Strait-Jacket

Plot 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.

Tags: dark, neo noir, murder, cult, horror, flashback, insanity, revenge

Review:
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.
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 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.
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.
"Strait-Jacket" tells this story: Lucy Habin (Joan Crawford) surprises her husband with another woman.
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.
Strait-Jacket(1964) a film starring Joan Crawford as a woman who comes home to find her husband getting busy with another woman.
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.
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.
She Was All Woman...And Knew It. 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!
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.
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).
Is Lucy killing again?"Strait Jacket" is a predictable thriller by William Castle with Joan Crawford, who has a great performance as usual.
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.
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.
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 murdered.with an axe.Grand Dame GuignolIt 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.
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.
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.
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.
Before long, Lucy is having hallucinations and people who cross her wind up decapitated.One of director/producer William Castle's last really good horror-thrillers is a starring vehicle for an aging Joan Crawford, long since past the point of being taken seriously.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Could Lucy be responsible, or is someone trying to take advantage of her fragile state?Aside from Crawford's histrionics, Strait-Jacket also offers up a good supporting performance from Diane Baker.
Strait-Jacket (1964) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Joan Crawford chops off her husbands head as well as his lover and gets sent away to an asylum.
She really pulls it off and gets away with her digressions.For example, there is a scene where Joan's character, Lucy Harbin, is nervous and has been talked into dressing and looking as she did twenty years earlier by her daughter.
The whole scene is priceless and I could not believe how Lucy ended up lighting her cigarette!I handed out way too many stars for this movie, but I would give it the full 10 for Joan Crawford's performance and ad libs in this type of role.
Joan Crawford stars as a woman newly released from an insane asylum for the beheading of her cheating husband and some floozie he was getting in on with some twenty years earlier.The surreal, psychotronic opening credits help set the tone for this one; and what follows nicely lives up to the hype.
A behind-the-scenes debate once favored quitting (Greta Garbo) or waiting (Katharine Hepburn) over what Crawford and Bette Davis did (accept these roles) - but the murderous movies were popular, and remain fun to watch.******* Strait-Jacket (1/19/64) William Castle ~ Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, John Anthony Hayes, George Kennedy.
In 1960,"Psycho" made Robert Bloch a famous horror writer.In 1963,"whatever happened to Baby Jane?" made Bette Davis and Joan Crawford potential actresses for horror flicks.Davis carried on with Aldrich in "Hush hush sweet Charlotte" while Crawford had to content herself with William Castle,not a bad choice (He would buy "Rosemary's baby rights and would produce it four years later)for a follow-up.SPOILERS This is a hilarious funny movie.I do not know if it was intended as a spoof,but to my eyes ,it's grand guignol,a grotesque farce where Crawford overacts as hell :with her black wig (see "Psycho" ,there are many similarities in the two stories,it was obvious that Bloch was capitalizing on the 1960 blockbuster) , her fake bracelets and her ridiculous dress ,she's bound to net horse-laugh.And what can we say of this incredible scene where TWO Joan Crawford are fighting against each other complete with axes and screams?And another one where she tries to seduce her daughter's squeeze?And another one when she quarrels with the so-called fiancé's snobbish (probably nouveaux riches)rich wealthy folks?And another one...the list is endless...BIG SPOILER But the biggest surprise ,so to speak,concernsDiane Baker's character.At least ,in "Psycho" ,did Perkins show signs of nervousness,of mental fragility,so his behavior made sense.Here ,it's impossible to swallow the "truth" when Baker turns into a monster (and the mask is one of the biggest joke I've ever seen in a horror movie).If you like kitsch,guilty pleasures,do not miss "Straight-Jacket" !.
And certainly also not without importance, this film stars Joan Crawford in a post-"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" - role and that surely guarantees another grotesque, uncompromising and self-parodying performance of the great lady!
One of Joan Crawford's very first horror movie roles and by far her best is the role of Lucy Harbin in this William Castle classic.
After spending twenty years in an insane asylum for her crime, she is released and goes to live with her daughter on their farm property, but it is not long before goings on around the farm seem to point to Lucy's questionable sanity (and innocence).While William Castle earned his reputation for schlock-ridden gimmicky horror films, his pictures with Crawford are true gems; this film and "I Saw What You Did," to be specific.
What's most surprising though is, as in "Psycho," the way in which the film's conclusion turns on its audience, and the plot twist is just as unexpected to a 21st century audience as it was in 1964.Crawford's dedication to her role in the film is astounding, and in "Strait-Jacket" she is able to take a stab at the madwoman villainess whom she played opposite to in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" two years earlier.
The movie was campy, but it was a good choice by William Castle to get Joan Crawford to play the main character.
How much the star has fallen for an Oscar winning actress to do b-grade horror.A step up from his last movie with a similar Hitchcock premise to it, homicidal, Crawford plays a woman who spent 20 years in a loony bin for killing her husband and his lover with an Axe. Attempting to get her life together and bond with the daughter she left behind, Joan's character Lucy finds herself slowly going insane again.The movie is way more develop than homicidal and is given justice by Crawford's acting skills, despite how outdated some of the dialog is.
Carol Harbin (Diane Baker) is still haunted after witnessing her mother Lucy (Joan Crawford) murder her father and mistress 20 years earlier.
And then a couple of axe murders occur, and all signs point straight at Lucy...but a clever twist and exciting/creepy conclusion make 'Strait Jacket' much more compelling than many other horror films.I love this movie, it's one of my favourite old time "classic" horror flicks.
When the locals start getting axed, suspicions turn in one direction.This is probably one of William Castle's better known films, due mostly to the star power of Joan Crawford.
After playing the head nurse in an insane asylum in The Caretakers, Joan Crawford must have decided to see how the other side lived so her next film was Strait-Jacket where she was a mental patient.
William Castle directed this (for its time) gory thriller that stars Joan Crawford as Lucy Harbin, recently released from a mental asylum after 20 years for murdering her husband and his girlfriend with an ax.
In the opening sequence of "Strait-Jacket" Joan Crawford (in her late 50's) actually has the audacity to play her character Lucy at 20-something (in very soft lighting, of course!).
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?
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.
Written by Robert Bloch (who also wrote Psycho), this story of hateful revenge, mother/daughter madness and psycho axe-murders, was axe-ually quite an effective and compelling little b-movie that proudly lived up to William Castle's reputation for delivering sensational thrills on a less-than-sensational budget.I certainly give all of the actors in Strait-Jacket plenty of credit for their credible character portrayals.
There wasn't a single insincere performance in the lot.Besides Joan Crawford's intense role as the tragically mad woman who's now been released from an insane asylum after a 20-year sentence - I give a special nod of recognition to George Kennedy who played Leo Krause, the filthy, callous farm-hand who seemed to enjoy (for the benefit of others) heartlessly slaughtering the farm animals with the aid of his trusty axe.At the time of this film (1964), Joan Crawford was on the Board of Directors at Pepsi-Cola.
snarl!), I "Thank you", Joan Crawford, for being one of the very first to start this truly unwelcome trend that still continues in movies to this very day) As a somewhat comical, twisted, tongue-in-cheek trivia note - The viewer will notice that, at the very end of the picture, when the famous Columbia Pictures' icon (the classic woman holding a torch) appears on screen, she is now shown as being headless, with her noggin noticeably sitting down at her feet.All-in-all - Strait-Jacket's gore may be decidedly laughable when compared to the gruesome standards of today, but as a wacky (or should I say "whacky"?) mother/daughter madness/murder story, it certainly didn't let me down..
She commits a crime of passion, lopping off both their heads with an axe.20 years later, she's released from a mental asylum, to go to the family farm and into the care of her brother Bill (Leif Erickson), his wife (Rochelle Hudson), and Lucy's own daughter Carol (Diane Baker), who witnessed the double decapitation as a three year old child.
The director William Castle did a bang up job with this movie, the mood and tension was all there and the eeriness of the atoms-here was top notch, the beginning with the double murder was fantastic, and the scene with Joan Crawford being carted off in a strait jacket was highly enjoyable.Okay some of the effects do look corny but given the fact that this movie came out in 1964 is understandable.
Like when some of the people getting axed, you can tell that they are mannequins, but that doesn't matter to me, and okay the twist at the end was pretty obvious and not surprising and this movie does try it's hardest to steer you away from the big twist doesn't quite work, but other than that I found this early horror movie very entertaining.The performances in this movie were superb, Joan Crawford as always brilliant, her swift change from meek old woman to vamp when she meets her daughters boyfriend had me stitches, no-one beats her she did that without being too hammy.
"Straightjacket" doesn't really feel like a horror film much, but it does feel good when it is.**SPOILERS**In an insane asylum, Lucy Harbin, (Joan Crawford) is released and goes to visit her daughter Carol, (Diane Baker) after twenty years of being away.