ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

bbickley13-921-58664 The movie was campy, but it was a good choice by William Castle to get Joan Crawford to play the main character. She was seasoned in years by the time she did the film but she still looks good. I notice that Castle did not use any gimmicks in this movie except for her. How much the star has fallen for an Oscar winning actress to do b-grade horror.A step up from his last movie with a similar Hitchcock premise to it, homicidal, Crawford plays a woman who spent 20 years in a loony bin for killing her husband and his lover with an Axe. Attempting to get her life together and bond with the daughter she left behind, Joan's character Lucy finds herself slowly going insane again.The movie is way more develop than homicidal and is given justice by Crawford's acting skills, despite how outdated some of the dialog is. Watching her Axe her husband in the beginning was worth the watch overall.

Toronto85 Joan Crawford's character is the prime suspect in a series of axe murders in 'Strait Jacket'. We get a back-story before the film really gets going. Lucy Harbin came home early one night from a trip to find her husband cheating on her with another woman. She kills the both of them with an axe while her young daughter Carol watched. Fast forward 20 years, and Lucy is just getting out to live with her brother Bill and daughter Carol. Pretty soon we witness some things with Lucy that make viewers question her sanity, such as her seeing decapitated heads in bed with her that later disappear. And then a couple of axe murders occur, and all signs point straight at Lucy...but a clever twist and exciting/creepy conclusion make 'Strait Jacket' much more compelling than many other horror films.I love this movie, it's one of my favourite old time "classic" horror flicks. Joan Crawford puts in her best performance next to 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane', you really feel for Lucy Harbin yet fear that she is slipping back into insanity. Diane Baker also puts in an AMAZING as the seemingly well put together daughter of Lucy (Carol). The murder scenes are well done and graphic for its time. The finale at the mansion when Lucy's boyfriends parents are attacked is filmed perfectly, it's creepy and the use of shadows makes viewers jump. The twist at the end as it's revealed who the murderer is was a shocking one, and acted out perfectly.'Strait Jacket' should be seen by all, another brilliant masterpiece by William Castle. It's a scary and eerie little early slasher flick which has some good performances and terrifying moments.9/10

bkoganbing After playing the head nurse in an insane asylum in The Caretakers, Joan Crawford must have decided to see how the other side lived so her next film was Strait-Jacket where she was a mental patient. What got her committed was her Lizzie Borden like attitude toward her second husband Lee Majors whom she dispatched along with his girlfriend with an ax. Her daughter who grows up to be Diane Baker saw the horror show as a child.But Joan's much better now and she's gone to live with Baker and her brother Leif Ericksen and sister-in-law Rochelle Hudson. Baker's about to get married to John Anthony Hayes a real blue blood whose parents are understandably curious about the girl he's marrying and her family. The parents are Howard St. John and Edith Atwater. When some bodies start occurring again as the result of 40 whacks they get downright concerned.After what she did in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane both Crawford and her arch rival Bette Davis got inundated with slasher flick offers. After doing The Caretakers this probably was the best thing Crawford was offered. But said to say it started her career tobogganing down the hill of mediocrity.Her last films were truly not worthy of mainstay star whose career began in silent films. If you're dedicated to Joan Crawford or slasher flicks see Strait-Jacket, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

Vornoff-3 This one has a certain class, lent to it by Crawford and by the script by Robert Bloch of "Psycho" fame (and of the Lovecraft circle). It's a bit convoluted, as a movie, but it works. Any lesser actress would be hard to watch as the melodramatic mother released from a mental institution 20 years after murdering her husband and his lover. My favorite part is where Joan comes on to her adult daughter's new boyfriend. You'll probably figure out the ending before it comes, but watching it unfold is lots of fun. No gimmick this time out, I guess having Joan Crawford on the marquee was enough, even for William Castle!