Criminally Insane (1975)

Director:

Nick Millard

Writer:

Nick Millard (screenplay)

Release Date:

1975 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

She's 250 Pounds of Maniacal Fury!

Plot:

An obese woman recently released from an insane asylum kills anyone who attempts to get her to stop eating.

Plot Keywords:

Food | Key | Obese Woman | Kitchen | Dead Woman

Cast

Priscilla Alden	...	Ethel Janowski
Michael Flood	...	John
Jane Lambert	...	Mrs. Janowski
Robert Copple
George 'Buck' Flower	...	Detective (as C.L. Lefleur)
Ginna Martine	...	Mrs. Kendley (as Gina Martine)
Cliff McDonald	...	Dr. Gerard
Charles Egan	...	Drunk Man
Sonny La Rocca
Sandra Shotwell	...	Nurse
Lisa Farros	...	Rosalie

Directed by
Nick Millard		(as Nick Philips)

Writing credits
Nick Millard		(screenplay) (as Nick Philips)

Produced by
Frances Millard	....	producer

Cinematography by
Karil Ostman

Film Editing by
John Lincoln

Casting by
Harold Morris

Art Direction by
Charles R. Fenwick

Makeup Department
Gigo	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Ray Sikes	....	unit manager

Sound Department
Ronald Gertz	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Larry Bange	....	still photographer
Francois Truchon	....	camera operator

Other crew
Dave Cox	....	continuity

Production Companies

• I.R.M.I. Films Corporation

Distributors

• I.R.M.I. Films Corporation (1975) (USA) (theatrical)
• Incredibly Strange Filmworks (USA) (VHS)
• Shock-O-Rama Cinema (2005) (worldwide) (all media)
• Western World Video (USA) (VHS)

Runtime:

61 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Canada:18+ (Quebec) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Oakland, California, USA

Company:

I.R.M.I. Films Corporation

Trivia:

Filming took five weeks in the Spring of 1973.

Quotes:

Ethel Janowski:My heart is just fine as long as my stomach is not empty.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Cinema Snob: Sodom and Gomorrah: The Last Seven Days (#4.22)" (2012)

"I'm gonna go watch Gunsmoke"

"Criminally Insane" (aka "Crazy Fat Ethel") should really have been an off-Broadway show back in the 70s. "Women Behind Bars" at the old Truck and Warehouse Theatre in NYC really turned Divine into a major actress and I think that a similar treatment of this irresistible story would have done the same for the amazing Priscilla Alden. The only other obese actress who could have done justice to the part of Ethel Janowski would have been Shirley Stoler, who ended up on Pee-Wee's Playhouse as Mrs. Steve. Alden really steals the entire sixty minute running time of this grimy little cult classic: she's sullen, deranged, giddy, practical, and hungry all at the same time. This is way better acting than Nicole Kidman wearing a rubber nose. Alden cooks, eats, lies, pouts, listens to her sister have sex, kills, drags bodies up and down various sets of stairs, and in one amazing scene, sprays air freshener over her collection of decaying murder victims while eating an éclair. Ethel dismisses everyone around her in the rudest fashion imaginable, telling a detective she's "gonna go watch Gunsmoke" instead of answering his questions about someone she's already killed. This movie actually does contain one really disturbing scene, the one in which Ethel follows the dying boyfriend of her sister down a hallway. He's been meatcleavered, is only dressed in tighty whities, is leaking blood all over, crawling....and Ethel just follows along, giggling all the while until he dies. For some reason, you just can't look away from this carwreck of a movie. It's wonderful that you can now get this true oddity on DVD (coupled with the sequel and "Satan's Black Wedding" which features more sets of plastic vampire fangs than you can count). I wish the company releasing this gem had included the little cardboard meat cleavers some theaters gave out to paying customers who saw this on it's initial release.