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You won’t believe Barbara Stanwyck’s bonkers screaming in surreal shocker, ‘The Night Walker’
10.30.2017
09:07 am
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The Night Walker
 
The Night Walker is a psychological thriller/mystery/horror film from 1964. The picture stars an acclaimed actress, who gives a most unusual performance. You won’t believe the wild screaming by this Hollywood star—it’s nuts!

The Night Walker was produced and directed by William Castle, one of the titans of B-movie filmmaking. Castle was infamous for his gimmicks, like the time he had buzzers attached to theater seats in order to give audiences a jolt during The Tingler (1959). Just prior to The Night Walker, Castle turned to stunt casting, enlisting Joan Crawford to play a deranged, ax-wielding murderess in Strait-Jacket (1964), with the former A-lister giving a famously over-the-top performance. For The Night Walker, Castle wanted to reunite actors Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor, who were married from 1939-1951. The two, who had remained friends following their divorce, agreed to appear in the film.
 
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Stanwyck and Taylor in a publicity still for ‘The Night Walker.’

Barbara Stanwyck was amongst the biggest female film stars of her era, playing the lead actress role in such classics as Meet John Doe (1941), The Lady Eve (1941), and Double Indemnity (1944). By the late ‘50s, she was acting primarily in television. Robert Taylor wasn’t quite the Hollywood commodity that Stanwyck was, though he does have quite a few credits.

In The Night Walker, Stanwyck plays Irene Trent, the protagonist of the film. After her husband dies in a fire, Irene starts having intense nightmares involving her late spouse, as well as a mysterious figure who just might be the man of her dreams (see what I did there?). But is this just in her subconscious, or actually occurring in real life? Convinced it’s the latter, she turns to her husband’s lawyer—and potential new beau—Barry Moreland (played by Taylor), to help her get to the bottom of it. Along the way, we the viewers are treated to some pleasingly surreal imagery—even if it the special effects aren’t all that “special.” Still, this is fun stuff. 
 
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Though not without its flaws, The Night Walker is an entertaining B-movie mystery, even if it is spoiled a bit (or enhanced, depending on your point of view) by the silly, Scooby Doo-like ending.
 
Poster
 
The boss artwork used in the posters for The Night Walker was done by Reynold Brown, who was responsible for some of the most iconic film poster images of the ‘50s and ‘60s. The marketing materials are characteristic of exploitation flicks, in which the courted audience is essentially dared to see the film. 
 
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The Night Walker ended up being Stanwyck’s final appearance on the big screen. Stanwyck was a solid, award-winning actress, so it’s a trip to see her get so unhinged in the picture. Biographer Dan Callahan believes the actress gave a purposely exaggerated performance:

Stanwyck has fun with her juicy role, especially when she gets to scream in horror. Her first set of screams sound succulent, even orchestral, a Phil Spector wall of sound (she ends the last one on a smoker’s hacking cough). Later on she does another set of basso yowls, this time putting her whole body into it and throwing her head back to punctuate one of her screams. Best of all, when her tormented dreamer realizes what a jam she’s in, Stanwyck decides to amuse herself and us by going all-out hambone. “I can’t wake up,” she says, breathlessly letting it sink in. “I can’t wake up!” she cries, making the realization louder and more uncontrolled. And then, “I CAN’T WAKE U-h-h-h-h-h-a-HUP!” she howls, putting both arms over her face like some bygone great lady of the stage. (taken from Barbara Stanwyck: The Miracle Woman)

You can easily judge for yourself, as some nice YouTuber put together a handy compilation of Stanwyck screaming and carrying on in The Night Walker.
 
Scream
 
Are you ready?
 
Continues after the jump…

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Posted by Bart Bealmear
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10.30.2017
09:07 am
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Terrifying stills & chilling images from Joan Crawford’s bonkers axe-murderer film ‘Strait-Jacket’
02.15.2017
09:49 am
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A terrifying still of Joan Crawford and her best friend, an axe, from the 1964 film, ‘Strait-Jacket.’

Though she was widely vilified by the gossip columnists of her time and is best recalled today for being a very bad mommie, it is impossible to dispute the fact that Joan Crawford was one hell of an actress. She was a talented dancer and worked as a showgirl before starting her long career in Hollywood during which she became one of the most iconic actresses of all time. She also served on the board of directors of the Pepsi-Cola Company for well over a decade. Even Blue Öyster Cult wrote a song about her. And for yours truly, street credibility just doesn’t get any better than being immortalized by the mighty BÖC.

Joan Crawford was tough—a defense mechanism that she likely developed during her difficult childhood. While attending a private school she paid her tuition by doing jobs at the school such as washing dishes; cooking; making beds, and waitressing. Due to this overload of work, her studies suffered. Crawford dropped out of school in the sixth grade—something that the actress allegedly deeply regretted. However, the event would also signal the beginning of Crawford’s aspirations to become an actress and after taking a strong interest in dance, her luck finally started to change when she took off for Chicago and landed a gig as a showgirl in a vaudeville act. She was quickly discovered and within a short period of time, she was under contract by MGM by way of producer Harry Rapf.

After a successful early run with her films, Crawford’s star began to fade, leading her to part ways with MGM in the mid-1940s for Warner Brothers who would gift her with one of the greatest roles she would ever play as the star of the 1945 film Mildred Pierce. Crawford would receive the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 for the role—her only Oscar in her entire career—which she accepted while at home in bed after skipping the ceremony. Then in 1962, she went head-to-head in the dark cinematic masterpiece What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? with her real-life nemesis, Bette Davis. Two years later Crawford would star in another bleak masterpiece of sorts—which is the subject of this post—the 1964 film Strait-Jacket which was scripted by the same man who authored the 1960 novel-turned-film Psycho, Robert Bloch. It was directed and produced by the master of scary movie gimmicks William Castle. The film’s byline read “FROM THE DIRECTOR OF HOMICIDAL, THE AUTHOR OF PSYCHO, AND THE CO-STAR OF WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?
During the film’s original release, moviegoers were given cardboard axes by movie ushers and Castle provided an “animated” moving movie poster to exhibitors. At the end of the film, the Columbia logo’s torch-bearing woman is shown decapitated, with her head resting beside her feet.
 

 
In the film, Crawford plays Lucy Harbin, a woman who has just been released from an insane asylum after a twenty-year bid as punishment for chopping up her husband (marking the first role for TV’s future Six Million Dollar Man, Lee Majors) and his mistress with an axe in a fit of jealous rage, an act witnessed by her three-year-old daughter. Things go south pretty quickly in Strait-Jacket as we soon see Crawford sucking down bourbon, chain-smoking and acting as though she’s about to have a complete psychotic break from reality at any moment. It’s rumored that when she took on the challenge of playing Crawford in Mommie Dearest, actress Faye Dunaway got much of her inspiration for her spot-on portrayal of a completely unhinged Crawford straight from Strait-Jacket.

If you have never seen this film I can say with complete confidence that it is as remarkable as it is abjectly horrifying at times. In fact, it is also my humble opinion that Crawford’s performance is on par with fellow axe-aficionado Jack Nicholson and his portrayal of “Jack Torrance” in The Shining. I’ve included some great artifacts from the film including stills, vintage lobby cards, and some sinister posters that will help prove my point about Crawford’s baleful performance in this wickedly frightening film below. Sleep tight!
 

Crawford inside a striped dressing room featured in the film that has her recalling her days in the asylum.
 

A ‘Strait-Jacket’ lobby card.
 
More Joan Crawford after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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02.15.2017
09:49 am
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Joan Crawford’s bizarre screen-tests for ‘Strait-Jacket’, 1964
05.13.2011
06:06 pm
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The legendary actress Joan Crawford died today in 1977. While now best remembered through Faye Dunaway’s incredible interpretation of the actress (‘No wire hangers!’) in Mommie Dearest, we tend to forget that Crawford was a talented, Oscar winning actress, who had one of the longest and most successful careers in Hollywood. No mean feat, no matter what her adopted daughter later wrote.

Joan worked damned hard to maintain her career and independence and if she’d been a man, we’d remember her as fondly as Errol Flynn or Robert Mitchum. What is also impressive about Crawford was her ability to make the most of the roles offered, no matter how trashy the role. Her performance in Trog should have won her a medal for perseverance beyond the call of duty.

In 1964, Joan Crawford starred in B-movie genius William Castle’s classic Strait-Jacket, where she gave a brilliantly bizarre performance. Here is Ms Crawford trying out her make-up for the role of suspected ax-murderer Lucy Harbin.
 

 
Bonus trailers of Joan Crawford in ‘Strait-Jacket’ and ‘Trog’, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.13.2011
06:06 pm
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