Strait-Jacket (1964)

Lucy (Joan Crawford) is sent to an insane asylum after catching her younger husband in bed with another woman. She caught them with an axe. Twenty years later, she is released and stays with her daughter (Diane Baker), who witnessed the murder as a small child. Lucy has difficulties adjusting.

Baker is quite charming as Lucy’s daughter. She would appear in the Hitchcock film Marnie the same year. A young Lee Majors plays the philandering husband in his first credited role. His role was short and got shorter. Us oldies remember him fondly as Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. We can rebuild him, so long as we find the head. At 85, the dude is still acting. Maybe he really is bionic. George Kennedy pays a farm hand.

Two years after What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Joan must have known she had no business being in this low budget schlocky thriller. But she had reinvented her career twice before by switching genres, so kudos to her for taking chances. Not sure it worked out all that well for her this time. She would appear in only four more feature films, ending with the amazing train wreck Trog.

And Crawford didn’t miss the opportunity to pitch product. A six-pack of Pepsi is conspicuously visible in one scene and the role of the asylum doctor went to Michael Cox, Vice President of Public Relations for Pepsi-Cola. It is his only screen credit.

Strait-Jacket is no better of a production than any other William Castle film, but lacks the playful nature of his earlier work. Crawford puts in a full effort, but the material lets her down. And if you didn’t guess the twist during the first act, you weren’t paying attention. AMRU 2.5.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Chick and Wilbur (Bud and Lou) operate a shipping company and Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) urges them not to deliver two crates. Why? Because Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster (Bela Lugosi and Glenn Strange) are inside them. Spoiler alert. There’s more going on involving an evil scientist and Dracula’s plan with the monster, but really this is an excuse for the boys to clown around and act scared.

I watched and enjoyed The Abbott and Costello Show after school at some point, but if you are unfamiliar, Bud would boss Lou around and Lou would act silly and screw up. Basically a Moe/Curly relationship. I started this film a couple years ago but was put off by the mean-spirited nature of the comedy. I didn’t have that objection this time but never found myself laughing.

I remember hearing that Chaney once said that Bud and Lou made a mockery of the horror genre, but I can’t find a source for that. Times had changed, though. The self serious gothic horror of the depression simply didn't play during post-war optimism. I’m sure Chaney didn’t mind cashing the check.

This was the second and last time Lugosi would play Dracula, although he would occasionally play the character in everything but name. This would also be his last project with Universal. Glenn Strange is sometimes thought of as the Shemp of Frankenstein, having replaced the icon Boris Karloff for House of Frankenstein. At 6’5”, he best fit the physique of an imposing monster. He will forever be identified by his three performances (the NY Times used his picture in monster makeup for Karloff’s obituary) but he appeared in 266 feature films, many of them westerns.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein isn't at all scary, not particularly funny, and they don't meet Frankenstein. It's interesting mostly because of Lugosi’s performance, still at the top of his game. Perhaps I'm a little generous with a score of 3.0.