William Castle’s STRAIT-JACKET reminds me of a combo platter of PSYCHO and Douglas Sirk melodrama, sort of a WRITTEN WITH AN AXE or DECAPITATION OF LIFE. I suppose today’s audience sees it as “camp” ( according to Susan Sontag: Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It’s not a lamp, but a “lamp”; not a woman, but a “woman.”) but I doubt William Castle meant it as anything other than a way to make some money off of PSYCHO. Joan Crawford really sells the picture with the creepiest scene being her man-handling of her daughter’s deer in the headlights boyfriend. George Kennedy is also great as the anti- Rock Hudson handyman. I wondered why nobody ever noticed that daughter Carol (Diane Baker) was crafting extremely well made “Crazy Axe Murderin’ Lucy” masks. It’s too bad she couldn’t just order one off the back of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. I also liked the knitting scene which for some reason reminded me of Martha Stewart and her famous “I just wanna concentrate on my salad” moment. It also seems like somebody might’ve warned the handyman to hide the axes and maybe be a little more discreet with the animal slaughtering, but I guess that was the point.
“I hope I wasn’t too hard on Trog today”
Except for SHANKS, William Castle always seemed fairly flat to me but STRAIT-JACKET was a little better due to Joan. It’s no TROG but it has its moments. The ending wrap up explanation seemed to be the lamest part. Thanks again to Final Girl.
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The Naked Jungle 
Ha! Love that you mentioned Famous Monsters. Why has no one made a Lucy mask? UGH. I’d buy ten.