Just got home to a sweet Christmas card from a good friend, alerting me he finally got a chance to watch Strait-Jacket; I've been holding off posting about it because I didn't want to give away the plotline. But now the verdict is in: "It was a hoot!" (and if you know this guy, well, that's high praise indeed!)
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Last time we checked in on Lucy Harbin, she was attempting to fit into the real world after having been locked up for twenty years for murder.
Let's just say, she's having a rough time adjusting...
...although she's trying her best, despite her family's suspicions, and her own odd behaviors.
Carol realizes that her mother is insecure because of her faded appearance and takes her into town.
Carol gets her all dolled up!
These are genuinely fun moments, and provide some real levity to the film.
A makeover-YES!
Yet there's unsettling hints that neither can escape the past...
But just then--
Lucy starts hearing voices.
and later that night has a nightmare.
Although her screams wake up the entire house, Lucy realizes that,
"It must have been a dream-yeah, it must have been a nightmare."
And (as if things aren't bad enough) the next morning, Kraus (the dull-witted farm hand) mocks her while doing his chores:
"Wanna help?"
Meanwhile, Carol also has to contend with with her fiance Michaels' haughty, snotty (and wealthy) parents,
who live in an enormous mansion and who "graciously" grill her about her mother.
Although Carol evades their questions, it's clear she's hiding something, and when she and Michael drive off to see a movie ("something nice and bloody!") she mopes about keeping her mothers homocidal past under wraps, but as he explains:
She invites him over to meet mom the next day.
Lord.
On the big day, Lucy is clearly nervous, and probably has a few too many highalls to take the edge off.
It kind of turns into the worst party ever.
Lucy, inebriated and insecure, sees Michael and inexplicably flips into full-on vamp mode:
"Well! You didn't tell me he was that good-looking!"
As the record player positively BLASTS the old standard 'There Goes That Song Again', the rejuvenated 1944 Lucy makes her move:
"I wouldn't want my litle girl to think I was trying to take her man away from her..."
The insanity's interrupted when the doctor from Lucy's former institution phones up to say he's arriving shortly, to check up on her.
This puts a damper on the festivities, to put it mildly, and the party breaks up shortly thereafter.
When Dr. Anderson shows up, Lucy's withdrawn and sullen, though she defiantly pulls off the most amazing stunt I've ever seen.
She puts on a brave face when he asks her how she's been doing.
"When I look in the mirror, it's hard to believe twenty years have passed!"
But the meeting degenerates into a shouting match and Lucy races out of the house, fearing she's going to be put back in the asylum.
The doctor wanders around the farm until he finds Carol's art studio and gently tells her that, based on Lucy's behavior, he's going to take her back to the "sanitorium".
He walks back outside and wanders around awhile,
then he hears the distinctive sounds of Lucy's jingling bracelets, inside one of the outbuildings, and goes inside to investigate.
(this is pretty shocking, because the doctor was actually one of the nicer characters, and seemed genuinely concerned for Lucy)
Later, as night is falling, Carol's looking for her mom and finds her sitting in the dark. To her repeated, increasingly anxious questioning about where the doctor is, Lucy (now back in little old lady guise) only responds blankly:
"The doctor's gone."
Carol has a sick apprehension of what's happened and runs out and hides the doctors car in the barn.
Kraus watches from the shadows.
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Sometimes I feel like I ramble on too much about this movie, but as I've said before, sometimes it's more rewarding to watch some of Joan Crawford's "lesser" films (like The Shining Hour or This Woman Is Dangerous) because it puts into perspective what a truly great actress she was. Throughout her career, Crawford had the opportunity to work with the best of the best in the industry (indeed, when she left MGM for Warner Brothers, she had contractual control over all aspects of her films, from directors and writers to costars and costumers) but even waaayyy late in the game, her will was pretty much law on the set, and even in a minor "B" movie like Strait-Jacket, she called the shots.
Far more than (over-rated, in my opinion) directors like Michael Curtiz, Nicholas Ray or Robert Aldrich,
she was a true auteur.
As for myself though, I just like looking at "the face" and figuring out which pictures to use for each post.
(and to my buddy, I'm glad you liked Strait-Jacket-hope you're feeling better!)
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