Strait-Jacket

Strait-Jacket
Original theatrical poster
Directed by	William Castle
Produced by	William Castle
Written by	Robert Bloch
Starring	Joan Crawford Diane Baker Leif Erickson Rochelle Hudson
Music by	Van Alexander
Cinematography	Arthur E. Arling
Edited by	Edwin H. Bryant
Production company	William Castle Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	January 19, 1964 (1964-01-19)
Running time	90 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2,195,000 (US/ Canada) /

Strait-Jacket is a 1964 American horror thriller film starring Joan Crawford and Diane Baker in a macabre mother and daughter tale about a series of axe-murders. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film was directed and produced by William Castle, and co-produced by Dona Holloway. The screenplay was the first of two written for Castle by Robert Bloch, the second being The Night Walker (1964). Strait-Jacket marks the first big-screen appearance of Lee Majors in the uncredited role of Crawford's husband. The film's plot makes use of the psychological abuse method known as gaslighting.

After the success of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Joan Crawford and other older actresses, including Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck, made numerous horror movies throughout the 1960s. Strait-Jacket is one of the more notable examples of the genre sometimes referred to as psycho-biddy or Grande Dame Guignol. During the film's original release, moviegoers were given little cardboard axes as they entered the theater. At the end of the closing credits, the Columbia logo's torch-bearing woman is shown in her traditional pose, but decapitated, with her head resting at her feet on her pedestal.

Lucy Harbin has spent 20 years in a psychiatric hospital for the decapitation axe-murder of her husband (Lee Majors) and his mistress, after catching him cheating on her. After she is released, she takes up residence at the farm of her brother Bill Cutler and sister-in-law Emily.