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.
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.