Hell hath no fury
Strait-Jacket
Joan Crawford terrifies as an axe-wielding housewife bent on revenge.
Picture this. You are out of town on a trip and decide to come home a little earlier than planned. You think your husband and child will be ecstatic to see you and the order of things will be put just right. Nice idea, until you come home to find your husband dozing dreamily in post-coital bliss with another woman.
For Lucy Harbin, this nightmare becomes a reality. And in the hands of Joan Crawford the resulting action is simple: "Lucy Harbin took an axe, gave her husband forty whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave his girlfriend forty one."
Oh, and let's not forget Lucy's daughter, Carol (Vicki Cos). Where was she when daddy and mummy decided to upend the apple cart? She was witness to it all. Even the first part before mum came home. Hello issues! Simply put by Carol: "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! No I didn't mean that, I love you. I hate you!"
Yep, it's your average night at Freaky Fridays!
After a maniacal start, Strait-Jacket fast forwards twenty years. Lucy has been in an insane asylum and we find Carol (Diane Baker) living in seeming normality as the fiancée of a small town's wealthiest and handsomest bachelor (John Anthony Hayes). Re-enter Lucy.declared sane.
Producer/director William Castle, who by this point had already gleefully terrified the living daylights out of people in House on Haunted Hill (1958), The Tingler (1959) (coming soon to Freaky Fridays ) and Homicidal (1961), ups the scare factor even more in Strait-Jacket. It's a worthy addition to the wave of 'hag horror' movies of the mid-1960s, where actresses past their primes (Crawford and Bette Davis leading the charge) revived their flagging careers by playing insecure neurotics.
As the body count rises in Strait-Jacket, it's safe to assume that nobody lives happily ever after in Freaky Fridays. For screening times, click here.
Published Monday, 19 October 2009
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