Strait-Jacket is a 1964 horror mystery film revolving around a series of axe murders. After a twenty-year stay at an asylum for a double murder, a mother returns to her estranged daughter where suspicions arise about her behaviour.
The movie stars Joan Crawford (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?) and Diane Baker. Horror regular George Kennedy (Death Ship, Just Before Dawn, Uninvited) also makes an appearance as a sneering farmhand.
The movie was directed and co-produced by William Castle. The screenplay 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 (Killerfish) in the uncredited role of Crawford’s husband.
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. During the film’s original release, some American moviegoers were given little cardboard axes as they entered the cinema.
Crawford replaced Joan Blondell in the role of Lucy Harbin after Blondell was injured at home prior to shooting and could not fulfil her commitment. Crawford’s negotiations included script and cast approval, a $50,000 salary, and 15 per cent of the profits, plus prominent plugs for Pepsi.
Plot:
Lucy Harbin has spent twenty years in an asylum where it was “pure hell” for the decapitation axe-murder of her husband (Lee Majors) and his mistress, after catching him cheating on her. After she is released, she takes up residence at the farm of her brother Bill Cutler and sister-in-law Emily.
Lucy’s adult daughter Carol, an artist and “sculptress”, also lives on the Cutler farm and is seemingly unaffected by the grisly murders she witnessed many years in the past as a three-year-old child. Carol encourages her mother to dress and act the way she did in the past. Lucy begins playing the vamp and makes passes at her daughter’s fiance Michael Fields. She then shocks his parents with a sudden tantrum when they consider their son’s marriage to Carol out of the question.
A series of brutal axe murders begin with Lucy’s doctor, who is found in the freezer, and the shady hired man Leo. All signs point to Lucy as the murderer and some believe she is still insane and should be returned to the hospital…
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Cast and characters:
Joan Crawford … Lucy Harbin; Diane Baker … Carol Cutler; Leif Erickson … Bill Cutler; Howard St. John … Raymond Fields; John Anthony Hayes … Michael Fields; Rochelle Hudson … Emily Cutler; George Kennedy … Leo Krause; Edith Atwater … Mrs Alison Fields; Mitchell Cox … Doctor Anderson; Vicki Cos … Carol Harbin – Aged Three; Patricia Crest … Stella Fulton ; Lynn Lundgren … Beautician; Lee Majors … Frank Harbin.
Release date:
Released by Columbia Pictures on January 19th 1964.
Trailer:
Free to watch online on YouTube:
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