Positively strange portrait of dementia features Bill Woods as an insane vaudeville actor, Don Maxwell, working as the assistant of a deranged scientist, Dr. Meirschultz(Horace B carpenter) desiring to reanimate the dead. The very definition of ineptitude, the film features a gallery of oddball characters and situations, sectioned with narrative chapters speaking on various diagnosis regarding mental afflictions.
Dwain Esper(Marijuana)lets his cast ham it up without restraint and there are characters nonessential to the plot which come and go as if dropped into the film to fill the running time. For instance, there is a drop-dead hilarious scene where a police detective is meeting a neighbor of Meirschultz who owns a giant cage of cats and rats that has to be seen to be believed("The rats eat the cats, the cats eat the rats, and I get the skins."). What little plot there is consists of those who come in contact with Maxwell who has shot and killed his boss, assuming his identity. Bizarre scenes rarely come as close as seeing a troubled patient, Buckley(Ted Edwards), given a shot of powerful adrenaline by Maxwell, as he transforms into a Renfield type of deranged nut, carrying off a gorgeous female corpse which was stolen by Meirschultz for his experiments. Mrs. Buckley(Phyllis Diller, nope, not that kooky comedienne)actually seems shocked at first regarding her husband's sudden surge of psychosis, later propositioning Maxwell for control over her husband after discovering that he plans to re-animate the dead Meirschultz..to see her negotiating with Maxwell, after her husband had just snatched up a dead chick is jaw-dropping. And, in an uncanny decision, director Esper intersperses scenes from, I think, HAXAN when Maxwell has these demented inspirations which come along fleetingly. Such as when his wife, Alice(Thea Ramsey)desiring to get her grubby hands on Maxwell's inheritance from a distant uncle, comes a calling(..deciding to rid himself of both Alice and Mrs. Buckley, he concocts a scheme to have them murder each other in Meirschultz's basement)or his decision to hide Meirschultz's body under a brick wall as to not be caught(..this is the body he had planned to experiment on, but that falls to the wayside not long after). Edgar Allan Poe's THE BLACK CAT is used for the body hiding sequence thanks in part to a black cat named(..appropriate enough)Satan, who hops into the make-shift tomb. Perhaps the most mind-boggling scene features Maxwell getting revenge on Satan(..who had destroyed a living, beating heart kept in a jar)by popping out it's eyeball and eating it!
I have a hard time believing such a terrible film could be made seriously..I always had a sneaky suspicion, MANIAC was played as a black comedy. It's just too weird, with several instances of crazed behavior, to be taken seriously as a thoughtful subject on insanity. The acting is off-the-wall and their characters often speak some pretty inane dialogue. The film is basically a series of vignettes in the life of Maxwell the impersonator and how his life is eclipsed by sheer lunacy. A definite must-see for fans of rancid cinema. Those who consider this a precursor to those bad Ed Wood movies down the road are correct, in my opinion. Startlingly features bare breasts.
Dwain Esper(Marijuana)lets his cast ham it up without restraint and there are characters nonessential to the plot which come and go as if dropped into the film to fill the running time. For instance, there is a drop-dead hilarious scene where a police detective is meeting a neighbor of Meirschultz who owns a giant cage of cats and rats that has to be seen to be believed("The rats eat the cats, the cats eat the rats, and I get the skins."). What little plot there is consists of those who come in contact with Maxwell who has shot and killed his boss, assuming his identity. Bizarre scenes rarely come as close as seeing a troubled patient, Buckley(Ted Edwards), given a shot of powerful adrenaline by Maxwell, as he transforms into a Renfield type of deranged nut, carrying off a gorgeous female corpse which was stolen by Meirschultz for his experiments. Mrs. Buckley(Phyllis Diller, nope, not that kooky comedienne)actually seems shocked at first regarding her husband's sudden surge of psychosis, later propositioning Maxwell for control over her husband after discovering that he plans to re-animate the dead Meirschultz..to see her negotiating with Maxwell, after her husband had just snatched up a dead chick is jaw-dropping. And, in an uncanny decision, director Esper intersperses scenes from, I think, HAXAN when Maxwell has these demented inspirations which come along fleetingly. Such as when his wife, Alice(Thea Ramsey)desiring to get her grubby hands on Maxwell's inheritance from a distant uncle, comes a calling(..deciding to rid himself of both Alice and Mrs. Buckley, he concocts a scheme to have them murder each other in Meirschultz's basement)or his decision to hide Meirschultz's body under a brick wall as to not be caught(..this is the body he had planned to experiment on, but that falls to the wayside not long after). Edgar Allan Poe's THE BLACK CAT is used for the body hiding sequence thanks in part to a black cat named(..appropriate enough)Satan, who hops into the make-shift tomb. Perhaps the most mind-boggling scene features Maxwell getting revenge on Satan(..who had destroyed a living, beating heart kept in a jar)by popping out it's eyeball and eating it!
I have a hard time believing such a terrible film could be made seriously..I always had a sneaky suspicion, MANIAC was played as a black comedy. It's just too weird, with several instances of crazed behavior, to be taken seriously as a thoughtful subject on insanity. The acting is off-the-wall and their characters often speak some pretty inane dialogue. The film is basically a series of vignettes in the life of Maxwell the impersonator and how his life is eclipsed by sheer lunacy. A definite must-see for fans of rancid cinema. Those who consider this a precursor to those bad Ed Wood movies down the road are correct, in my opinion. Startlingly features bare breasts.