Sunday Viewing: William Castle’s “Strait-Jacket,” 1964

Who told you about my dreams? Who told you about my nightmares?

--Joan Crawford as Lucy Harbin

Columbia Pictures

Lucy Harbin married a younger man. Her first husband had been an older fellow with money. When he died, she finally got what she wanted. Or did she? Lucy returns home from a train trip to find her husband—still wearing pants and a belt—in bed with another woman. She did what most rational people would do. She chopped their heads off with an axe that just happened to be in grabbing distance. Poor Lucy. What a shame that their small daughter, Carol, witnessed the whole thing.

Lucy finds herself carted off to a sanitarium (“Sanitorium,” “It wasn’t a santitarium. It was an ASYLUM. And, it was HELL.” She notes later) in a strait-jacket that does nothing for her figure. Then, we flash forward to the “present” and by “present,” I mean 1964. Lucy is reunited with her daughter on the family farm. Carol wants Lucy to be just as she was and takes her mother for a make-over. They visit a dress shop and a hairdresser who conveniently seems to stock “Joan Crawford Wigs.” That’s when the trouble really begins. The rest of the picture is a wonderful romp which includes a lot of wax heads, some axes, a neatly placed six-pack of Pepsi, Joan Crawford in a slip, some truly ugly statues, a hand-painted car, nervous knitting, some Scotch, and a lot of shouting.

Showman/Producer/Director and all around fun guy, William Castle was rather thrilled with himself when he managed to wrangle a big name star and a big name writer for an upcoming picture. Robert Bloch—who wrote Psycho—agreed to create a similarly grisly tale for Castle and Joan Crawford agreed to star, replacing Joan Blondell who had injured her back. Castle treated Strait-Jacket as an A-Picture and Crawford delivers her performance as if she’s still “Mildred Pierce.” The result is a thoroughly enjoyable film which despite its campier moments is still rather surprising.

I won’t give the plot away, however, it can be shocking if you’ve not seen it before. Crawford really gives it all she’s got, and Diane Baker (Carol) proves she can hold her own with the great Miss Crawford. The cast also includes a sufficiently oily George Kennedy and marks the screen debut of Lee Majors as Lucy’s unfaithful husband.

This clip is one of my favorite scenes from the picture. Here, we see Lucy in her “Joan Crawford Wig” and frighteningly loud dress (can you imagine what color that thing was) meeting Carol’s boyfriend for the first time. She’s a bit overexcited from the one sip of Scotch she’s had and ends up sticking her finger in the boy’s mouth—as one does.

If you’re looking for a wonderfully bizarre film for Halloween, Strait-Jacket is a good choice.