Review of Maniac

Maniac (1934)
2/10
Certainly one of a kind
14 March 2006
I had such a terrible print of this that it distracted from the enjoyment (such as it was). It is such a mis-edited hodgepodge that one never really gets into any kind of story. There are about six plots introduced and then pretty much dropped. We have the re-animated women, the nut case, high on adrenaline, The mad doctor, the specialist in disguises, the women whose patronage seems really out of place. There are virtually no motivations for anything--it just rambles on from one scene to the next. The little instructional breaks explaining various psychological anomalies lead us into--what? It's as if it's supposed to be a clinical film and then you have this ranting. The cat gets its eye popped out. There are Poe things, "The Black Cat," with the walled up person. I don't know. It just sort of ended, which was OK. The nudity was interesting, in that it must have been pre-production code. Why was it there. I suppose so the voyeuristic could be lured into a movie theater. Who knows. It's one big mess.
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