Amazon.com Customer Reviews
 Rated 5 out of 5!
Fascinating, embarassing, and ultimately sad.
Strait-Jacket was one of my very first Joan Crawford movies. I had seen The Damned Don’’t Cry, Mildred Pierce, and Baby Jane by the time I was 11 and was absolutely in love with Joan Crawford from seeing her movies on AMC. To me she was the most beautiful, talented, and rather tragic of creatures. Of course, I expected Strait-Jacket to be of the same quality as Baby Jane. What a disappointment it was to me at that time, but now that I look back I see that this film introduced me to another side of Joan Crawford; the rather lonely, sad last years of her life. The Crawford of Baby Jane is remarkably different than the Crawford of Strait-Jacket. Gone are the subtlety and the last remnants of a great beauty that were still apparent in Baby Jane. Gone is the masterful acting of Mildred Pierce, Humoresque, and even Queen Bee. What is left is a tired shell of Joan Crawford, clinging to the last remains of the glamour; the faded star. Of course, Joan’’s star has never faded, even 25 years after her death. Her fame was just too great to ever really die during her lifetime or generations after. But although Strait-Jacket appears to be nothing more than a cheap B-movie thriller, it is actually a striking look into the fateful last years of a legend. The movie will leave you thinking for a long, long time after you’’ve seen it. The image of Crawford at the end of her career will burn in your mind. You’’ll be captivated and repelled at the same time, but what will remain is the fascination. Who was Joan Crawford really? Will we ever know? - Rated 5 out of 5!
Divine Madness... but she’’s not ashamed.
Joan’’s 1960’’s outout is generally fabulous because it’’s just so bad, with the notable exception of the eponymous Whatever happened to Baby Jane? Long gone is the sleek, stylish, achingly beautiful Joan of Mildred Pierce, and what takes her place is something akin to a Harpy, all eyebrows and lips and venom. Yet, for all of that, in Strait-Jacket, Joan manages to turn what could so easily have been just another William Castle mediocrity-fest, into a very enjoyable film, via one of her best performances as disaster-plagued farmer’’s wife, Lucy Harbin. The plot is thin but totally sufficient - Joan murders vile Husband and Mistress, Joan is locked up for 20 years, Joan is released, and more murders take place. Sounds straightforward enough. However, it’’s the contrast between tender emotion and outright rage that Crawford so beautifully portrays in her role as Lucy that lifts this film out of the ranks of B-Movie and makes it one of Crawford’’s finest hours. Her supporting cast are perfunctory, with the exception of a strong performance by Diane Baker as Joan’’s supportive daughter, and the utterly miscast and woeful John Anthony Hayes as Doctor Anderson, a Pepsi-Cola executive who fancied himself an Actor. Thankfully, his part is minute, and doesn’’t colour any of the scenes in this otherwise fine thriller. If Bette Davis considered herself a better Actress than Crawford, and indeed, for movie fans in general who consider Crawford a lesser being, check this out. In places it’’s tired and showing its age, but put Joan’’s performance in a melodrama instead of a schlock horror and you’’ve got an Oscar. Also, the DVD extras are great - the Crawford ax-swinging screen tests are particularly funny :-) - Rated 5 out of 5!
big fan
Being a Joan Crawford fan I really enjoyed this movie! Of course it doesn’’t have all the action and effects of horror films today but it is good and simple and fun to watch! Great movie!
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