This Joan Crawford mid 1960s exercise in “hag horror” – as helmed by schlock master showman William Castle – makes it Blu-ray debut courtesy of Shout! Factory’s Scream Factory arm.

The film opens with a steamy Tennessee Williams-esqe flashback of Lucy Harbin (Joan Crawford, who was pushing 60 at the time of filming) coming home to find her much younger second husband (an early role by Lee Majors, KILLER FISH) in the sack with the local hussy. Lucy grabs an axe from outside and viciously does them both in – all while her young daughter looks on in total shock. Twenty years later, Lucy is released from an asylum and comes to stay with her now adult daughter Carol (Diane Baker, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), her brother (Leif Erickson, INVADERS FROM MARS) and her sister-in-law (Rochelle Hudson, GALLERY OF HORRORS) at their peaceful country farm. Carol, who plans to marry beau Michael Fields (John Anthony Hayes, WINTER A-GO-GO), wants to help her nervous mother to be happy, so she buys her a flip-style black wig and a fancy floral dress and Lucy looks like a new woman. But soon enough, poor Lucy starts hearing "Lizzie Borden" nursery rhymes and seeing decapitated heads on her bedroom pillow. A number of murders follow, and Lucy may or may not be responsible…

After years of excessive promotional gimmicks, William Castle decided to lessen the ballyhoo and create a vehicle for a true Hollywood star. After studying the box office receipts of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, Castle offered Robert Bloch's screenplay to the legendary Joan Crawford. Crawford accepted, but in typical Joan fashion, she had the story re-written to pacify her ego and the on-the-set demands quickly piled up. According to Castle, Crawford was "demanding" but she was not "difficult." STRAIT-JACKET is not the best William Castle film and can be a bit slow at times, but it's still got some nice shocks, a killer ending, and some really strong performances – especially from its star. Crawford eats up the scenery and steals nearly every scene she's in, only entering camp territory on several occasions – especially when she gets drunk and tries to seduce her daughter's boyfriend or when she spontaneously lights a match on a spinning jazz record! Also in the cast is a pre-Academy Award, dark-haired George Kennedy who is almost unrecognizable as a shabby farmhand. And pay close attention to the torch-holding "Columbia Lady" at the very end!

First released on DVD by Sony in 2002, and then a few years later as part of their “The William Castle Collection” (and again in 2014 as a DVD-R through the Sony Pictures Choice Collection online program), STRAIT-JACKET now arrives on Blu-ray for the first time through Scream Factory in 1080p HD and in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The black and white transfer is largely crisp and clean in its image, with strong clarity and contrast throughout. Black levels are rich and deep, and there’s nice gray scale which also compliments the level of detail. Healthy grain helps maintain an organically filmic appearance. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track provides clear and full-bodied sound throughout the presentation without any noticeable issues. Optional English subtitles are included. STRAIT-JACKET will also be released on Blu-ray simultaneously from Mill Creek Entertainment (they license a good number of library titles from Sony for DVD and Blu). It will likely be from the same master source and will be on double bill with Crawford’s British-made shocker BERSERK (1967).

An audio commentary is included with film historians Steve Haberman, David J. Schow and Constantine Nasr as they converse about this cinematic slice of “grand guignol” and “American Gothic”. Lots of stories about Crawford (and the control she had over the production), writer Bloch (Schow knew the man and is an expert on him) and “Hagsploitation” in general are shared, and its nice to here these gentlemen bouncing comments and trivia off of each other, as there’s no lulls to speak of here. There are quite few lesser known factoids mentioned, including that Rock Hudson recommended Lee Majors for his uncredited part (and that he wasn’t going by that name yet), that Leslie Parrish was actually cast before Anne Helm (but couldn’t wear the face mask which was required of her character) and the original “fat suit” storyline idea that was quickly dropped before filming commenced.