Maniac (1934)

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

Director:

Dwain Esper

Writer:

Hildegarde Stadie (story)

Stars:

William Woods, Horace B. Carpenter, Ted Edwards

Cast

Cast overview:
William Woods	...	Don Maxwell (as Bill Woods)
Horace B. Carpenter	...	Dr. Meirschultz (as Horace Carpenter)
Ted Edwards	...	Buckley
Phyllis Diller	...	Mrs. Buckley
Theo Ramsey	...	Alice Maxwell
Jenny Dark	...	Maizie
Marvelle Andre	...	Marvel (as Marvel Andre)
Celia McCann	...	Jo
John P. Wade	...	Embalmer Mike (as J.P. Wade)
Marian Constance Blackton	...	Neighbor (as Marion Blackton)

Storyline

Don Maxwell is an ex-vaudeville ham, wanted by police, who has now found himself as the unlikely assistant to Dr. Meirschultz, a mad scientist in the business of reanimating corpses. Maxwell's gift of impersonation gets him and Meirschultz past the guards and into a morgue where they use a special serum to revive the corpse of a pretty young woman. But that's nothing. Dr. Meirschultz has a heart beating in a jar of solution and is eager to put it into a corpse that really needs it. Meirschultz gives his assistant a gun and advises him to commit suicide, so that he can put the heart in him, but Maxwell shoots and kills the scientist instead and hides the body. People will miss Meirschultz, Maxwell quickly realizes, but no one will miss his lowly assistant; and so Maxwell dons eyeglasses and a fake beard to become his onetime benefactor. The trouble is, he impersonates the mad doctor too well and goes crazy himself.

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Plot Keywords:

doctor | assistant | impersonation | scientist | heart | 

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Taglines:

He menaced women with weird desires!

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 September 1934 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sex Maniac

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Roadshow Attractions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

51 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

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.

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Goofs

When Buckley grabs the sleepwalking Maria Altura, the boom microphone pole's shadow is visible on the wall, to the right of the scene.

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Quotes

Maxwell: I think too much of Satan to use cats as experiments.

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Connections

Features Maciste in Hell (1925)

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Soundtracks

"La Cooca Rocha"
Sung by Thea Ramsey

User Reviews

You haven't seen it all

The longer I live the more surprising things I see. Here's a movie from the '30's that has bare boobs, gore and a shot of a man popping a cat's eye out. I don't know if it was real--the cat didn't seem to mind much so I doubt it was.

This has the feel of an Ed Wood exploitation opus--all over the place story-wise (a guy impersonates a mad doctor to promote his own mad ideas and a lot of people aren't thrilled with it, and some end up dead). It's clearly an exploitation film--it takes place in one room and plot is forsaken in favor of grisly ideas and action, deception, slutty women and over-the-top acting. Like many movies from this era it's too slow and grainy for most people to enjoy and certainly too poorly made to recommend, and the rewards are slim. I'd keep the fast-forward handy and the alcohol too--the title placards that try to legitimize the movie by suggesting it's an essay on different forms of madness is pointless and irritating, really.

The best news is that it's short and there's more action than talking--too bad more movies aren't like that these days. Oh, and there's the oddity of an actress named "Phyllis Diller" being in it, no relation to the wild-haired 60's stand-up comic, of course.