her bad-girl daughter character, Joan's performance here is pure class. 

Watch for the famous cardboard axe in shadow and a hilarious cat fight with her daughter who literally throws
herself on the bed and squeals. But don't poke fun: it might be verging on farce, but this is a tight, pacey film
with some good direction and camera-work. The overhead shot of Joan losing it in the tiny closet with the NASTY striped
wallpaper is worth the price of admission alone. 

Recommended.
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 7/10

Gore Mongral Movie Review: Strait-Jacket
ChiefGoreMongral28 August 2006
Strait-Jacket(1964) a film starring Joan Crawford as a woman who comes home to
find her husband getting busy with another woman. Joan snaps and kills both her husband and his mistress with an ax all
to the watching eyes of her daughter who at the time was only 4 or 5. Fast forward 20 years and Joan's character is
considered reformed and sent to stay with her daughter her brother and his wife. The rest of the movie revolves around
deaths that occur at the house and if Joan's character is to blame or someone else.

This is a pretty
cool flick all around as it has an ax wielding psycho Joan Crawford, Leif (Invasion from Mars) Erickson and George
(Breath Assure) Kennedy giving us a very "heady" performance. It also has some sequences for its time that
would have probably made the teeny boppers of the era squirm up to their man in the theater.

All in all I
think this is one of those films that if your a horror/thriller fan you owe it to yourself to at least check out once as
it does what is trying to do effectively even though you can see the end coming before you get there. With the
characters all in place and an interesting story I give Joan's Ax Wielding flick: 7/10 good.

Strait-Jacket is out now on Tri-Star DV. Definitely give it a go!!!

Until next time folks here is a tip: If
your married and you want to cheat on your wife make sure you leave the ax locked up real tight in the shed cause if you
don't you could lose more than your money if she catches you!!!

I'm out!!
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 8/10

Excellent little shocker from William
Castle!
The_Void28 November 2006
William Castle is best known for fun, gimmicky horror flicks the likes of The
House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler; but his resume features some more complex films that can comfortably sit
alongside the best B-movies of the sixties, and Straight-Jacket is one such film. Obviously, a film of this nature
relies heavily on its lead star; so it's a good job that this one benefits from a great leading performance
courtesy of the fabulous Joan Crawford. Crawford isn't as good here as she was two years earlier in Whatever
Happened to Baby Jane, but she approaches her role with seriousness, and it gives the film a sense of credibility not
often associated with this type of film. The plot takes obvious influence from Psycho, and focuses on Lucy Harbin. She
was sent to an asylum after she discovered her husband in bed with another woman, and proceeded to axe them both to
death. She is released twenty years later, still on the brink of sanity, and is reunited with her daughter Carol (who
was present at the murder) and discovers that she is engaged to be married.

The tagline, which states that
the film 'vividly depicts axe murders' isn't exactly true, and the film is not very shocking in
today's day and age. However, this would obviously have been different back in 1964, and despite no real money
shots; Castle gives his film a great macabre atmosphere, and this adequately provides the horror on its own. Crawford
gets a great support cast to work with, and again the film transcends its B-movie heritage as they're all extremely
good. Diane Baker, Leif Erickson and my personal favourite, George Kennedy, all manage to give stand-out performances
behind the leading lady. The film opens up with a great little sequence which shows why the lead character was sent to
the asylum, and although the plotting takes a downturn after that; Castle manages to keep things interesting all the way
down to the explosive ending. The final plot twist isn't exactly impossible to figure out, but I have to say that
it caught me by surprise and while not everything completely makes sense by the end, Castle does a good job of
implementing the twist. Overall, Homicidal and Mr Sardonicus still top my list of favourite William Castle films, but
Straight-Jacket isn't far behind and comes highly recommended!
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 10/10

I can't possibly sum this up. Just watch it.
sadie_thompson3 January 2000
Warning: Spoilers

I am redoing this review--I did the original one
five years ago and I think I can top myself. I rated this movie as "excellent" and I am going to explain why I
rated it so darned highly.

Isn't Joan Crawford the coolest? Some people jokingly call this movie
"Blanche's Revenge" as Joan eschewed the wheelchair of "Baby Jane" and replaced it with an axe.
(It would have been really nifty if she'd been an axe murderer and in a wheelchair. That would have kicked tail.)
This movie was made in 1964, and William Castle was attempting to better his reputation--he was known for scaring
people, but I think he really wanted an A-movie to his credit. After seeing "Baby Jane" he decided that using
a bona-fide star might help him in his plan, and he pitched Robert Bloch's "Strait-Jacket" story to Joan
Crawford. Lucky for him she agreed to do it, and he earned a little critical recognition for a change.

The
plot is simple enough--Joan Crawford plays Lucy Harbin, a "young" woman of "29" who witnesses her
husband cheating on her with a former girlfriend. The shock of being thrown over drives her to madness, and she
dispatches both her husband and the hussy while they sleep. The couple's three-year-old daughter Carol watches,
horrified, and Castle cuts (get it?) to another shot of the daughter, now grown. She's telling her fiancée about
her past because, as she abruptly puts it, "My mother's coming home from an asylum. Today." That line
kills me--she gave him so much time to prepare, huh? Once Lucy returns Carol begins going to great lengths to turn the
present-day Lucy into the Lucy of twenty years earlier. Obviously, that isn't such a hot idea because Lucy was a
murderess. Even more distressing, Lucy gives several indications that she isn't completely rehabilitated--when the
asylum doctor shows up to say hello, she wigs out completely and runs screaming from the room. Eventually, anyone and
everyone who discovers Lucy's imbalance gets offed. Is Lucy regressing or has she been usurped? That is the basis
of the movie's "surprise" ending, which I of course didn't figure out. (My mother did, but she
always does.) Okay, so why is this movie so entertaining? If you guessed Joan Crawford, you guessed right. William
Castle's idea works wonderfully. He chose someone who would give her all to make sure a movie worked, and
that's what happens. At the time, Joan was sixty years old, give or take a few, and she throws herself into the
role of a 29-year-old with gusto. (She doesn't succeed, but she tries.) Her character starts out as a brunette,
brazen floozy-type and ends up a gray-haired timid middle-aged woman. It doesn't seem like such a big difference on
paper, but when you see the difference between Joan's first and second entrances it's quite effective. Also,
who among us knew (besides Christina Crawford, apparently) that Joan could swing an axe like that? Move over Lizzie
Borden, Joan's on the warpath! And the "seduction" scene with daughter Carol's fiancée? I
don't think a movie has ever made me squirm so much. It's horrible, but you can't look away--Lucy goes
through about fifteen emotions in less than fifteen minutes. Just thinking about it makes me feel icky, and nothing
really happens. That's the weird part--nobody does much of anything, but it's so damn disgusting. (The DVD
features a little making-of featurette, and one of the film historians says in a awed tone, "She actually puts her
finger in his mouth." I guess it bothered him too!) If I had to choose the one part of this movie that raises it
over other movies of its ilk, it would be the first murder scene. The moment where Lucy, poisoned with anger and
wielding an axe, wreaks havoc on her sleeping husband. I just feel that a jealousy-crazed woman brutally murdering her
husband would have the same look on her face as Joan does in the scene. It's absolute blind rage and she has no
control over it. To be blunt, she looks like an insane killer and she is more than a little creepy doing it. I just
thought of another great part--at the end of the picture the Columbia Pictures lady has been beheaded. Cute little
touch, huh?
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 7/10

She Was All Woman...And Knew It
evanston_dad7 September 2006
And so with those words begins this wacked out
slasher film/murder mystery that shows Joan Crawford lopping off the heads of her husband and his girlfriend while they
lie in post-coital repose -- and that's before the opening credits have even started! 

"Strait-Jacket" has the look and feel of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and all of those other
exploitative films from the 1960s that put once-great declining actresses in campy schlock and let audiences howl at
them. But somehow, this movie doesn't feel exploitative. If Joan Crawford had delivered a bad performance, it would
have. But she tackles the role with such seriousness and commitment that she single-handedly ends up selling the film to
you, and making you genuinely care about her character and what happens to her. Joan Crawford may have been hell to live
and work with in her personal life, but it takes an actress with a unique skill to make a film like this not only
competent, but almost fascinating.

As for the movie itself, it's laughably predictable. I called the
"surprise" ending about fifteen minutes into the film, and then talked myself out of it because I thought it
would be too obvious. Well, I should have stuck to my guns, but it didn't much matter -- by the end I was no longer
watching the film for the ending -- I was watching it for Joan, which is the only reason (albeit a damn good one) for
watching this film at all.

Grade: B
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 7/10

Joan Crawford - the Percepto of 1964!
jonathan-57717 April 2008
Warning:
Spoilers

How's this for a meeting of the minds - Castle, the inventor of "Percepto" and
"Emergo" among other classic gimmicks, teams up with "Psycho" writer Robert Bloch to frame his
ultimate gimmick: Joan Crawford. She can't really pass muster as a sweet young thing in the opening sequence, but
she just has to last till the inciting beheading and then we flash forward 20 years or so to her release from the nut
house. Voices follow her, she hallucinates, she has relapses, and random folks around the homestead - including another
mind-boggling special effect, a YOUNG and less than chubby George Kennedy - are meeting the business end of the hatchet.
But oh, we hardly suspected what might be going on, and after the truth is revealed in action, it is explicated at
length in an absolutely preposterous wrap-up scene that one can only hope was grafted on "Ambersons"-style -
though "Psycho" does seem to indicate a Bloch affinity for such devices. Before that howler we are treated to
a different kind of camp - somewhat predictable, but high-energy, flamboyant and fun in spite of it.
4 out of 4
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 8/10
Psycho in Strait-Jacket
andrabem6
April 2007
"Strait-Jacket" tells this story: Lucy Habin (Joan Crawford) surprises her husband with
another woman. She falls into madness and kills them both, and her daughter sees everything. After spending 20 years in
an asylum, she's is considered recovered and released. She leaves the asylum and goes to live with her daughter.
Very simply told this is just the introduction of the film. The rest you can guess but maybe you'll guess wrong. I
said maybe.

This is an interesting film. It is deceivingly naive but those able to go beyond the story will
make their own discoveries. For one thing: "Strait-Jacket" was filmed in 1963 when society was more
conservative - social rules and divisions were much more rigid then. There were mainly two choices (especially in small
towns and rural areas) - either adapt to society and its straight-jacket or else be an outcast. Why am writing this?
Because this is one of my readings of the film.

Anyway "Strait-Jacket" is a good thriller (not so
much for the scares but rather for the atmosphere). Well, it hasn't the sophistication of some film noirs of the
40s and 50s but its charm resides in its simplicity not deprived of sense of humor. Joan Crawfords acting is of course
superb and the supporting cast does also a good job. The story is interesting and will keep your attention till the
end.

I've seen 2 other Castle films ("The Tingler" and "House on Haunted Hill") -
both of them funny and entertaining, but I think that "Strait-Jacket" is the best one - it is not so
amateurish and goes deeper than the other ones, but still preserves the light touch characteristic of William Castle.
There are surprises in store. Go for it!
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this
The beginning of the end for Crawford
TJBNYC7 August 2001
Warning: Spoilers
Warning:
Spoilers
 WITHIN SUMMARY

"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) should have been the
springboard to further successes for stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford; instead, both were typecast in increasingly
unsavory horror productions, with Davis faring somewhat better than Crawford in this respect.

With
"Strait-Jacket," released a scant two years after "Baby Jane"'s flurry of publicity and
critical acclaim, Crawford began her descent into B-grade territory; the legendary glamour icon would never again appear
in a first class production.

As Lucy Harper, Crawford certainly dominates the proceedings, but gives one of
her most laughable performances. The material, to be fair, gives her precious little to work with. Twenty years ago, we
are told, Lucy Harper was declared legally insane. She walked in on her studly, younger hubby (a pre-fame Lee Majors)
sleeping with the local floozy, and took an axe to both of them.

This initial double murder is shown in
flashback, and the scariest thing about it is Crawford's entrance: by narration, we are told that Lucy Harper was
"very much a woman, and very much aware of it!" Lucy steps off a train platform, strikes a seductive pose,
throws her cigarette over her shoulder and walks to her shabby little house as screeching jazz blares in the background.
This would've been a hysterically camp entrance for ANYONE, but the fact that it's a sixty-ish Joan Crawford
made up to look thirtysomething (sleazy floral dress, jangling charm bracelets and a ridiculous black wig) transcends
camp and sends it into orbit.

Flash forward to the present; Lucy is being released from the mental hospital
and coming to live with her daughter, Carol (Diane Baker), and her brother and sister-in-law, on their farm. As soon as
Lucy arrives, murders begin occurring again. Who could be behind them? Well, since this is a Joan Crawford film, you can
bet that she ain't the villain. (You can also bet that a case of PEPSI makes a prominent cameo appearance, at the
behest of the former Mrs. Alfred Steele, international spokeswoman for the soda pop.) Instead, it is revealed at the
crazed finale, that Carol is the new murderess--she witnessed the original double homicide, and that trauma, plus her
growing resentment of her mother, caused her to snap.

In an obvious nod to "Psycho,"
Carol-as-a-murderess is shown committing her final crime dressed AS her mother--complete with a rubber mask fashioned
after Crawford's face! In a sublimely surreal moment, mother and daughter tussle wearing the same dress, same bad
wig...and then Lucy rips the mask off of Carol's face. The only scarier scene possible was when
Crawford-in-blackface ripped off her wig in "Torch Song," revealing her flaming orange hair.

There
are more howlingly funny scenes: Lucy regressing to her sex kitten past by cranking up bad jazz records, swigging her
liquor, and then lighting a match on the spinning record! Brilliant! Or the loony confrontation between Lucy and the
rich bitch mother of Carol's fiance, as Lucy freaks out:

MRS FIELDS: It wasn't JUST a sanitorium,
was it? WAS IT!!!!!

LUCY: NO! It was an ASYLUM!!!! And it was HELL! Twenty years of PURE HELL!

The
completely insane coda has Lucy explaining how Carol carried out her diabolical scheme ("She must have hidden it in
her purse," she deadpans--watch the film and understand why that line gives this writer fits of laughter), and then
calmly preparing to visit Carol in the loony bin. Never mind that the woman axed two people in a jealous rage. Never
mind that she's been portrayed as teetering on the brink of insanity for the last 80 minutes. Suddenly, Crawford is
playing her as she would one of her noble, composed 1930's MGM heroines. Absolutely twisted.

The axe
murders aren't graphic in the least (there's more gore in the bigger-budgeted, higher-brow Davis vehicle,
"Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte), and in the end, this is less a horror movie than it is another in a long line of
mother vs. daughter Joan Crawford melodramas. However, this is a far way down from "Mildred Pierce." For sheer
enjoyment, camp appeal and demented guilty pleasure, "Strait-Jacket" is ideal. And remember: "Don't
give away the surprise, shock ending!"
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 8/10

Classic Crawford
amhnorris1 June 2003
Wow, where to begin with
'Strait-Jacket'? First of all, people who aren't keen on either Crawford or 60's horror movies
shouldn't, and probably wouldn't, bother with this in the first place. That being said, its great fun. Joan
Crawford is the film's main - perhaps only - asset. Crawford is considered by many now as a camp icon. This does
her a great disservice because it undervalues her talents as an actress. Quite simply, she was the greatest (female)
movie star. One of the best - and paradoxically saddest - things about Crawford was that whatever she was in, she always
gave maximum efforts to her performance. This is sad because a movie like this isn't really worthy of the depth
that she adds to the character. Adding Mildred Pierce-level emotion to 'Strait-Jacket' is almost tragic to
watch if you think about how her career had gone. One of the trademarks of a truly great actor is the ability to rise
above the material, and Crawford certainly does this here, cranking up the acting-ometer up to 150.

'Strait-Jacket' certainly compares well with others in its genre. Personally, I found it a lot more
enjoyable that 'Whatever Happened...' perhaps because Bette Davis wasn't in it. It may not have the
subtext of 'Baby Jane' or 'Lady in a Cage' but, no other words to really explain it, it is simply
more fun to watch.
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 4/10

A full throttle plunge into dementia!!!!
tamstrat16 May 2005
For die-hard Crawford fan's this
movie is an absolute hoot!!!! To see our gal Joanie decked out in the horrible wig with bangs to the jangling bracelets,
it's a camp classic. Joan plays a woman who catches her young husband in bed with another hoochie and murders them
both with an AXE and is sent to the loony bin for a number of years. The fun starts when she is released and guess what,
you got it, axe murders start up again, imagine that????? Only Crawford could deliver banal lines with a completely
straight face and she does give it her all, but the movie is just too silly to be taken seriously. Please watch it if
you are teetering on the brink of insanity.
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 5/10

I think I'm going out of my head...over Joan Crawford
LCShackley2 April
2009
Joan Crawford had quite a career, starting as a stunning siren in the silents. By the 1960s, she was reduced
to playing caricatures of herself, or ghouls, as in this William Castle thriller.

Robert "Psycho"
Bloch penned this slasher film, about a jealous woman who spends 20 years in an asylum after she "took an axe and
gave her husband 40 whacks...and gave his girlfriend 41." She's finally released to the custody of her brother
and his wife, and her long-lost daughter (who witnessed the murders as a child).

It's not hard to guess
how it's going to end, but it's kind of fun watching it all spin out, with a few beheadings along the way to
keep one's interest. The early scenes where the daughter shows Joan around the farm are priceless (as she keeps
tripping up when talking about slaughtering animals), as are the various foreshadowing scenes involving knives. George
Kennedy plays a gruff and creepy farm hand, beheading a chicken. Keep your eyes open for Lee Majors in his first screen
role (as the #1 axe victim). And watch for the Pepsi product placement, thanks to Joan's contract (she was on the
Pepsi board).

Joan gets to run the gamut here, from mad slasher to timid wallflower to over-the-top vamp.
It's all hokey and hackneyed, but enjoyable for fans of Joan Crawford or William Castle.
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 6/10

Baubles, Bangles, and One Old Woman!
BaronBl00d1 July 2006
Joan Crawford plays a woman in her twenties in the opening prologue that butchers her
husband and lover whilst their daughter watches. Time moves up to the present, and Crawford, who now seems cured, is
allowed to come home to live with her brother and his wife and the daughter she had left in their care. William Castle
directs this campy classic with a pretty strait-forward approach as Lucy comes home and strange things start to happen
to her and around her and, of course in a film like this, to other people and their health and welfare. Has she
regressed? Well, I cannot answer that question here and now, but just remember one thing - this film was directed by
William Castle. The acting in this film is good by all accounts: Diane Baker does a credible job as the daughter trying
to cope with having her mother back. George Kennedy axes the wrong questions as he plays a farmhand with callous
seediness. But it is Crawford that will have your attention throughout. Not necessarily because she is real good but
because she doesn't seem to mind at all playing a fool to her image. When she comes out in a flowered dress with
bangles on her arm as a bracelet and an obvious wig in the prologue sequence - she looks so ridiculous that you know
this has to be high camp. She supposedly is playing a young, swinging, virile woman but looks like she's been
roaming a nursing home for a few years. When she gets back to the present, she plays "herself" for a bit, but
then things start to turn her back into sexy, campy Joan. Check out the scene where she hits on her daughter's
boyfriend with the record player playing. It sent chills down my spine and raised what hairs I have on my head. It has
to be one of the campiest portrayals - whether intended or not - I have ever seen. Give this one a look just for
Joan's performance! As for the axe murders - they are done fairly suspensefully and Castle has always been more
than competent behind the lens with this type of material.
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Fair
jplenton1 January 2001
Warning: Spoilers

Apparently Les
Diaboliques inspired William Castle to direct horror films. His first such film Macabre, based on Clouzot's
classic, was hardly in the same league. Castle's later films and antics proved him to be more of an entertainer
than auteur. Pranks and gadgets, such as a `ghost' on string and electrified seats are now legendary. With
Strait-Jacket Castle was obviously influenced and trying to cash-in on the success of Psycho. Both films are based on
stories by author Robert Bloch and have similar themes. However Strait-Jacket is closer in spirit to Psycho 2 than the
original. Perhaps Psycho 2 (a rarity in that is a decent horror sequel) was in turn influenced by Strait-Jacket. Avoid
Psycho 3.

Lucy Harbin arrives home early one night and catches her husband with another woman. In a fit of
rage she chops them up with an axe. The ordeal unhinges her and she is committed to an asylum. Lucy's daughter,
Carol, witnesses the killings. Twenty years later Lucy is released (cf. Psycho 2) and goes to stay with her
brother's family, which includes Carol, on a farm. Events do not go well, Lucy starts to relapse and there is a
handy axe on the farm.

Joan Crawford (whose real name was Lucille) plays Lucy. Like her co-star, Bette Davis,
in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, she featured in a range of horror films in the latter years of her career. This was
far removed from the Thirties and Forties when Crawford was a major star. The same syndrome is also witnessed with
George Kennedy, appearing here before his career `took off'. In the Eighties he appears in a range of horror
movies, the best being Just Before Dawn.

Although Alfred Hitchcock described Psycho as a `comedy', it is
played relatively straight and is an effective slice of horror. Strait-Jacket is too tongue in cheek to be taken
seriously and hence fails as a horror. For example, when Lucy first arrives at the farm, the `warm' greeting by her
relations is marred by unfortunate references to murder. These include verbal gaffs, the tour of the livestock and the
ceramic bust. These are crammed together and too grating.

Warning: Spoilers


Another
major fault of the film is that its raison d'etre is a bit obvious from the outset. Therefore the film lacks
mystery and meanders. On the plus side the decapitations are `fun', the film being a prototype slasher of sorts.
Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) must have seen the scene where the farmhand investigates the freezer.
Crawford's portrayal of a mentally unsound person is competent, but the `youthful' attire is atrocious.

Warning: Spoilers

The film addresses, to some extent, the prejudice, discomfort and hostility
met by people with mental illness (and also ex- convicts) trying to re-establish themselves into society (cf. Psycho 2).
At the finale only Lucy is able to forgive and accept responsibility. Incidentally, the best film I have seen about
mental illness is Clean Shaven, but that is principally a drama and hence an entirely different game.
5 out of 6
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 7/10

Predictable Thriller
Claudio Carvalho20 May 2012
When Lucy Harbin (Joan Crawford) arrives earlier from a trip, she sees her husband
with his mistress sleeping in her bed and she kills them with an ax. Her little daughter Carol witnesses the murder.

After twenty years in an asylum, Lucy is released by her Dr. Anderson (Mitchell Cox) and her brother Bill Cutler
(Leif Erickson) brings her back to her farm where he lives with his wife and Carol (Diane Baker). Lucy meets her
estranged daughter and she learns that she is going steady with the wealthy Michael Fields (John Anthony Hayes). Sooner
Lucy has nightmares and hears children singing a pejorative song about her.

When Dr. Anderson unexpectedly
visits her at home, she shows that she is unbalanced and the doctor decides to take her back to the asylum. However he
is axed in the barn. Is Lucy killing again?

"Strait Jacket" is a predictable thriller by William
Castle with Joan Crawford, who has a great performance as usual. It is not difficult to guess who the killer is, and the
conclusion gives a satisfactory motive. My vote is seven,

Title (Brazil): "Almas Mortas"
("Dead Souls")
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Mildred
Pierce Parallels
BumpyRide27 May 2004
Warning: Spoilers
I enjoyed this movie very much. Sure, it should
have been filmed in living color, and yes, Joan had better scripts in her heyday, but look
beyond the cheap sets, and the bad hairdo's and you'll find a hidden gem. Joan breathes life into this poor,
tortured ax murderer. Personally, I find many parallels between this movie and Mildred Pierce. This could almost be a
sequel to Mildred Pierce. Think about it, Joan goes to jail for killing that man at the end of Mildred Pierce. Now, 20
years later, she's out of jail and coming home for Veda's wedding. Veda always was no good, as this movie
proves. But she's marrying the richest man in town. Strait-Jacket is Mildred Pierce 2. It all adds up!
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 8/10

Lucy Harbin took an axe,
gave her husband 40 whacksÂ…..
Spikeopath13 October 2011
Â…..when she saw what she had done, she gave
his girlfriend 41.

Strait-Jacket is produced and directed by William Castle and written by Robert Bloch. It
stars Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, Leif Erickson, Howard St. John, Rochelle Hudson and George Kennedy. Music is by Van
Alexander and cinematography by Arthur E. Arling.

Lucy Harbin (Crawford) has spent 20 years in a mental
asylum for the brutal axe murders of her husband and his mistress. Released back into society, Lucy goes to live at the
farm of her brother Bill (Erickson), where Lucy's grown up daughter Carol (Baker) also resides. Pretty soon,
though, Lucy is plagued by horrible visions and begins to hear upsetting things, and now it seems that the people she is
coming into contact with are being brutally murderedÂ….with an axe.

Grand Dame Guignol

It seems
on odd blend on first glance, Oscar winner Crawford paired up with Castle, maestro of the gimmick led movie, producing a
film written by Bloch, author of the novel that would become Hitchcock's Psycho. Yet while it's hardly a true
horror picture, the kind to have you gnawing away at your nails, it's unashamedly fun whilst carrying with it a
bubbling under the surface sense of dastardly misadventure. Sensibly filming it in moody black and white, Castle, who
certainly wasn't the most adventurous of directors, did have a sense for tone and an awareness of what worked for
his target audience. Strait-Jacket is a solid murder mystery on the page, and on the screen it's coupled with some
flashes of axe wielding terror. Having a woman who is the protagonist-who may be the antagonist-also adds bite to
Castle's production, but he, and his film, are indebted to Crawford and her wonderful OTT trip into self parody.

Joan Blondell was all set to play Lucy Harbin, but an accident at home meant she was unable to fill the role.
Castle got lucky, he needed a star, and with Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Reinvigorating Crawford's career two
years previously, Crawford was once again a name actress. Bumping into Crawford at a party, Castle sold the pitch to
her, even bluffing her that the part was written with her in mind. It was a goer, but Crawford held sway with all the
decisions, including script rewrites and choice of staff to work on the picture with her.
It paid off, because after what was largely a trouble free shoot , film was a success and Castle had one of the best
films of his career. Here Castle had the ultimate gimmick to sell his film, Crawford herself, although he couldn't
resist some sort of tie-in so had millions of tiny cardboard axes made up to give to paying punters at the theatre.

Sure it's a film that nods towards Psycho and Baby Jane et al, but the denouement here more than holds its
own, while there's also a glorious bit of fun to be observed at the end with the Columbia Torch Lady logo suitably
tampered with. Those actors around Crawford invariably fall into her shadow, but it's a mostly effective cast and
Arling's photography blends seamlessly with the unfolding story.

So not outright horror, then, more a
psychological drama with some horror elements. But, which ever way you look at it, Crawford's performance is value
for money as she files in for a bit of psycho- biddy. 7.5/10
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 7/10

Castle Doesn't Make It Bad at All Here !
ragosaal23
November 2006
"Strait-Jacket" is not a bad film in its genre and in fact it stands as a most entertaining
and thrilling "B" mystery horror product. The truth is that William Castle never directed big budget films (I
believe he wasn't interested either) and his direction was most simple, but somehow he managed to get some little
classics of the genre particularly this one and "The House on the Haunted Hill" (perhaps a bit less serious)
in my opinion.

After 20 years in an asylum for having murdered his husband and lover with an axe in a rage
attack, cured Lucy Hurbin goes back home to live in a farm with her daughter Carol, a brother and his wife; but shortly
after Lucy arrives the axe murders return.

Castle pushes the story easily, handles more than acceptably the
tension and head-chops, and though the finale is inevitably predictable (otherwise the film wouldn't make any
sense) you look forward to it and enjoy it.

Joan Crawford is very good as Lucy a role that she makes without
effort and Diane Baker is good too as her sweet daughter. Leif Erickson, Rochelle Hudson and George Kennedy complete a
competent cast.

Good for Castle that gives us fans of the genre a most enjoyable suspense horror film.
2
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The Two Faces of Joan
craig-47110
August 2005
Certainly the number one reason to see this picture (number two being the total camp factor) is to see
La Crawford at work, and boy does she act up a storm. This movie reads as a complete summary of Crawford's entire
career as she runs through virtually her entire acting range and re-creates aspects of every screen persona she ever
depicted.

See her as a suffering, self-sacrificing mother will to do anything to give her daughter a better
life. She's practically Mother Teresa! Then watch her morph into a pushy, sex-starved tart trying to get something
out of a handsome man - all in a matter of minutes! The scene of her trying to recapture her lost youth is uncomfortable
to watch because you know it's Crawford being Crawford - a 60 year old woman acting like the seductress she played
30 years earlier on screen. It's as if she is trying to convince herself, and not just the young stud, that, god
damn it, she can still do it. You will never see a better depiction of human desperation on screen. It's about as
raw as it comes. It's tragic, appalling and hilarious, all at the same time, as the reality of the woman's
life and her Hollywood persona collide, all filmed for your viewing pleasure. If nothing else, in this movie Joan
reveals just how far she was willing to go to remain on screen, no matter what.
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CLASSIC CASTLE THAT IS FUN WITH HORROR!
tom sawyer9 July 2003
William Castle is great! Leave it to him to make what is essentially a slasher flick with an axe and to make it fun. A
murder movie was never this much plain dumb entertaining fun. Joan Crawford's over the top performance as a wronged
woman who decides to make her younger husband and his mistress into chop suey with an axe and is put away for 20 years
and to be blamed for recurring murders when she is released is a case of it doesn't get any better than this. You
almost want to laugh when two victims get their head seperated from their bodies because of the hokey effects. Basically
it looks like display heads falling on the floor. But that's a part of the charm of this movie. Crawford's
young husband is played by a young Lee Majors. While the effects, dialogue and acting are in fact a little hammy and
over the top at times, the story is actually quite decent. This whole movie is classic Castle. While it isn't Oscar
winning, it is just plain fun. So make some popcorn, find a comfortable chair, relax and enjoy. You will have fun
watching this horror film
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7/10

A tremulous Queen Bee...
moonspinner5522 October 2006
Joan Crawford, the Arched Eyebrow Queen
of Melodrama, is surprisingly vulnerable throughout most of this thriller involving a former axe murderess who gets
released from the sanitarium and tries to make peace with her estranged daughter (Diane Baker), now a pretty
twentysomething living on her uncle's farm. Curiously, Crawford thought little of this movie, yet she's quite
good in it: shaky, confused, and yet hopeful, she has a great scene telling off her future in-laws and I was right there
on her side. Despite the obvious camp appeal--and Crawford's penchant for baubles, bangles and beads--it's a
creepy character-study about insanity (not quite a horror flick, although a genuine thriller) and the stark black and
white photography and eye-popping design gives "Strait-Jacket" a terrific look. Superb supporting turns,
particularly by Baker, help make this William Castle outing one of his best screamers from the 1960s. *** from ****
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 3/10

Diane Baker Ruined
The Film
ccthemovieman-15 June 2007
Because she was a mega-star, Joan Crawford gets a lot of "press"
even in this movie, but I wasn't her who decided whether I liked this film or not. She was okay, but better in
another 1960s film, the one with her arch-rival Bette Davis. The actress who affected me in this movie the most was
Diane Baker and she just about ruined the film, as far as I was concerned.

This film gets a little too
melodramatic at times but Baker's character really gets carried away and is downright annoying as hell. She plays
"Carol Harbin." Her hysterics were so overdone it was ridiculous to watch.

As a suspense film,
it's okay, but after viewing the surprise ending, I wouldn't watch the movie again. A lot of people thought
there was very little in the way of surprise in figuring out the murderer, but I don't think it was as obvious as
stated by some. Nonetheless, the whole thing is so-so at best. It wasn't a memorable film, good or bad.
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 5/10
pretty bad
kyle_furr17
March 2004
I've only seen three William Castle movies and i only liked House on Haunted Hill, i didn't
like this one or The Night Walker. Joan Crawford didn't like this movie and i can see why. The movie stars out with
Crawford finding her husband in bed with another woman and then killing them both with an ax, with her little daughter
looking on. She's considered insane and after 20 years in the mental hospital, she's let go on probation. She
goes to live with her daughter on a farm and the daughter is about to be married to a rich kid, but the rich kid's
parents don't want them to be married. Joan Crawford is only OK in this movie and it's pretty obvious who the
murderer is.
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 3/10
You've Got to Be Kidding Me
tommyknobnocker31 October 2010
Warning: Spoilers

Have
suspense films really changed so much in just a few short years? It's hard to imagine that so many people went to
see this, let alone have left glowing reviews of it.

"Straight-Jacket" might have been better
titled "Hysteria." The entire production is an exercise in excess, one so blatant that it's difficult not
to laugh out loud.

Every actor in the production, including star Joan Crawford, conducts themselves as if
they are in a stage production. They flail their arms. They mug for the camera at every opportunity. They screech and
cry and rant maniacally (if they are female). It's shameless overacting to a degree seldom seen.

This
would be fine, if there was a subtle script to balance it. What "Straight-Jacket"
offers instead is a bludgeon. In case you didn't realize that the actors were supposed to be dramatic, you get
lines of dialog that border on parody. The ending, which features a rant so over the edge that it's hilarious,
typifies the film. "I love her! I hate her! I love her! I hate her!" The icing on this over-baked cake is the
musical score, which has to be heard to be believed. In case you missed the film's lack of subtlety, the score
pummels you with further shrill punctuations every time there's supposed to be a scare.

I'm
astounded that this picture has picked up the kind of IMDb rating that it has. Did anyone actually watch this
picture?
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No Surprises Here
IMOvies10 October 2003
STRAIT-JACKET (1964) ** (D: William Castle) Robert (PSYCHO) Bloch must have phoned in this
dull script which makes no effort at surprising us. It's totally predictable. Joan
Crawford gives a good performance and is a striking figure in black wig and flowery dress, swinging her axe - but
that's all.
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A 60s horror
movie that is scary!
awpangle29 November 1998
Finally a good 60s scary movie that is actually scary(second in
line Pschyo is first). This movie was ahead of its time when it came out in 1964. It has all the elements of a 90s
horror movie, it's just in black and white. It makes you jump a number of times, it's gory(which is something
that you never saw in 60s movies), it has comedy, it has a chase scene in the end(another thing missing from 60s
horror), is a who done it movie, killer wears a mask, and is scary and creates a lot of suspense. All of these things
listed are in this movie. Not to mention the excellent acting. Guaranteed you'll love it. Definitely one for the
library. Howard St.John has an excellent role as the comic relief playing the father of Micheal, the mother of Micheal
is a treat to watch as the character you love to hate, and Crawford is excellent as always. ***1/2 out of ****
3
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 8/10

Fun little
post-Baby-Jane Crawford vehicle
hypostylin24 April 2008
It's no surprise that Strait-Jacket was written
by Robert Bloch, the esteemed novelist best known for penning Psycho. Both works are hinged on backstories of maternal
anxiety that crackle with tension.

Joan Crawford gives a palpably frenzied performance as Lucy Harbin, a
woman convicted of the brutal murder (decapitation via axe, if you want to get technical) of her husband and his
mistress, all before the eyes of her young daughter. Twenty years later, Lucy is released from the insane asylum and
reunited with her daughter, and all of a sudden, heads start flying again! Could Lucy be responsible, or is someone
trying to take advantage of her fragile state?

Aside from Crawford's histrionics, Strait-Jacket also

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