Maniac (1934)

Director:

Dwain Esper

Writer:

Hildegarde Stadie (story) (continuity)

Release Date:

11 September 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

He menaced women with weird desires!

Plot:

An ex-vaudeville actor gifted at impersonation assists a mad scientist to reanimate corpses and soon goes mad himself.

Plot Keywords:

Assistant | Doctor | Scientist | Impersonation | Cat

Cast

William Woods	...	Don Maxwell (as Bill Woods)
Horace B. Carpenter	...	Dr. Meirschultz
Ted Edwards	...	Buckley
Phyllis Diller	...	Mrs. Buckley
Thea Ramsey	...	Alice Maxwell
Jenny Dark	...	Maizie
Marvelle Andre	...	Marvel (as Marvel Andre)
Celia McCann	...	Jo
John P. Wade	...	Embalmer (as J.P. Wade)
Marian Constance Blackton	...	Neighbor (as Marian Blackton)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Umberto Guarracino	...	Pluto (archive footage) (uncredited)
Bartolomeo Pagano	...	Maciste (archive footage) (uncredited)
Satan	...	Satan the Cat (uncredited)

Directed by
Dwain Esper

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Hildegarde Stadie		story (continuity)

Produced by
Dwain Esper	....	producer
Louis Sonney	....	producer
Hildegarde Stadie	....	producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
William C. Thompson

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
J. Stuart Blackton Jr.	....	assistant director

Art Department
Dan Sonney	....	props

Other crew
Dan Sonney	....	production assistant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Roadshow Attractions

Distributors

• Roadshow Attractions (1934) (USA) (theatrical)
• Kino Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino Video (1999) (USA) (VHS)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Navarre Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• CMV Laservision (2005) (Germany) (DVD)
• Exploited Film (2000) (UK) (VHS)
• Hollywood's Attic (????) (USA) (VHS)
• LS Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Video Dimensions (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Video Yesteryear (????) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Sex Maniac

Runtime:

51 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (DVD) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Roadshow Attractions

Trivia:

This film is listed among The 100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.

Goofs:

Continuity: At one point Maxwell chases down a cat and appears to gouge out its eye (the notorious one eyed cat sequence). The cat he chases is clearly solid black in color, but the one eyed cat director Esper used for this gag is not black or even all of one color.

Quotes:

Dr. Meirschultz: Once a ham, always a ham!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sex and Buttered Popcorn (1989)

Soundtrack:

La Cooca Rocha

Far more than just another bad film.

If you have never seen a Dwain Esper film you might feel nervous sitting in a room with people who have seen and enjoy them. Curiously there is no middle ground for Dwain Esper, you either love his films or you hate them. He was no filmmaker; originally he was a real estate agent and one of his clients defaulted on a mortgage and left a house full of filmmaking equipment. Esper was wondering what to do with all the stuff and suddenly the movie making bug bit him and that was that; he had a new career. Dwain was no Edward D. Wood. Eddie's films have a laughable ineptness but the sincerity was there despite the shortcomings, and they were legion. He wasn't even comparable with Andy Milligan whose filmic efforts make Ed Wood look like John Ford by comparrison. If I HAVE to compare Dwain with someone it could only be David Friedman. Both went directly for the cinematic equivalent of a heart punch and gave us images so unrelentingly gritty and brutal they dared us to keep looking. Having seen most of Dwain's movies I have to say MANIAC is his magnum opus. Horace Carpenter, a former director of silent westerns (check out FLASHING STEEDS sometime) and member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company (ROMANCE OF THE REDWOODS, JOAN THE WOMAN, etc) plays Dr. Mierschultz, the maddest doctor to step in front of a camera. Bill Woods is his assistant, the dangerously neurotic Maxwell who is on the run from the police (we never find out why but Dwain was not one to clutter up his screenplays with needless facts). Neither of these characters is playing with a full deck. Meirschultz restores life to a dead woman and wants to restore someone else by transplanting a living heart into a dead body. When he demands that Maxwell shoot himself it brings an abrupt end to their employee/employer relationship and Maxwell kills him and decides to take his place ("I not only look like Mierschultz, I AM Mierschultz! I will be a great man!") And this is where the movie gets REALLY weird! The film has lately been restored and it available on both video and DVD so I don't want to spoil the surprises; and there are a lot of them in the 55 minute roller coaster ride of a movie. I will warn all cat lovers to avoid this movie. There are one or two scenes that will bother them, but there is no animal cruelty! That one eyed cat was a real one that Dwain bought from an animal shelter. Dwain always claimed he was making educational films to warn people against drugs, promiscuity, and to enlighten people about mental illness. He must have known it isn't WHAT you say but HOW you say it. So pop this cassette into your VCR. Good luck to you all. Viddy well, little brother, viddy well.