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Strait-Jacket
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<h2 id="plot">Plot</h2> <p>In 1943, Lucy Harbin murders her unfaithful husband Frank and his mistress Stella with an axe, while their young daughter, Carol, watches in horror. Lucy is found <a href="/facts/Insanity_defense/8vNC2LBw">not guilty by reason of insanity</a> and confined to an asylum. Carol is sent to live with her Uncle Bill and Aunt Emily on their farm. </p><p>Twenty years later, Lucy has progressed sufficiently to be released into the care of Bill and Emily. Carol, who works as a <a href="/facts/Sculptor/F01q8gtb">sculptor</a> in the converted guest house, is anxious about the reunion. Lucy is initially withdrawn and fragile, but gradually acclimates to her new surroundings. Carol encourages Lucy to update her look, resulting in Lucy resembling herself from the time of the murders. Lucy begins hearing children chanting a variation of the <a href="/facts/Lizzie_Borden/fKeFBJeo">folk rhyme about Lizzie Borden</a> that names Lucy, Frank and Stella instead. One night, she awakens and finds Frank and Stella’s heads in her bed. Lucy raises an alarm, but no one else in the household experiences the phenomena. </p><p>Carol invites her boyfriend, Michael Fields, to meet her mother. Lucy quickly becomes drunk and flirts with Michael, who becomes uncomfortable and leaves. Lucy's psychiatrist from the asylum, Dr. Anderson, stops by the farm to check on her. Lucy is paranoid and evasive during their conversation, then storms off. Anderson tells Carol that he thinks her mother was released too soon and he plans to take her back to the hospital. While looking for Lucy, he is lured into the windmill and killed with an axe by an unseen assailant. Noticing the doctor's car is still in the driveway at nightfall, Carol hides it in the barn while farmhand Leo Krause spies on her. When Carol finds Lucy, Lucy can't remember the past few hours. Carol fears Lucy may have murdered Anderson. </p><p>Leo blackmails Carol to give him Anderson’s car. He later finds Anderson's body in the slaughterhouse freezer and is decapitated by the killer. </p><p>Carol convinces Lucy to have dinner with Michael and his wealthy parents at their mansion, accompanied by Bill and Emily. The evening goes well at first, but Lucy and Michael's mother, Allison, get into an argument over Carol and Michael’s wedding plans. Allison believes the Harbins are beneath the Fields’ social standing. Lucy flees the mansion in a rage, and Bill and Michael go out to look for her. </p><p>While Allison awaits their return, Michael's father, Raymond, is hacked to death in the bedroom closet. Allison finds his corpse and is attacked. The killer wears a latex mask resembling Lucy’s face. The real Lucy, returning to apologize for her outburst, surprises and subdues the killer. She removes the mask to reveal Carol. In a crazed monologue, Carol says she always hated Lucy for leaving her without parents. She planned to kill Michael's disapproving parents so the young couple could inherit the Fields’ money, and frame Lucy for the crimes. She also planted fake severed heads in Lucy’s bedroom, played the folk rhyme on a tape recorder, and killed Dr. Anderson and Leo for interfering with her plan. </p><p>Sometime later, Bill and Lucy pack up the guest house as they prepare to visit Carol, who is now a patient in the same asylum that treated her mother. </p> <h2 id="cast">Cast</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Joan_Crawford/5k0kBdf4">Joan Crawford</a> as Lucy Harbin</li> <li><a href="/facts/Diane_Baker/aESy3BY5">Diane Baker</a> as Carol Cutler</li> <li><a href="/facts/Leif_Erickson_(actor)/9YdlbyPI">Leif Erickson</a> as Bill Cutler</li> <li><a href="/facts/Howard_St._John/CTtztRpT">Howard St. John</a> as Raymond Fields</li> <li>John Anthony Hayes as Michael Fields</li> <li><a href="/facts/Rochelle_Hudson/5H0rE5b5">Rochelle Hudson</a> as Emily Cutler</li> <li><a href="/facts/George_Kennedy/c3YS1emX">George Kennedy</a> as Leo Krause</li> <li><a href="/facts/Edith_Atwater/KdM72HIo">Edith Atwater</a> as Mrs. Allison Fields</li> <li>Mitchell Cox as Dr. Anderson</li></ul> <p><i>Strait-Jacket</i> featured the first big-screen appearance of <a href="/facts/Lee_Majors/mTmUxRnd">Lee Majors</a> in the uncredited role of Frank Harbin, Lucy Harbin's husband, seen in the opening minutes of the film.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> Patricia Crest, the actress who plays Stella, is also uncredited. </p> <h2 id="production">Production</h2> <h3>Development</h3> <p>After the success of <i><a href="/facts/What_Ever_Happened_to_Baby_Jane%253F_(film)/CWqSp1Wb">What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?</a></i> (1962), Joan Crawford and other older actresses, including <a href="/facts/Bette_Davis/3bEtNFjr">Bette Davis</a> and <a href="/facts/Barbara_Stanwyck/JCmJUnMw">Barbara Stanwyck</a>, appeared in many horror movies throughout the 1960s. <i>Strait-Jacket</i> is one of the examples of the <a href="/facts/Genre/ow1Po53X">genre</a> sometimes referred to as <a href="/facts/Gender_in_horror_films/TxYGxsTt">psycho-biddy, hagsploitation or Grande Dame Guignol</a>. </p> <h3>Casting</h3> <p>Crawford replaced <a href="/facts/Joan_Blondell/Hx7uPrjL">Joan Blondell</a> in the role of Lucy Harbin after Blondell was injured at home prior to shooting and could not fulfill her commitment. Crawford's negotiations included script and cast approval, a $50,000 salary, and 15 percent of the profits. <a href="/facts/Anne_Helm/Y81bdRKp">Anne Helm</a>, who was originally cast in the role as Carol, was replaced by Diane Baker, reportedly at Crawford's insistence. Baker and Crawford had appeared together in the film <i><a href="/facts/The_Best_of_Everything_(film)/Hb8xQYDT">The Best of Everything</a></i> (1959). Baker said that Helm had problems with Crawford. According to Baker, speaking on the “making-of” featurette on the DVD release, Crawford had said, "it wasn't working out, her timing was off, she wasn't getting it, she wasn't seeing eye-to-eye, or she wasn't working the way Crawford wanted to work".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> </p> <h3>Promotion</h3> <p>During the film's original release, moviegoers were given little cardboard axes as they entered the theater. At the end of the closing credits, the Columbia logo's torch-bearing woman is shown in her traditional pose, but decapitated, with her head resting at her feet on her pedestal. </p> <h2 id="reception">Reception</h2> <p>The film received mixed reviews from critics, while most praised Crawford's performance; the general critical consensus being that she was better than the material. <i><a href="/facts/Variety_(magazine)/38rXIaaG">Variety</a></i> noted, "Miss Crawford does well by her role, delivering an animated performance." <a href="/facts/Judith_Crist/fPYtBzFD">Judith Crist</a> commented in the <i><a href="/facts/New_York_Herald_Tribune/p3DRaNaM">New York Herald Tribune</a></i> that "it's time to get Joan Crawford out of those housedress horror B movies and back into haute couture...this madness-and-murder tale...might have been a thriller, given Class A treatment." Elaine Rothschild in <i><a href="/facts/Films_in_Review/9CdTXwBY">Films in Review</a></i> wrote: "I am full of admiration for Joan Crawford, for even in drek like this she gives a performance."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p><p><a href="/facts/Bosley_Crowther/H9Yn1jk1">Bosley Crowther</a>, however, wrote a scathing review of both the film and Crawford's performance in <i><a href="/facts/The_New_York_Times/T9marWVX">The New York Times</a></i>, declaring: "Joan Crawford has picked some lemons, some very sour lemons, in her day, but nigh the worst of the lot is "Strait-Jacket". He goes on to call the film a "disgusting piece of claptrap."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> <a href="/facts/Richard_L._Coe/L3BDaoLz">Richard L. Coe</a> of <i><a href="/facts/The_Washington_Post/dRvzvqJc">The Washington Post</a></i> also hated the film, calling it "likely to stand as the worst picture of the year ... Apart from the absurdity of the plot and the chilling predictability of lines and situations, 'Strait-Jacket' is inexcusable for its scenes of violence."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p><p>The film is listed in <a href="/facts/Golden_Raspberry_Award/zdey1SKV">Golden Raspberry Award</a> founder <a href="/facts/John_J._B._Wilson/KG3PU0xG">John Wilson</a>'s book <i><a href="/facts/The_Official_Razzie_Movie_Guide/GGyPP8fW">The Official Razzie Movie Guide</a></i> as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> The film also maintains an 88% rating on <a href="/facts/Review_aggregator/EpyYjDP6">review aggregation</a> website <a href="/facts/Rotten_Tomatoes/rLs7ktSY">Rotten Tomatoes</a>, based on 8 reviews.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><p>Assisted by Castle's promotion gimmicks, including in-person appearances by Crawford, the film was a big hit,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> making in 2019 adjusted grosses $60.8 million at the American box office.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="home-media">Home media</h2> <p><i>Strait-Jacket</i> was released on Region 1 <a href="/facts/DVD/7fJsHJrN">DVD</a> on March 12, 2002. On February 4, 2014, it was re-released on Region 1 DVD as part of the <a href="/facts/Sony_Pictures_Choice_Collection/yPJt0tlx">Sony Pictures Choice Collection</a> online program. </p><p><a href="/facts/Shout!_Factory/gLsHN1Mr">Shout! Factory</a> released the film on <a href="/facts/Blu-ray/zyPalhfG">Blu-ray</a> on August 21, 2018. Mill Creek Entertainment also released the film along with <i><a href="/facts/Berserk!/UBXdWwHw">Berserk!</a></i> on a double feature Blu-ray on October 2, 2018.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="legacy">Legacy</h2> <p>An excerpt from the film is seen on TV in the 1994 <a href="/facts/John_Waters/o1FbP90x">John Waters</a> film <i><a href="/facts/Serial_Mom/qgFQh67d">Serial Mom</a></i>. </p><p>At the conclusion, the <a href="/facts/Columbia_Pictures/J35aASat">Columbia logo</a> is seen <a href="/facts/Decapitation/Mbe8UAeF">decapitated</a> (with her head resting at its base, near her feet) as a <a href="/facts/Tongue-in-cheek/WvEjwP4F">tongue-in-cheek</a> ode to the film's <a href="/facts/Axe_murder/agXMfEKt">axe murder</a> theme. </p><p>The promotion of <i>Strait-Jacket</i> by the studio, the director and Crawford are addressed in the episode "<a href="/facts/Hagsploitation_(Feud)/Bv1Bd7r3">Hagsploitation</a>" of the 2017 television miniseries <i><a href="/facts/Feud_(TV_series)/Bv1Bd7r3">Feud</a></i>. </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/List_of_American_films_of_1964/Ek3Q6D3F">List of American films of 1964</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> Wikimedia Commons has media related to Strait-Jacket. Wikiquote has quotations related to <i>Strait-Jacket</i>. <ul><li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058620/"><i>Strait-Jacket</i></a> at <a href="/facts/IMDb_(identifier)/uWrqVYVy">IMDb</a> </li> <li><a href="https://movies.tvguide.com/strait-jacket/review/119026">Review of <i>Strait-Jacket</i> at TVGuide.com</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/27835/enwp"><i>Strait-Jacket</i></a> at the <a href="/facts/Turner_Classic_Movies/0qS5jr3H">TCM Movie Database</a> </li> <li><a href="https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/21605"><i>Strait-Jacket</i></a> at the <a href="/facts/AFI_Catalog_of_Feature_Films/61kFwpB6">AFI Catalog of Feature Films</a> </li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kko7TMyptVA"><i>Strait-Jacket</i> trailer</a> on <a href="/facts/YouTube_video_(identifier)/db276jst">YouTube</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Miller, Frank. "Strait-Jacket". TCM. Retrieved 5 July 2022. <a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/27835/strait-jacket" target="_blank">https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/27835/strait-jacket</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Battle Axe: The Making of Straight-Jacket, documentary, ç2002, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment DVD <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Quirk, Lawrence J. (1968). The Films of Joan Crawford. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group. ISBN 9780806503417. <a href="9780806503417" target="_blank">9780806503417</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Crowther, Bosley (January 23, 1964). "Film Opens as Part of a Double Feature". The New York Times. <a href="/wiki/Bosley_Crowther" target="_blank">/wiki/Bosley_Crowther</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Coe, Richard L. (January 11, 1964). "For Collectors Of Awful Gems". The Washington Post. p. B8. <a href="/wiki/Richard_L._Coe" target="_blank">/wiki/Richard_L._Coe</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Wilson, John (2005). The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst. New York City: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-69334-0. <a href="0-446-69334-0" target="_blank">0-446-69334-0</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>"Strait-Jacket (1964)". Archived from the original on 2019-12-25. Retrieved 2019-11-15. <a href="https://rottentomatoes.com/m/straitjacket/" target="_blank">https://rottentomatoes.com/m/straitjacket/</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>TCM <a href="https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/179094" target="_blank">https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/179094</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"Joan Crawford Movies | Ultimate Movie Rankings". 31 May 2015. <a href="https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/joan-crawford-movies/" target="_blank">https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/joan-crawford-movies/</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Strait-Jacket and Berserk: Double Feature Blu-Ray Archived 2019-04-23 at the Wayback Machine Mill Creek Entertainment <a href="https://www.millcreekent.com/strait-jacket-and-berserk-double-feature-blu-ray.html" target="_blank">https://www.millcreekent.com/strait-jacket-and-berserk-double-feature-blu-ray.html</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>