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Strait-Jacket
Despite some problems with story structure and manic direction, a campy, 1964 "thriller" called Strait-Jacket is worth checking out for the flamboyant performance of Joan Crawford in the starring role.
Crawford plays Lucy Harbin, a woman who has just spent twenty years in an insane asylum after murdering her husband and his mistress with an ax. She has come to the large farm where her daughter, Carol (Diane Baker) , who witnessed the double murder as a child, now lives. Lucy and Carol attempt to reconnect and put the past behind them, until, suddenly ax murders start occurring again.
This film was my first exposure to William Castle as a director. He did produce Rosemary's Baby but it was directed by Roman Polanski. Castle seems to have wanted to present a legitimate thriller; unfortunately, with the aid of an obnoxious music score, spoon feeds us Robert Bloch's overly melodramatic screenplay for the entire running time, providing a few "boos" here and there but never any sense of mystery regarding what's going on here. I figured out what was going on here about fifteen minutes in and that wouldn't have bothered me so much if Castle had put a little more detail in the motivations of the characters that would have made the viewer enjoy what was going on, despite a foregone conclusion. Castle's direction should have been a little more on character presentation than just trying to scare the audience. There were several scenes here that I think were intended to shock but just produced unintentional giggles from this reviewer.
Despite these problems, I have to admit that Crawford's larger than life performance kept me invested in the proceedings. There were few actresses who could play "teetering on the brink of sanity" better than Crawford which was a help and hindrance to this story. It might have been nice if it wasn't so immediately apparent that Lucy might have been released from the hospital prematurely. Diane Baker has some solid moments as Carol, but she clearly needed a little more attention from Castle.
The film has some problems with logistics and continuity...there are some moments in the final act where characters are appearing in one location and all of a sudden in another that aren't realistic at all. This might be a tiny nitpick, but for a movie that depicts multiple ax murders, there is not a speck of blood on display here. Despite its problems, Crawford kept me watching and her performance alone earned this rating.
Despite some problems with story structure and manic direction, a campy, 1964 "thriller" called Strait-Jacket is worth checking out for the flamboyant performance of Joan Crawford in the starring role.
Crawford plays Lucy Harbin, a woman who has just spent twenty years in an insane asylum after murdering her husband and his mistress with an ax. She has come to the large farm where her daughter, Carol (Diane Baker) , who witnessed the double murder as a child, now lives. Lucy and Carol attempt to reconnect and put the past behind them, until, suddenly ax murders start occurring again.
This film was my first exposure to William Castle as a director. He did produce Rosemary's Baby but it was directed by Roman Polanski. Castle seems to have wanted to present a legitimate thriller; unfortunately, with the aid of an obnoxious music score, spoon feeds us Robert Bloch's overly melodramatic screenplay for the entire running time, providing a few "boos" here and there but never any sense of mystery regarding what's going on here. I figured out what was going on here about fifteen minutes in and that wouldn't have bothered me so much if Castle had put a little more detail in the motivations of the characters that would have made the viewer enjoy what was going on, despite a foregone conclusion. Castle's direction should have been a little more on character presentation than just trying to scare the audience. There were several scenes here that I think were intended to shock but just produced unintentional giggles from this reviewer.
Despite these problems, I have to admit that Crawford's larger than life performance kept me invested in the proceedings. There were few actresses who could play "teetering on the brink of sanity" better than Crawford which was a help and hindrance to this story. It might have been nice if it wasn't so immediately apparent that Lucy might have been released from the hospital prematurely. Diane Baker has some solid moments as Carol, but she clearly needed a little more attention from Castle.
The film has some problems with logistics and continuity...there are some moments in the final act where characters are appearing in one location and all of a sudden in another that aren't realistic at all. This might be a tiny nitpick, but for a movie that depicts multiple ax murders, there is not a speck of blood on display here. Despite its problems, Crawford kept me watching and her performance alone earned this rating.