After the surprise hit “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” resurrected her career, Joan Crawford followed up with “Strait-Jacket,” another thriller in which the middle-aged star acted cray-cray, this time while swinging an ax and beheading her husband.
Even crazier, large parts of the 1964 suspense movie were shot in and around Riverside. I love a good local angle.
In “Strait-Jacket,” you’ll find scenes along Main Street during its heyday as a shopping destination. Crestmore Manor in Jurupa Valley makes a notable appearance too, as does an unnamed chicken ranch near Norco.
The movie is, of course, available via streaming platforms and on home video. But it’s also screening Friday on the lawn at Heritage House, 8193 Magnolia Ave.
It’s part of the Museum of Riverside‘s monthly series of movies, “Made in Riverside,” that were shot locally.
Gates open at sunset and the film starts at dusk. Admission is free. The museum suggests you dress warmly and bring a lawn chair or blanket. Unless you prefer to stand during movies, that is. They won’t judge.
Rather than wait, I borrowed the DVD from the Riverside Public Library, watching the movie at home without the need of a lawn chair or a sweater.
“I’m going to be seeing it for the first time Friday,” Robyn Peterson, director of the Museum of Riverside, tells me. What she’s heard: “It’s a horror film, but maybe a little campy.”
It is.
In the opening minutes of “Strait-Jacket,” Crawford’s character, Lucy Harbin, comes home from a trip a day early — uh-oh — to find her husband in bed with another woman. Lucy flips, grabs an ax from a tree stump and goes all Lizzie Borden on them while her young daughter watches wide-eyed from the next bedroom.
Next shot: a closeup of Lucy, who is wearing the titular garment and screaming. (What “Strait-Jacket” lacks in subtlety it makes up for in boffo laughs.)
Flash forward 20 years. Lucy’s prim daughter, Carol, played by Diane Baker, shares a piece of family news with her boyfriend: “My mother’s being released from an asylum. She’s coming home today.”
To his credit, he doesn’t casually edge toward the door, then bolt for the hills at a dead run.
Soon, an awkward Lucy is reacclimating to the world on her brother’s chicken ranch. Bucolic, right? Except that she watches nervously as a farmhand whacks a chicken with a hatchet and as Carol carves a roast with a giant knife.
Lucy slowly loses her grip. And then people start dying…
Three years earlier, “Strait-Jacket” screenwriter Robert Bloch had penned “Psycho.” Well, this ain’t “Psycho.” But it’s a hoot. Producer and director William Castle was known for gimmicks and good-humored shock.
Willing to set aside a measure of dignity, Crawford gives this cheesy flick everything she has emotionally. She seems absolutely committed — so to speak.
In a special feature on the DVD, cult film historian David Del Valle remarks: “I won’t say ‘Strait-Jacket’ is an ‘A’ picture, but Joan Crawford gives an ‘A’ performance. If her performance was in any other picture, she probably would have been nominated for an Academy Award.”
During the filming, Crawford herself told the Riverside Daily Press’ Maryan Foster: “It’s a gutsy role that any actress would give her eyeteeth to portray.”
To get some background on the Riverside shoot, I approached the Riverside Main Library’s enthusiastic archivist, Ruth McCormick. Would she mind finding relevant newspaper clippings for me?
I didn’t need to ax her twice!
I mean, ask her twice. Sorry. Lost my head for a moment.
The Press, Riverside’s morning newspaper, covered the filming, which took place in August 1963 in and around Riverside. The scenes of the most interest today will be when Lucy and Carol drive past the Mission Inn on Main Street, park and walk past storefronts.
“It shows old Main Street when cars could still drive down it,” says Katie Grim, the museum’s collections registrar and a fan of the movie.
Briefly visible are signs for Woolworth’s, Montgomery Ward’s, Orange Julius, Banks drugstore, Cheney’s piano and organ, and three shoe stores: Gallenkamp’s, Karl’s and Carroll’s. The two women go into Kristy’s, a dress shop, and Irene’s, a beauty salon.
The presence of Joan Crawford drew crowds. According to a photo caption in The Press, “Miss Crawford was kept busy satisfying autograph seekers when she wasn’t before the camera.”
The photo shows the star in sunglasses, laughing as she signs an autograph, the paper resting on the shoulders of a boy standing in front of her, Mike Picone, age 11.
Another photo was taken outside Crestmore Manor, then called Jones Ranch, a stately Southern-style home built by the late restaurateur Tiny Naylor, where many scenes were filmed. Crawford faces a box fan for relief from the August heat.
Further relief was in store. “A technician stands by,” the caption explains, “with facial tissue.”
Ah, the life of a star, even on a low-budget B movie.
The Press also ran a sweet, delightful story about two twin brothers, Chuck and Tom Moss, age 12, of Riverside, who got to spend a day with Crawford, their idol. I’ll have to come back to that. In the meantime, if anyone knows the Moss boys, or what became of them, fill me in, please.
Riverside County was not only the filming location but, unusually, the movie’s setting. At one point, Lucy’s sister-in-law says she and her husband “have a dinner engagement in Riverside.”
The completed movie arrived at Riverside’s De Anza Theater on Jan. 8, 1964. The ad includes a lurid photo of Crawford’s character holding an ax over her head.
“Warning! ‘Strait-Jacket’ vividly depicts ax murders!” the copy screams.
More soberly, other text reads: “Many scenes of this movie were filmed in Riverside County and vicinity! See if you can pick out our many landmarks.”
Go on, take a whack at it.
David Allen, a straight arrow, writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.
