Strait-Jacket is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by William Castle, written by Robert Bloch and starring Joan Crawford. Its plot follows a woman who, having murdered her husband and his lover decades prior, is suspected of a series of axe murders following her release from a psychiatric hospital. Released by Columbia Pictures in January 1964, the film was the first of two written for Castle by Robert Bloch, the second being The Night Walker (1964). The film's plot makes use of the psychological abuse method known as gaslighting. Plot After finding her husband asleep in bed with his mistress, Lucy Harbin decapitates them both with an axe. Her three-year-old daughter, Carol, witnesses the murders. Lucy is committed to a psychiatric hospital and deemed criminally insane. Twenty years later, after she is found to be mentally sound and reformed, Lucy is released from the institution. She takes up residence at the farm of her brother Bill Cutler and sister-in-law Emily. Carol, now an artist and sculptor, also lives on the farm, having been adopted by the Cutlers after Lucy was committed. Carol swiftly makes attempts to bond with Lucy, encouraging her to dress and act the way she did in the past. When Carol attempts to introduce her wealthy fiancé, Michael Fields, however, Lucy is evasive. Lucy's stress is compounded by apparent auditory hallucinations in which she hears children singing a nursery rhyme comparing her to Lizzie Borden, as well as disturbing nightmares in which she finds herself lying in bed with her husband and his lover's severed heads. Lucy eventually meets Michael at a dinner party, and Carol is angered when Lucy is overtly flirtatious with him. When Lucy has a subsequent emotional breakdown, her sanity is questioned by Dr. Anderson, the psychologist following her. Later that night, Dr. Anderson is brutally murdered and dismembered in the Cutlers' barn after visiting with Carol to discuss Lucy's mental health. When Dr. Anderson is reported missing, Carol hides his car on the farm, as Lucy fears she may have killed him during a blackout episode. Leo, the handyman on the Cutler farm, witnesses Carol hiding the car, and subsequently takes it for himself, threatening Carol with blackmail. He is subsequently decapitated in the barn. Lucy and Carol visit Michael's parents' home for dinner, during which Lucy is harshly judged by Michael's mother, Allison, who believes Carol is of