Rating: 3.5/5
WARNING! ‘Strait-Jacket’ vividly depicts ax murders!
— It's hard for an artist to know when they're finished — It's hard for a doctor, too
Lucy (Joan Crawford) comes home to her husband in bed with another woman. She grabs an axe and chops both of them up, her daughter Carol witnessing the whole thing
Cut to twenty years later, with Carol (Diane Baker) explaining the story to her beau, Michael, and that her mother is coming home from a mental institution
But when Lucy returns, she has trouble adjusting, so Carol buys her new clothes and a wig to help her feel at ease. At night, Lucy has waking nightmares of bloody axes and decapitated heads
Joan Crawford and Diane Baker give their all in this wild — and surprisingly graphic — story. It may be trashy, but it’s a trashy that I enjoy
Stray Thoughts
- The opening credits with the unhinged chalk drawings (or paintings, it’s hard to tell in black and white) are inspired
- Saying Joan Crawford’s character is “Very much a woman, and very much aware of that” is some top-notch writing
- At some point, I’m going to have to watch Joan Crawford in a non “psycho-biddy” flick
- Diane Baker looks like Ashley Williams (Victoria from How I Met Your Mother)
- George Kennedy killing chickens with an axe
- Michael’s dad keeping a pitcher of milk out like some folks keep liquor is the most psychotic thing anyone does in this movie
- His parents also have a Mona Lisa print on their wall — it’s so tacky
- The beheaded Columbia Pictures logo at the end!