Strait-Jacket (1964)

 

Strait-Jacket (1964)

 

All Filmmakers are Students of other Filmmakers, and all of those Students are specifically Students of Director Alfred Hitchcock, even if the Filmmaker isn’t making Thrillers (I say Steven Spielberg is Hitchcock’s greatest Student).

 

Perhaps no Filmmaker wanted to be Hitchcock more than Director Willaim Castle, and though Castle never came close to being the next Hitchcock, his pursuit of that goal was so cheerful, offering us so much Campy joy and occasional Suspense, it’s hard not to love him.

 

Hitchcock was aware of Castle, and though I see no influence of Castle in the way Hitchcock made his films (the guy Hitchcock borrowed from was Henri-Georges Clouzot, who, politely, did so in return), Castle’s Barnstorming Promotions tactics clearly made their mark, and Hitchcock directly borrowed from them for the selling of his most famous film, “Psycho” (1960).

 

Castle’s “Straight Jacket” was post-“Psycho” and he crowed of his intentions to take on Hitchcock in a press release, “From the director of ‘Homicidal’ [1961], the author of ‘Psycho,’ [meaning the 1959 novel, not the screenplay to the 1960 film], and the costar of ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane’ [1962].”

 

Actually, that co-Star, Joan Crawford, wasn’t Castle’s first choice for the lead: Grayson Hall was first approached, but chose a NYC stage job over it. Then came Joan Blondell, but she had to drop-out because of an injury. Afterwards, Castle would make it sound as if Crawford was the first choice from the beginning and apparently even sold this line to Crawford herself.

 

At that moment, Crawford’s Acting career was then in free-fall because age was catching up with the legendary beauty and Gossip Columnists had become unmerciful (if you want that sordid story, read up on “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane” and “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte” (1964), and the scandal is so famous there was even a saucy TV mini-series mocking the whole thing, “Feud” (2017)). But even in free-fall, Crawford remained an Audience draw.

 

Castle deliberately begged comparisons between “Psycho” and “Straight Jacket” and though “Straight Jacket” could not compare with “Psycho’s” Artistry, it did, maybe, have a back-handed Integrity “Psycho” lacked. Neither were terribly serious films, but at least “Straight Jacket” admitted it.

 

“Psycho” was about a Serial Killer, inspired by Real-World Ed Gein, but is grounded in dubious Psychology and told as a Mystery Thriller with an all-important Surprise ending.

 

“Straight Jacket” and similar roots in, and followed by similar dismissal of, Reality: Lucy Harbin (that’s Crawford’s Character) suffered a Psychotic break decades before the main story unfolds, brutally murdering her cheating husband and mistress (both uncredited, but the husband was Lee Majors in his first film role). After a long Incarceration she is now free, and longing to rebuild her relationship with her estranged daughter, Carol, now last name Cutler (Diane Baker), and find a new place in this world. Real people have gone through similar things (the story may have been inspired by the later-in-life difficulties of Real-World but never-Convicted Murderess Lizzie Borden), but when has there been a film that looked at such Drama with an Honest Eye?

 

Rarely to almost never.

 

“Straight Jacket” is Pulpier than “Psycho” and also hinges on a surprise-ending, and chooses to be a hell-of-a-lot cheekier about it.

 

In this film, Crawford rocks. The primary tension emerges not from the Gore-scenes, but from her convincing portrayal of Lucy‘s fragile mental state, and Crawford earn much praise for this role, but also cruel mockery. The consensus was she delivered a better performance than the film deserved (true) but there was also a lot of snide, “Look how the once mighty Star had Fallen” (not-for-nothing, this Fallen Star was well-paid). Many called attention to the fact that she was 60-years-old at the time (maybe older, Crawford did change he birth year a few times) but played a 29-year-old in the opening scene, then a 49-year-old thereafter (not-for-nothing, she was still fine-looking and pulled of the 49-year-old part well).

 

The just released Lucy is shy, dowdy, and gray-haired. She moves in with her brother Bill Culter (Lief Erickson), who had adopted her daughter Carole, and receives tender care from both as she emerges from her cocoon. But as she does, so does some of her bad behaviors. Now wearing fashionable wigs and clothes, her beauty re-emerging, she becomes inappropriate, flirtatious, dancing at the edge of scandal with Carole’s fiancé Michael Fields (John Anthony Hayes) and embarrassing Carole in front of her future in-laws (Howard St John & Edith Atwater), a more proper family with no axe-murders to make excuses for.

 

That is when Actress Crawford begins mugging the camera, which is not something to mock, because let’s face it, that’s what we were waiting for. She’s full of great gestures, like striking a match on a record playing on a phonograph. Separating this film from a more serious Drama was a string of new Murders that Lucy is automatically Suspect of, and these pressures start to erode Lucy’s grip on Reality. As Lucy looks so Guilty, the Audience must know she must really be Innocent, because movies are movies after all.

 

The humor is all intentional and saves the film from being thrown off by its crasser gestures – and the greatest crassness isn’t in the lurid plot or violence, but the extreme product-placement: Pepsi-Cola is everywhere because Crawford was on the Board of Directors of that company and also guaranteed a small part for the company’s Vice President, Mitchell Cox, as Character Dr. Anderson, who was much mocked by Critics and never did another film. (The blog, B&S About Movies, joked, “Oh yeah — you can also totally play a drinking game by looking for every appearance of Pepsi in this movie.”)

 

Director Castle was able to complete the production five days ahead of schedule and for only $550,000. Crawford, a tough business woman, kept everyone, even Castle, under her thumb. Her first meeting with Castle and Producers took place at her NYC apartment where she served lunch, but only after making everyone remove their shoes so they wouldn't stain her new carpet. After that, her total domination was predictable: Not only did she secure a nice salary of $50,000 (so almost 10% of the total budget), but between 15-20% of the film’s profits, final casting choices (she fired Castle favorite Actress Anne Helm and replaced her with Lane), and script approval (including demanding major rewrites of the climax to secure her more on-screen time than Lane).

 

Having guaranteed herself near-complete control of everything, and further demanding to be the center of attention at all times, perhaps Director Castle’s greatest achievement was keeping his vision intact. Crawford owns this movie, but if you’re familiar with Castle’s work, you’ll recognize it’s still a Castle film. He may not have been the Genius that Hitchcock was, but his work was still forever distinctive. Always on cinema’s margins, his successes were often stained by patronizing treatment, but all Castles were still Castle’s, and at least publicly, he was always charming and generous. He always got the job done, no matter what crap he was expected to eat. (Actor John Goodman played an affectionate spoof of Castle in the movie “Matinee” (1993).)

 

Also, Crawford’s commitment to what a Big Star like her should’ve viewed as a marginal product couldn’t be denied. During the promotion of the film, she went town-to-town Barnstorming with Castle, working as hard for this film as she did for Pepsi (her PR/Advertising work for Pepsi is still the stuff of legend). According to Crtic Brian Orndorf, Crawford insisted on extreme control over all aspects of the tour, “including to-the-minute stage arrival times and road maps to find the most precise directions between stops … [but Publicist Richard] Kahn is careful to emphasize that Crawford's intensity worked, with excited fans showing up wherever they went.”

 

Castle was a Producer before turning to Directing, and even though his acknowledged Directorial Debut was “Macabre” (1958), he had forty-odd films under his belt by then and probably part-Directed some or most of these. He was always obsessed with how to market his product even before that product actually existed and here he had the best gimmick of all, an A-list Star in a B-movie touring with him. But he didn’t stop there, he also gave out blood-stained cardboard axes at the film’s various local premiers. There was even a great bit where the torch-bearing woman of Columbia Studios logo is decapitated during the closing credits. And let us not forget the very classy tag-lines:

 

“Just keep saying to yourself it’s only a movie, it’s only a movie.”

 

“When the axe swings, the excitement begins.’

 

"WARNING: STRAIT-JACKET VIVIDLY DEPICTS AX MURDERS!"

 

It was a huge hit, though the Critics mostly hated it:

 

Bosley Crowther, "Joan Crawford has picked some lemons, some very sour lemons, in her day, but nigh the worst of the lot is ‘Strait-Jacket’ … [it was] "disgusting piece of claptrap." Richard L. Coe, "likely to stand as the worst picture of the year ... Apart from the absurdity of the plot and the chilling predictability of lines and situations, 'Strait-Jacket' is inexcusable for its scenes of violence."

 

And yes, it was Gory, and yes, the budget/technology made the Gore impossible to be really convincing (Actor George Kennedy’s death is ludicrously fake looking and the sound of the repeatedly falling axes was really chopped watermelons), but you know, context counts, and like a said, the film never pretended to be one-lick serious.

 

Castle would work with Crawford again with, “I Saw What You Did” (1965) a marginally more mature outing. These two films represent the best film work of her late-career, though there are examples of really fine work on TV at late as late as 1969 (a segment of the series “Night Galley” which was also Director Spielberg’s Directorial debut). Even while doing that good work, she was in physical and mental decline, and her last Public Appearance was in 1973. Even after she stepped out of the Spotlight, she was the subject of cruel Gossip:

 

As family tensions increased, she left compelled to disinherit two of her adopted children, and one retaliated with a tell-all book published on the heels of her death, “Mommy Dearest” (death 1977, book 1978). The daughter’s, Christina’s, charges of abuse were challenged by other witnesses, but the book still became a Best-Seller. Then it became a movie of the same name (1981) which chose to exaggerate the claims made in the book. Though critically panned, it was a huge hit, and seemingly now to dominates the legacy of Crawford’s near-fifty-year-long career that included an Oscar Win, two Nominations, and dozens of other accolades.

 

Trailer:

Strait-Jacket (1964) - Official Trailer (youtube.com)