Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Strait-Jacket

     This little gem starring Joan Crawford is a must-see. It covers all the essentials... campiness, a stupid plot, bad acting, and an aging Hollywood superstar with nothing else to do but try desperately to save her failing career. This film was made by William Castle (House on Haunted Hill) who had always used gimmicks with his movies (buzzing theater seats for "The Tingler" and a flying skeleton for "House on Haunted Hill").  He was told that he couldn't use gimmicks anymore (why not, they were such fun?) and then stumbled upon the perfect gimmick of all time when he found Joan Crawford. She had been making movies for a hell of a long time, with a hit here and there, but it appeared that she was losing ground as an actress. "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" made Joan Crawford a hot item once again, but it didn't last for long. This film followed soon afterward and really is a pretty good performance on Crawford's part, proving that she could still be an incredible actress when she wanted to (can't say anything good about anyone else in this movie though). 

      Alright, so the movie opens when Lucy Harbin (Joan Crawford) comes home early from a trip and catches her husband screwing an old girlfriend. She takes an ax, chops them to bits, and is carted off to the loony bin. Their daughter witnesses the entire event. Fast forward twenty years, Lucy is finally released from the asylum and goes to stay with her daughter. All seems fine... the daughter is a pretty young woman now, is a sculptress, and is engaged to a handsome young man. 

      Things couldn't be going better... until Lucy starts to have nightmares about the murders and wakes up next to two severed heads and hears an eerie nursery rhyme about herself repeated incessantly (Lucy Harbin took an ax and gave her husband forty whacks and when she saw what she had done, she gave his girlfriend forty-one) which is set to the tune that was originally made up for Lizzie Borden. 

      Strange events begin to happen and people start disappearing. Everything points to Lucy, of course. We also learn that the gentleman that Lucy's daughter is engaged to be married to is the son of a wealthy, prominent, businessman. Lucy's daughter Carol is positive that her fiances' parents are not going to allow their son to marry a woman whose mother is a certified but rehabilitated lunatic. So she assumes that having her mother recommitted (and out of the picture) is the only solution. 

      Lucy, herself actually walks in on someone who looks just like her in the process of committing an ax murder. A scuffle ensues and the "other" Lucy Harbin has their mask pulled off. Surprise, surprise... it's Carol. Having made the mask from a sculpture she had created of her mother's face. Including the severed heads that Lucy found in her bed.  All done by Carol in an attempt to drive poor Lucy over the edge again, so she can have her stupid fiances parents like her. Kinda dumb, but still very entertaining.  

     Joan had some rather difficult policies that she enforced on set that everyone else had to just grin and bear, simply because she was the obvious star and knew that she was gonna get her way.  She insisted that the temperature on the set be kept at basically below freezing because she believed that this kept her face taunt and wrinkle-free.  Joan never did handle aging very well.  William Castle used her in a few more movies but soon gave up on remaking her into the star she once was.  Maybe he just got tired of always being so damn cold all the time. 

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