by Sara Clements

“Lucy Harbin took an axe. Gave her husband 40 wacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave his girlfriend 41.”

Are some “bad moms” just a fictitious image created by nasty daughters? If you know anything about Joan Crawford, the similarity between Mommie Dearest and William Castle’s Strait-Jacket is clear. Strait-Jacket isn’t simply a film about a murderous mother, just like Mommie Dearest isn’t simply a book/film about an abusive one. Both are told through the eyes of a daughter scorned, and as such, manipulates the viewer into believing one side without exploring the other. Sometimes, it’s the daughter who wields the axe.

“Lucy Harbin was declared legally insane today,” Diane Baker narrates in Strait-Jacket. As Carol, she introduces her insane “love slayer” mother by recounting the night she saw her mother murder her father. Her father was a younger man who married her mother Lucy because she owned property. But she didn’t own him, as the film explains. One night, Lucy walks in on her husband fast asleep beside another woman. She takes an axe to their heads, and Carol sees it all. It’s an iconic scene. As she raises the axe above him, the sound of her bracelets hitting each other, jangling, the last thing he’ll ever hear. And her, too, before being taken off to the asylum. And for Carol, the sound of those bracelets would make her wake up screaming, leaving her haunted so badly that it drives her insane. Textbook definition of a bad mom right there, but the film doesn’t establish whether or not Lucy was mentally ill or just fell into a moment of jealous rage. 

In any case, it’s 20 years later and she’s getting out of the asylum. Carol, now living with her aunt and uncle, meets a completely different woman than the one she first introduced. I call this Joan Crawford’s hottest role because she proves she’s still got it. When we first see her as Lucy, the train whistles, steam billows up as she debarks in a tight floral dress and a striking black wig. She looks hotter than ever, and it would be an honour to be slain by her (but her husband was the lucky one). The Lucy we see 20 years later proves Crawford’s versatility. Debarking from the train once again, but this time, she’s meek, frail, and plain. Her hair no longer black, but light blonde, maybe even grey. The reunion is heartfelt as Lucy, tears in her eyes, drops her bag, clutches her chest, and hugs Carol. It’s a powerful scene that proves why Crawford is one of the cinematic greats. 

There are many moments in the film that make you wonder why Crawford didn’t receive an Oscar nomination for her performance. Understandably speaking, Strait-Jacket probably wouldn’t be a film that would have appealed to the Academy (still today it tends to stay away from horror), but watching Crawford live all the emotions of a woman trying to escape her past - shaking as she holds an axe again, the light scream of horror she exudes at the sight of a chicken being butchered - it gives you goosebumps and makes you angry that Hollywood treated female stars over 40 as disposable. (She lights a match on a record, for God's sake!) Strait-Jacket is Crawford’s show, definitely, but Baker manages to surprise as Carol, who slowly reveals how the bitterness she carries produces the film’s true horrors. 

Their happy reunion doesn’t last, as reminders of Lucy’s mistakes are everywhere. And these triggers are seemingly driving her back into madness. Carol seems to be triggering her mother on purpose, too, as she mentions how they “butcher” chickens and “fatten [pigs] up for the slaughter.” When Carol finds her father’s head cut out of every photo in their family album, she makes her boyfriend, Michael, believe that her mother might still be insane. But is she? There’s more to the story than that, and it’s never more clear than when Carol takes Lucy out shopping and dresses her head to toe in a similar outfit she wore when she killed her father - bracelets, wig, and all. “Just as I’ve always dreamed of you,” Carol tells her. It’s clear that Lucy would rather erase her past, but Carol wants to relive it. She makes her mother revert back to her old self, the woman Carol remembers from 20 years ago: Flirty, fun, wicked. But she’s changed. In a moment when she’s trying to pretend the last 20 years didn’t happen, a sudden visit from her doctor brings her back to reality. Back to a child-like state of fear, which is taken advantage of by Carol, whose plan is to drive her mother insane by making her believe she’s hearing things, seeing things and killing again. By doing this, she’s making the audience believe it, too. 

“There are some things you just don’t forget,” Carol tells Lucy’s doctor, and there’s truth to this. Obviously, it would be hard to forget that your mother killed your father, but let’s do so for a minute. Think about how you remember all the moments your mother spanked you, grounded you, took away your toys. Is she a “bad mom” because of this? Why do we hold onto those memories? It seems silly, doesn’t it. But if we take Strait-Jacket and Mommie Dearest as examples, a mother’s decisions can have a great effect on children, no matter the severity. And even if 20 years later she’s changed, now living with regrets, the bitterness of the daughter and the images of those decisions stay. And because of that, the daughter attempts to destroy their mother for reasons that are often unclear. Lucy wasn’t always a bad mom, she isn’t a bad mom, but through manipulation and holding on to that one event, Carol made her out to be one. But Carol was the bad one. And perhaps the same can be said for Crawford and her daughter. 

We are often presented with dark stories, images of people and events that, just like Strait-Jacket’s title cards, are paintings of horror. But they sometimes detail narratives from differing perspectives, if you study them hard enough.

*This article first appeared in MJ’s Fall 2019 print zine. Purchase a copy here. Each issue comes with an exclusive Bad Moms in Cinema trading card, four in the series!