#strait-jacket

Strait-Jacket (1964) | Dir. William Castle

Finished 🎥

Strait-Jacket | 1964

The X trilogy + "psycho-biddy" influences

Released in US cinemas on this day (19 January 1964): shock-by-shock hagsploitation classic Strait-Jacket. Sure, director William Castle is frequently derided by the uninitiated as a hack reliant on gimmicks (skeletons dangling over the audience. Electrical shocks administered under seats), but his best movies like House on Haunted Hill (1959), The Tingler (1959), 13 Ghosts (1960), Homicidal (1961), Mr. Sardonicus (1961) and The Night Walker (1964) are irresistible fun – and stark, taut mean little b-movie Strait-Jacket is his masterpiece. It’s got an atmospheric isolated rural setting. The action is enveloped in deep chiaroscuro film noir shadows. There are sudden eruptions of violence. In particular, the pre-credits cold opening, sketching in the past of axe murderess anti-heroine Lucy Harbin, is virtuoso storytelling. And - sporting the harshest, wiggiest jet-black wig in cinema history and jangling those maddening charm bracelets - glorious leading lady Joan Crawford’s force-of-nature performance is pure opera or Kabuki theatre. The scene where Crawford strikes a match on a spinning record (and then essentially sticks her fingers in the mouth of her daughter’s fiancé) is the zenith of camp. In conclusion: Strait-Jacket is 93 minutes of perfection! Pictured: wild Belgian poster for Strait-Jacket.

Joan Crawford in Sudden Fear (1952) dir. David Miller and Strait-Jacket (1964) dir. William Castle

Joan Crawford