Rating: Summary: A real classic Review: This movie is just great. Joan Crawford plays a woman who murdered her husband and his lover with an axe. She has to go to a mental hospital for several years and is finally released as healed. She lives with her daughter now who she hardly don't know because she was a child when it all happened. But suddenly the axe murders start again and Joan is in big trouble. It seems that she can't control herself and her past seems to come back taking over her. Watch for yourself. This movie is exiting, filled with suspense and the cast is fabulous. A real classic.
Rating: Summary: Fun!!! Review: This is a fun movie, not great, but fun. Did anybody notice who portrayed the husband that Joan kills? It a very young Lee Majors, I hardly recognized him, probably because his appearance is quite brief!
Rating: Summary: A Camp Classic! Review: A great movie for all Joan Crawford fans!! Crawford delivers up one wicked performance even Christina would be proud of! The beautiful Diane Baker is delightful as the forgiving daughter, and a young George Kennedy makes an apperance. Strait Jacket appears very gentle at times but then takes one wicked and disturbing turn after the other. I was truly shocked and amazed at the suspenseful and very surprising finale. This movie left me wanting more!
Rating: Summary: Three hundred stars sounds better though... Review: What an actress!!! This movie is about a woman who kills her hubby and his lady friend (he was cheating), and gets sent to an asylum. 20 years later she is released. All of a sudden, headless bodies start showin' up. Gee, wonder who's suspected? Joan, maybe? This movie is amazing. It starts in the 40s and ends in the 60s. That's when Joan gets released. When you first see her at the beginning of the film (can you believe she was 60?!?) she looks like a 40s femme fatale. When she comes back from the asylum, she looks like a librarian. Then, her daughter wants her to look like she did in the 40s, so Joan does. And promptly loses her marbles. Favorite moments: Joan knitting (she had to be goin' 75 miles an hour, with a cig to boot!), striking her match on a playing record, and pretending not to be nervous by dancing and clapping her hands. This is one h@#& of a great movie!!!
Rating: Summary: BLACK & WHITE TERROR Review: When you see an old horror movie, especially in black and white, it brings back childhood memories of ghosts in closets or the boogie man under your bead. "Strait Jacket" is such a movie. In my mind Joan Crawford will always be one of the first mad slashers. I loved the surprise ending. I recommend it for anyone.
Rating: Summary: Lost his head and I lost my cool. Review: I saw this movie as a very young child, several years before ratings, and when one of the characters lost his head to an ax I went ballistic in the theater. When I saw it as an adult, I found it still held up...rather creepy and suspenseful.
Rating: Summary: So bad, it's fabulous Review: Of all the trashy, early '60s horror movies featuring great actresses from the golden age in the twilight of their careers (think _Baby Jane_ and _Woman In A Cage_), none excels at sheer entertainment value more than this one. Anything starring Joan Crawford at this point in her career is bound to be a howl, and this is no exception. _Strait-Jacket_ is a masterpiece of classic trash which, alongside _Female On The Beach_, shows La Crawford at her very best. An absolute must for anyone who understands that, sometimes, a film can be so awful, it's brilliant.
Rating: Summary: A classic horror film that will keep you up at night Review: I saw this movie about 25 years ago. My brother and I became so scared that we turned it off and went to bed. Not knowing how it ended was scarier than knowing, so we got back up and finished the show. A truly eerie movie, that is reminiscent of "What ever happened to Baby Jane"
Rating: Summary: Joan Crawford as Norman Bates Review: When William Castle (the director of the gimmick classics "The Tingler" and "13 Ghosts") saw Psycho, he liked it so much that he hired the writer (Robert Bloch) to create this gem. Unlike most of Castle's other famous movies, this one doesn't really have a cheesy gimmick, unless you count Joan Crawford decapitating people with an axe as a gimmick. Yes it has definite camp value, but it's a surprisingly well made horror movie that contains many genuinely suspenseful scenes. Joan Crawford's over-the-top performance in this movie is a great example of why she has such a strong cult following today.The DVD is enhanced for widescreens and the print is in very good condition. Although the audio is only mono, it sounds very good. The DVD also contains a very good documentary on the making of this movie titled "Battle Axe".
Rating: Summary: MOTHER AND DAUGHTER Review: In watching this movie for the first time in almost 40 years, I found myself wondering why I liked it the first time around and again in re-watching. Joan Crawford was undoubtedly a "star" in the truest sense of the word; in the special features, William Castle and Diane Baker both confirm the many demands and conditions Ms. Crawford placed on the film. Her performance is definitely camp, but watching her play someone yearning for her youth, it hit home how Crawford's real life was shaping into the fall of a movie goddess. But in the film, notice the strength Crawford and Baker give in their reunion. Without a word, the two actresses strongly display the range of emotions they are both feeling. Diane Baker, who unlike one reviewer mentioned, had to this point played the innocent young ingenue, e.g. Best of Everything, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and in this one, she capitalizes on this innocence, so that when the venom comes, it's quite a transition. Seeing a young Lee Majors in his pre Big Valley days just reminds me how much time has elapsed! Castle's films were gawdy, manipulative, but above all, they were entertaining. Joan Crawford and Diane Baker are to be commended for rising above the inevitable and making this a classic camp film.
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