When Lucy (Joan Crawford) arrives home a day early, she catches her second husband (an uncredited Lee Majors) asleep in bed with a young woman. Flipping out, she takes an axe to the dozing couple, lopping off their heads in plain sight of her three-year-old daughter Carol (Vicki Cos).After twenty years in an asylum, Lucy is finally declared sane and goes to stay with Carol (now played by Diane Baker ), who has been raised on a farm by her Uncle Bill (Leif Erickson) and Aunt Emily (Rochelle Hudson). Lucy is understandably ill at ease, her behaviour erratic, but it looks as though she might still be more than a little deranged when people start to fall victim to a psycho brandishing an axe.Even though Strait-Jacket comes from the pen of Robert 'Psycho' Bloch, it's a rather disappointing shocker, the film's plot entirely predictable from the outset; there won't be many people fooled into thinking that Lucy is really responsible for the latest murders. Director William Castle handles matters well enough (all without the need for one of his trademark gimmicks), and coaxes a solid performance from Crawford, but the film delivers very few surprises, at least until the hilarious Scooby-Doo ending, complete with rubber mask disguise—I didn't see that coming (on account of how dumb it is!).Look out for a young(ish) George Kennedy as shifty farmhand Krause, one of the suspects, at least until he also loses his head.

A funny, entertaining axe murder romp from director William Castle, who brings all of the expected lurid sensationalism to the film, which is full of the expected spooky music and creaky doors. The opening pictures of people at an asylum are also the same as those used in BEDLAM and ASYLUM, bringing to mind the same distorted, swirling features of the insane.Joan Crawford stars. She shows here that she's still got what it takes to captivate the audience and hold the screen, her acting dominating every moment she appears, and she fits perfectly into the role of the nice but occasionally snarling woman who may or may not be demented. In her black wig she even looks 30 years younger, no mean feat as she was 60 when this film was made, and her character is in total control of things, whether it be flirting with her son's lover or having a screaming match with her doctor.Along with Crawford's considerable presence, there is solid support from the young cast caught up in the nightmare, especially from Diane Baker who seems initially innocent but whose character soon takes another twist. A young George Kennedy appears as an unlucky farmhand who gets decapitated. The film is not particularly violent or gory, and there is no blood in it; however Kennedy's head is cut off in full view of the camera, while other murders are performed in shadow, much like in THE BLACK CAT. The influence of PSYCHO is clear here, with lots of references to 'mother' and schizophrenic activities; to further the point Robert Bloch is on hand as the writer.However, the film spends far too long on talk and not enough action, and therefore may be quite boring for those not experienced with this particular genre. With this fault aside, however, it's a fun story with a bravura performance from Crawford, typical of the director's approach and with a lot to commend it.

Written by Robert Bloch (who also wrote Psycho), this story of hateful revenge, mother/daughter madness and psycho axe-murders, was axe-ually quite an effective and compelling little b-movie that proudly lived up to William Castle's reputation for delivering sensational thrills on a less-than-sensational budget.I certainly give all of the actors in Strait-Jacket plenty of credit for their credible character portrayals. There wasn't a single insincere performance in the lot.Besides Joan Crawford's intense role as the tragically mad woman who's now been released from an insane asylum after a 20-year sentence - I give a special nod of recognition to George Kennedy who played Leo Krause, the filthy, callous farm-hand who seemed to enjoy (for the benefit of others) heartlessly slaughtering the farm animals with the aid of his trusty axe.At the time of this film (1964), Joan Crawford was on the Board of Directors at Pepsi-Cola. And because of that this film contains (in one scene) a clear placement of that company's product for all of the viewers to plainly see. (From the absolute bottom of my heart (snarl! snarl!), I "Thank you", Joan Crawford, for being one of the very first to start this truly unwelcome trend that still continues in movies to this very day) As a somewhat comical, twisted, tongue-in-cheek trivia note - The viewer will notice that, at the very end of the picture, when the famous Columbia Pictures' icon (the classic woman holding a torch) appears on screen, she is now shown as being headless, with her noggin noticeably sitting down at her feet.All-in-all - Strait-Jacket's gore may be decidedly laughable when compared to the gruesome standards of today, but as a wacky (or should I say "whacky"?) mother/daughter madness/murder story, it certainly didn't let me down.

Joan Crawford was a great actress, but Hollywood stops being kind to actresses when they get wrinkly and saggy. Crawford got kind of a second wind to her career with "Whatever happened to Baby Jane", where she and long time rival Betty Davis played women who were truly cruel to each other.After that, Crawford found herself playing the crazy crone in movies made by such operators as William Castle, the Gimmick King. Here she plays the a woman just released from a mental institution, whose daughter sets her up to take the fall for murders she intends to commit.Rather improbably, at the end of the movie, where the daughter is exposed with all the credibility of an episode of "Scooby-Doo", Joan's character suddenly becomes incredibly rational and explains the whole plot.Since I'm trying to get to ten lines, this movie features a fun bit of "Product Placement". There's a package of Pepsi sitting on a counter as they prepare for dinner. Why is this significant? Because in her later life, Crawford was married to Pepsi mogul Alfred Steele. Not sure this was the movie he wanted his product in, but he was dead for a few years.Also the Columbia lady has her head chopped off in the closing Logo, which is interesting. Kind of.