Strait-Jacket

Strait-Jacket is a frustrating thriller that should have been better.

The story sees Joan Crawford play a woman recently released from an asylum who begins to doubt her sanity after reuniting with her estranged daughter.

Director William Castle, likely believing he had real A-level picture given the involvement of Psycho (1960) screenwriter Robert Bloch and Joan Crawford, abandons the gimmicks of his earlier films like Homicidal (1961) and The Tingler (1959). Unfortunately, in disposing of the camp, Castle also seems to have lost the wonderful streak of black humor that ran through his best efforts. Granted, Strait-Jacket has a great closing shot that’s classic Castle, but by that point, it’s too little, too late.

Strait-Jacket is slow. After a solid opening sequence featuring an uncredited Lee Majors, Robert Bloch’s script creeps along at a snail’s pace. There’s a lot of potential, but even at only 89 minutes, the film feels too long.

For her part, star Joan Crawford turns in a good performance. She convinces as an unstable woman trying to adjust to a new life, simultaneously appearing both threatening and vulnerable. Unfortunately, her performance isn’t strong enough to carry the film, and the unnecessary, and ill-fitting epilogue she supposedly mandated, only serves to drag down the film even further.

Castle should have brought back the cheesy gimmicks, if that’s what it would have taken to recapture the contagious energy of his earlier pictures, because while Joan Crawford is great Strait-Jacket is ultimately lacking.