STRAIT
JACKET (1964)Director: William Castle
Columbia/TriStar
STRAIT
JACKET (1964)After years of excessive promotional gimmicks, William Castle decided to lessen the ballyhoo and create a vehicle for a true Hollywood star. After studying the box office receipts of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, Castle offered Robert Bloch's screenplay to the legendary Joan Crawford. Crawford accepted, but in typical Joan fashion, she had the story re-written to pacify her ego and the on-the-set demands quickly piled up. According to Castle, Crawford was "demanding" but she was not "difficult."
The film opens with a steamy Tennessee Williams-esqe flashback of Lucy Harper (Crawford, who was pushing 60 at the time) coming home to find her much younger husband (an early role by Lee Majors) in the sack with the local hussy. Lucy grabs an axe from outside and viciously does them both in--all while her young daughter looks on in total shock.
Twenty years later, Lucy is released from an asylum and comes to stay with her now adult daughter Carol (Diane Baker), her brother (Leif Erickson) and her sister-in-law (Rochelle Hudson) at their peaceful farm. Carol wants to help her nervous mother to be happy, so she buys her a black wig and fancy floral dress and Lucy looks like a new woman. Soon, poor Lucy starts hearing "Lizzie Borden" nursery rhymes and seeing decapitated heads on her pillow. A number of murders follow, and Lucy may or may not be responsible...
STRAIT JACKET is not the best William Castle film and is a bit slow at times, but it's still got some nice shocks, a killer ending, and some really strong performances--especially from its star. Crawford eats up the scenery and steals nearly every scene she's in, only entering camp territory on several occasions--especially when she gets drunk and tries to seduce her daughter's boyfriend or when she spontaneously lights a match on a spinning jazz record! Also in the cast is a pre-celeb George Kennedy who is almost unrecognizable as a shabby farmhand. And pay close attention to the Columbia statue at the very end!
Columbia's transfer on this nearly 40-year-old film is terrific. It's letterboxed at 1.85:1 (with anamorphic enhancement), and this ratio is completely complimentary to its splendid black and white cinematography. The source print is very clean and the contrast is excellent. The mono audio is also surprisingly effective, with the blaring jazz music, sound effects and dialog all being rendered magnificently for an older title. Also included are English, Spanish, French and Portuguese subtitles.
Included on the disc is an excellent featurette entitled, "Battle-Axe: The Making of Strait-Jacket." This is mainly made up of some interesting interviews with film historian David Del Valle and STRAIT JACKET star Diane Baker (actually, Baker was a replacement when Joan had the original actress playing her daughter fired!). Baker (who looks almost the same all these years later) reflects on performing with the stubborn legend, and Del Valle discloses some fascinating production facts (Joan's allegiance to her husband's Pepsi corporation made them cast a non-acting company bigwig as her doctor in the film!). The featurette also has some rare footage of Crawford, Castle and Bloch in a staged living room meeting where they march off with axes in hand, as well as stills of Joan's numerous public appearances to promote the film.
And from the Columbia vaults comes some more welcomed extras. There are a few minutes of Crawford's wardrobe and make-up tests for the film. Here, Joan models the various outfits she wears in STRAIT JACKET while making some very confident faces and posing like the bona fide star that she was. Also included is "The Ax-Swinging Screen Test," which is brief footage of Joan chopping off a phony head with blood generously flowing (nothing this graphic is actually shown in the film, as the sequence was darkened up when they actually came time to shoot it). Lastly, there are trailers for STRAIT JACKET (actually a disappointing 40-second TV spot narrated by Joan), MR. SARDONICUS and 13 GHOSTS. Bravo Columbia! (George R. Reis)