Strait-Jacket (1964)

Tampa Theatre is screening Strait-Jacket (1964) in the Taylor Screening Room on Saturday, October 24, at 7:30 PM. It's part of A Nightmare on Franklin Street 2026, the theatre's annual Halloween series, presented by Bank of America. The film runs 1 hour and 33 minutes and is not rated.

Strait-Jacket stars Joan Crawford as Lucy Harbin, a woman who spends twenty years in a mental institution after the axe murders of her husband and his lover—crimes witnessed by her young daughter, Carol. It followed Crawford's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and fits right into the "psycho-biddy" or "hagsploitation" wave of trashy horror that took off after that movie, with Crawford and Bette Davis each finding a new home in the genre. The appeal here is the camp, ironic frisson of a fading grand dame recontextualized out of big drama and into little horror features.

This is the 14th annual A Nightmare on Franklin Street, the Halloween series at Tampa Theatre, which follows the venue's Centennial Celebration. The newly restored palace is known as one of the most haunted buildings in town, with stories of ghostly guests and eternal employees. The screening is in the Taylor Screening Room, inside the theatre at 707 N Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602-4400. It starts at 7:30 PM on Saturday, October 24.