Strait-Jacket

Lucy Harbin, who killed her husband and his lover with an axe, is released after twenty years in an asylum and moves in with her daughter. Killings soon start again nearby. William Castle attached this to the wave of frightening-woman pictures that followed Psycho, and had it written by Robert Bloch, who wrote the novel Psycho came from. Joan Crawford plays it without pulling back at any point and supplies the entire charge of the film, using her own late-career image as material. Castle's usual gimmicks are dialled down here and the picture leans on suspense instead. The explanation at the end is crude even by the standards of the period, and it works. Who it is for: viewers who like sixties psychological horror and Crawford's late roles. Who it is not for: anyone after subtlety, since this is built on direct shock.