It doesn’t take much to be spooked when Halloween comes around. Every channel in the TV lineup has been showing horror flicks for the past week, and I’ve succumbed.
The other night I was on TCM and watched the campy 1964 Joan Crawford movie “Strait-Jacket.”
I’ve seen the movie a dozen times, but even though I know how it ends I still freak out during the big finale with Diane Baker. “Strait-Jacket” was one of a string of films that came out after the success of “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane” and featured stars who were past their prime. I love them all – from “Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte” to “The Nanny.”
Tonight I tuned in to IFC and “The Shining” was on.
What a dud. Talk about over the top, not to mention an hour too long. Stephen King’s book deserved much better than this self-important Kubrick bomb that made me wonder how Jack Nicholson’s career ever recovered from it; Shelley Duvall’s sure didn’t.