Very disappointed :(

It is a performances centric movie

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Joan Crawford's performance is masterful, ranging all the way from pitiful to frightening. Crawford was a great movie actress. She commands the screen and has thoroughly prepared for every scene and every word of dialogue, however good or bad the dialogue might be. The whole film is never dull for a moment and is well made within the limits of the guilty pleasure sort of style. Like a train wreck, you can't look away. Supporting cast acting is adequate, especially Diane Baker who works well with Joan Crawford as they create a memorable mother/daughter team. For the ultimate in absurd, guilty pleasure brilliance by director William Castle and star Joan Crawford, view "Straight Jacket" when you get the chance.

"Lucy Harbin took an axe, gave her husband forty whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave his girlfriend forty one." So is the life of Lucy Harbin, played by dynamite Joan Crawford. After spending twenty years in an insane asylum for her crime, she is released and goes to live with her daughter on their farm property, but it is not long before goings on around the farm seem to point to Lucy's questionable sanity (and innocence).While William Castle earned his reputation for schlock-ridden gimmicky horror films, his pictures with Crawford are true gems; this film and "I Saw What You Did," to be specific. While Crawford's meditated approaches to performance are part of what made these films so effective, it is inarguable that these films were well written and well directed. Penned by Robert Bloch, the author of "Psycho," "Strait-Jacket" plays on Harbin's potential madness like piano keys— it's routine, sure, but for 1964, it's still a fresh approach to insanity on film. What's most surprising though is, as in "Psycho," the way in which the film's conclusion turns on its audience, and the plot twist is just as unexpected to a 21st century audience as it was in 1964.Crawford's dedication to her role in the film is astounding, and in "Strait-Jacket" she is able to take a stab at the madwoman villainess whom she played opposite to in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" two years earlier. Crawford's determination and gall really pay off for her, because the role, no matter how dramatic or emotive it is, is convincing. Diane Baker plays opposite as Crawford's tormented daughter and is able to hold her ground against the grand dame of madness. Overall, "Strait-Jacket" is a solid thriller with Castle's schlocky touch, but its writing is sophisticated and its performances impressive enough to elevate it far beyond any sort of gimmick. The plot twists and Crawford's anti-demure playing of her character make this worth a watch. Along with "I Saw What You Did," "Strait-Jacket" is among Castle's classiest and most calculated thrillers. 7/10.

You've got to give Joan Crawford credit. Like any good ball player, she remained on the team, pitching, catching and batting, sometimes in the minor leagues, but always giving it her best shot. Yes, "Straight Jacket" is schlock, but thanks to a truly sincere performance by Miss C., it rises above what it may have been had not such a big star stepped up to the plate to take on this part. Visually, Crawford looks silly as the be-wigged murderess who chopped of the heads of her much younger husband and his mistress, her masculine face defying anybody to believe that she's in her late 20's/early 30's in the opening scenes. Crawford really worked hard to make her character someone interesting, instilling her with practically every emotional element that she could lay her hand on. Her bangled wife and mother who commits the murder is a trashier version of Stella Dallas; Her returning to public life has her as a shy, insecure woman afraid of facing strangers and being discovered for her shameful past. A child-like innocence comes out of her which has her appearing as if she is suffering from arrested development. Finally, she is a drunken floozy, throwing herself at her daughter's boyfriend without shame, caressing his face as if she was tenderizing a steak. Those moments are truly awkward to watch and indicate that even in spite of how everything turns out, she truly isn't recovered from her mental illness.As for Diane Baker as Crawford's troubled daughter, she is helped from the benefit of having worked with Crawford before (on 1959's "The Best of Everything"), their relationship as mother and daughter realistic as a result in spite of the young Carol having witnessed the horrors of her father's murder. The only issue is Baker's insistence that Crawford dress as she did 20 years before. The wardrobe and wig she wears is definitely low-class considering that Carol is engaged to a member of the upper class. Crawford actually looks better with the mousy brown hair and more sensible outfits, minus those cowbells she wears on her wrists. But Baker is credible in the role, showing both love and resentment towards her mother whose actions have obviously left her scarred.A young George Kennedy plays the sleazy farm hand who appropriately appears disheveled while working with the pigs. The beheading scenes are extremely silly looking, and the apparent nightmares and voices that Crawford hears are delightfully silly, the conclusion obvious. When "Mommie Dearest" utilized a scene with Faye Dunaway swinging an axe, I'm sure many of Crawford's fans thought of this film and had a good laugh at both film's expenses.

Joan Crawford was a great actress, but Hollywood stops being kind to actresses when they get wrinkly and saggy. Crawford got kind of a second wind to her career with "Whatever happened to Baby Jane", where she and long time rival Betty Davis played women who were truly cruel to each other.After that, Crawford found herself playing the crazy crone in movies made by such operators as William Castle, the Gimmick King. Here she plays the a woman just released from a mental institution, whose daughter sets her up to take the fall for murders she intends to commit.Rather improbably, at the end of the movie, where the daughter is exposed with all the credibility of an episode of "Scooby-Doo", Joan's character suddenly becomes incredibly rational and explains the whole plot.Since I'm trying to get to ten lines, this movie features a fun bit of "Product Placement". There's a package of Pepsi sitting on a counter as they prepare for dinner. Why is this significant? Because in her later life, Crawford was married to Pepsi mogul Alfred Steele. Not sure this was the movie he wanted his product in, but he was dead for a few years.Also the Columbia lady has her head chopped off in the closing Logo, which is interesting. Kind of.