TOP 25 CAMP FILMS OF ALL TIME - 5

STRAITJACKET

You thought I'd forgotten didn't you? Well I almost had - it's been around 6 months since number 6 in what seems to be this never ending countdown. I've had other things that take precedent in my mind when blogging rather than lists or countdowns and am inspired to write about them on the spur of the moment rather than a planned post - but I digress - even just a little. The subject of tonight's lecture is STRAIT-JACKET. A trite little thriller starring Joan Crawford.

Hot on the heels of her success in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, she is approached by director William Castle to star in another vehicle. She played a woman in her 50s but Crawford insisting on lopping off a few years and making her in her 40s who comes home one night to find her husband sleeping with his ex girlfriend. Devastated, she bumps into a log with an axe and takes her revenge the only way she knows how, by chopping their heads off and being declared insane. In the present day (well 1964) she is declared sane again and allowed to come home and live with her daughter and her brother and his wife and then................. the killings start again.

High drama and higher camp of the highest degree. Joan literally dominates every scene and there are some real corkers in here, I was literally slapping my lips together with satisfaction at some of the delights shown on here. From the sight of 60 something Joanie at the start of the movie, strutting off that Chattanooga ChooChoo train with all the confidence of a 20 year old hooker and the narrator saying "Lucy Harbin - born and raised on a farm. Parents : poor, education : meagre. Very much a woman - and very much aware of the fact"

Then we see Joan's character get a makeover after all the murder - and lo and behold, she looks just like she did twenty years before, complete with jet black wig and jangly bracelets. Joan also starts seeing visions of decapitated heads and bloody axes around the house and feels she is getting more and more crazy. As a result, or maybe because of the wig, she starts to drink and gets more than a bit cocky. She lights up her cigarette by striking her matches on a record player, she also manages to almost seduce her daughter's fiance in front of her daughter. She even goes so far as to stick her finger in his mouth more than a little suggestively. Joan in this movie goes the full gamut of emotions and although it's a small time thriller - Joan Crawford manages to lift the whole picture to a fascinating view. I couldn't keep my eyes off her or what she was going to do next. Without spoiling the movie, the killer is revealed and it's not a shock. It's fabulous to see.

BEHIND THE SCENES INFO AND TRIVIA

- Lucy's doctor was played by a director on the board of Pepsi Cola - Joan had promised him a part.

- Because Joan was associated with Pepsi Cola, the set was filled with coolers full of Pepsi, Joan also managed to get a 6 pack of Pepsi on screen, the first case of product placement!

- Joan Blondell was originally due to play Lucy but fell through a door in her house and Joan Crawford was approached to do the role, although told that it was her role all along.

- Crawford had script and cast approval, her rider included Bourbon and 100 proof vodka, carton's of cigarettes and the temperature on set no more than 50 degrees to keep her makeup firm on her face.

- Diane Baker who played Joan's daughter Carol was cast as Joan had worked with her in "The Best of Everything"

- The end of the movie had the killer revealed and going insane themselves. Joan had another scene rewritten that showed her breaking down and then revealing and tieing up the loose ends - so she could get the last word and scene.

- Best line: DR - Lucy, how do you spend your time? LUCY - Knitting!

- Oscar winner, George Kennedy played a farmhand who meets a sticky end

- Long before The Fall Guy, Lee Majors was cast as the husband of Lucy.

- A bust found from the vaults of MGM was used in a scene, it was a bust made of Joan at her most beautiful from the 1930s.

- Joan toured with the film at at appearances, pulled out a fake axe from under her skirt, much to the delight of the fans who came to see her.