Rating: 
Summary: Really Fant-AXE-tic and Gore-a-rific!!!!
Review: Absolutly Genius!
The extras ALONE are worth buying this DVD for! Joan is sublime! And so is the rest of the cast..!
This is the formula for a great horror film...Great cast (of nobodys or has-beens), Farm Setting (gota have a creepy chicken be-headin'), Low quality special effects, Bare-bones dialogue (you shouldn't have to think too much), and a terrific film score.
I'll watch this again and again!!!!...this would be a Great Gift for MOM! Mother's Day is just around the corner...and so is another great AXE scene!!!! YIKES!
Rating: 
Summary: CRAZY CRAWFORD
Review: This is the type of film to watch with friends and preferably ... ones.
The dramatic aspects of the film cannot get to you unless
you have the mind of a 7 year old.
whoever seeing an aging joan Crawford play a flashback scene where she is 25 years old is hilarious.
Despite all the fun making I am a real fan of Crawford .
You have to be to buy this film, its just that its so camp.
Rating: 
Summary: Joan eats scenary.
Review: No doubt this is FUN trash. Crawford appears to be in some advanced stage of demonic possession. (Or is she playing Faye Dunaway-playing-Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearist?) But 5 stars? The film's cruddiness is entertaining but let's not get carried away with the stars! Especially when Columbia releases this as a[n expensive] DVD. Ideally, it should be on sale at the local hardware store for [less]. All of the Castle films seem to be getting this treatment and it is absurd. They just are not very good. I have to admit though that the screen tests with Crawford are brilliant and almost worth the price of admission ('almost' is the operative word here). But the 'making of' feature is ridiculous. One of the 'historians' interviewed (whom I have never heard of) claims that it was only because of the disreputable genre to which the film belonged that Crawford was passed over for an Oscar nomination! Really this is pure fantasy. (Especially since the other horror film he mentions -- Whatever Happened to Baby Jane -- did earn Bette Davis a Best Actress nomination.) Castle's attempt to top Hitchcock's Psycho -- he hired Robert Bloch to write the screenplay -- just demonstrates that Hitchcock's film belongs in a different class from these shlock horror works of the period. (And remember that Psycho's screenplay is not by Bloch, but Joseph Stefano. Block's novel is second-rate, like his work here.) Rent this one, and wait for the hardware store to begin its summer madness sale.
Rating:
Summary: Buy This DVD For Your Mom
Review: Mommie Dearest pulls out all the stops and outdoes her "Baby Jane" performance. I like the way they show her character "twenty years ago" and rather than use a young actress to play her she plays herself! Too much!!
The extras are excellent: the backstory on the making of the film and the make-up and costume screen tests for Miss Crawford. Worth the price of the DVD alone.
Lose your mind and lose your head to this classic of hag cinema.
Rating:
Summary: More than just "CAMP"
Review: Joan tears (chops) through the scenery here in her role as Lucy Harbin...and she is quite believable. She has several good scenes with Diane Baker (who is just as good as Joan and should get half of the credit for making this film work). In particular the "coming home scene" where Joan hugs her daugher for the first time in 20 years (heart-breaking). And the confrontation with her daughter's future mother-in-law is a real "crazy Joan moment". Oh, and of course, the scene where she tries to seduce her daughter's boyfriend...will make you wonder if Joan was really "acting" here. Some of the effects look dated but were probably fairly gruesome for an audience of 1964. I never did care much for the "wrap up" ending which seems to make the whole film seem like a "Bonanza" episode. How fabulous it would have been just to end it with Joan hugging that porch pillar and crying! Minor complaint. The transfer to DVD has some minor flecking, but overall the picture good and the soundtrack is strong and clear. Presented in widescreen format finally so you can see the film the way people saw it in the theaters. The real bonus here is the new Featurette and those hair and makeup test with Joan. She was actually still quite nice looking during this time (she was around 60!). And check out the look on her face during the Axe swinging tests...totally wild! The trailer is okay, but I have seen another one on a website somewhere so I know there were different versions. There is also a special featurette that was made during the making that is not included on this DVD and can sometimes be seen showing up on Ebay for sale. A must for Joan Crawford or Diane Baker fans!
Rating:
Summary: "I fall to pieces...........
Review: each time you see this one there's just so much more to see.......and scream about - those bracelets!!! Well, at least it's a teaming with Miss Joan Crawford and William Castle, and quite fun too. Interesting to see how she changes between the vamp and 'schoolmarm' image, and this must have been such fun to make. She plays the [older] wronged country [as in 'farm'] wife who fittingly [?] takes proper revenge on cheating husband and 'companion' - mildly shattering moment - fortunately in silhouette! Our Joan is incarcerated, cured and released, but upon said release THE TERROR continues......great moments in the Chicken House too! The always lovely Diane Baker previously teamed with Miss C. in "The Best Of Everything" is our devoted 'daughter dearest' [Interesting wigs too......and masks.....and eye-lashes.....] There's just csomething about a horror movie in Black and White!
Rating:
Summary: Tina! get me the axe!
Review: To the point:
This was the last great film that Joan made before those really forgettable 'B' films. Joan was pushing it when she came back as a younger version of Lucy. But her campy character somehow pulls it off so that you can't help but be mesmerized by her. There are many faults in the plot, but who cares when you see Joan acting so hard for all her fans.It's funny when Bette Davis said : 'Joan was accused of using a Baby Hudson Doll in promoting 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,' and now she is touring the god dammed country with her axe!! You can see Straight Jacket over and over again and it continues to bring a wicked smile to your face.God bless you, Joan!
Rating:
Summary: One of William Castle's best films
Review: This is one of the best movies in the universe. I liked this movie because it had a surprise ending. While watching the movie, I thought the mother was doing all the axe murders. I was shocked when it turned out that the daughter was the real killer. My favorite part of the movie was when the mother was sleeping and woke up to find the heads in her bed. I liked the movie a lot. I liked the part when the farm helper cut off the chicken's head and later had his own head cut off.
Rating:
Summary: This turned me into a Crawford fan!
Review: Hard for me to believe, but I'm 41 years old and have only just recently seen my first Joan Crawford films. First there was "Female on the Beach", and now "Strait Jacket". And now I see what all the fuss is about. This woman could deliver absolutely stunning performances! Sure, there were other stars in these movies, but I hardly noticed them, hypnotised as I was by Crawford's characters. These may not be academy award-type movies, but her performances certainly are, and thus I recommend watching them if for no other reason than seeing what a first-rate actress can do.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars--because Joan Crawford is insane!
Review: I'm blushing, right now...because I saw "Straight-Jacket" when it first hit theaters, circa 1964! I remember being quite enamored with Joan Crawford--whom, my mother said, was a "big star"--and, of course, I'd already seen her ghastly turn in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane." But nothing prepared me for this! From its shocking opening scene (the sound of breaking glass, and then a shot of Crawford tied up on a stretcher screaming "I'm not insane!") to its sitcom-sweet ending, "Straight-Jacket" has to be seen to be truly appreciated. It's your typical story of a small town floozy, straight from the Bette Davis "Beyond the Forest" school of acting. Joan's the said floozy, Lucy Harbin, who happens to be married to young stud, Lee Majors. Well, Lee's been fooling around with another trollop, and as we all know, you just don't do that to Joan Crawford! When Lucy finds out, she grabs an axe (after conveniently stumbling over it) and chops the trollop and filandering husband to bits. This is the only film where people are decapitated so smoothly--their heads literally pop off! Anyway, Lucy gets committed to a mental hospital, is released 20 years later, and her "oh-so-caring" young daughter (Diane Baker, completely unbelievable) takes her in. So what does caring daughter do? She convinces Lucy to wear a black wig, a truly horrid print dress, eyelashes out to there, and jangly bracelets that would weigh down King Kong. Well, this really sets Lucy off. She begins hearing a child chanting "Lucy Harbin took an axe..." and freaks out in the dressing room of a chintzy women's shop. Then, if this wasn't enough, she seduces her daughter's boyfriend (a scene that defies description--read the other reviews!), knits a sweater, gyrates to a sleazy jazz record, and screams, with her eyes brimming tears! I swear, it's Mildred Pierce on speed! Oh, yeah, and there's also another decapitation--this time of the grubby farm hand--and again, his head pops off, nice and neat-like. I find it hard to believe that "Straight-Jacket" did anything to further Joan Crawford's career. In real life, she may have swathed herself in mink and downed gallons of 100 proof vodka, but on screen, she slid slowly into self-parody. It's a shame, really...but just try not to laugh!
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