''Maniac'' (also known as ''Sex Maniac'') is a 1934 American

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

exploitation Exploitation may refer to: *Exploitation of natural resources *Exploitation of labour ** Forced labour *Exploitation colonialism *Slavery ** Sexual slavery and other forms *Oppression *Psychological manipulation In arts and entertainment *Exploi ...

horror film directed by

Dwain Esper Dwain Atkins Esper (October 7, 1894 – October 18, 1982) was an American director and producer of exploitation films. Biography A veteran of World War I, Esper worked as a building contractor before switching to the film business in the mid-19 ...

and written by Hildagarde Stadie, Esper's wife, as a loose adaptation of the 1843

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

story " The Black Cat", with references to his " Murders in the Rue Morgue". Esper and Stadie also made the 1936 exploitation film ''

Marihuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tr ...

''. The film, which was advertised with the tagline "He menaced women with his weird desires!", is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

. A restored version was made available in 1999, as part of a double feature with another Esper film, ''Narcotic!'' (1933). John Wilson, the founder of the Golden Raspberry Award, named ''Maniac'' one of the "100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made" in his book '' The Official Razzie Movie Guide''. Maniac has received negative reception since its release, being the first film considered the worst ever made and is an oft-cited example of pornographic films.

Plot

Don Maxwell is a former

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

impersonator who's working as the lab assistant to Dr. Meirschultz, a

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...

attempting to bring the dead back to life. When Don kills Meirschultz, he attempts to hide his crime by "becoming" the doctor, taking over his work, and copying his appearance/mannerisms. In the process, he slowly goes insane. The "

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

" treats a mental patient, Buckley, but accidentally injects him with

adrenaline Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, is a hormone and medication which is involved in regulating visceral functions (e.g., respiration). It appears as a white microcrystalline granule. Adrenaline is normally produced by the adrenal glands an ...

, which causes the man to go into violent fits. In one of these fits, Buckley kidnaps a woman, tears her clothes off, and

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

s her. Buckley's wife discovers the body of the real doctor and blackmails Don for turning her husband into a

zombie A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...

. The ersatz doctor turns the tables on her by manipulating the woman into fighting with his estranged wife, Alice Maxwell, a former showgirl. When the cat-breeding neighbor, Goof, sees what's going on, he calls the police, who stop the fight and, following the sound of Satan the cat, find the body of the real doctor hidden behind a brick wall.

Cast

* Bill Woods as Don Maxwell *

Horace B. Carpenter Horace B. Carpenter (January 31, 1875 – May 21, 1945) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 330 films between 1914 and 1946. He also directed 15 films between 1925 and 1934. Born in Grand Rapids, ...

as Dr. Meirschultz * Ted Edwards as Buckley * Phyllis Diller as Mrs. Buckley * Thea Ramsey as Alice Maxwell * Jenny Dark as Maizie * Marvel Andre as Marvel * Celia McCann as Jo * John P. Wade as Embalmer * Marian Blackton as neighbor Cast notes * Several key cast members in the film are uncredited, most notably the cat-farming neighbor Goof, the detective, and Maria Altura, the woman whom Dr. Meirschultz brings back to life. The actress who doubled for Altura in the brief nude scene has also not been identified. * Horace B. Carpenter was a producer, director and actor from the silent era who generally portrayed whitehaired characters in

Westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

once

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' b ...

emerged. * This is the only film that Bill Woods performed in. He later became a

makeup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

artist, working in film and television until 1968. * Marian Blackton is sometimes reported, incorrectly, as appearing in male drag as the neighbor who catches and breeds cats. She plays a female neighbor who is questioned by the detective. The male actor who plays Goof has not been identified. Blackton was the sister of ''Maniac'' assistant director and daughter of J. Stuart Blackton, founder of Vitagraph Studios and the father of American animation. * The actress named Phyllis Diller in this film is of no relation to the comedian

Phyllis Diller Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and ...

. * Celia Jiminez, billed under her married name of Celia McCann, was also a Spanish-language voice artist, having the Spanish-language voice for

Minnie Mouse Minnie Mouse is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a bow, polka-dotted dress, white bloomers, and low-heeled shoes occasiona ...

and other female cartoon characters. Her daughter, also named Celia McCann, is a movie extra, and her granddaughter is comedian

Julie Brown Julie Ann Brown (born August 31, 1958) is an American actress, comedian, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, and television director. Brown is known for her work in the 1980s, where she often played a quintessential valley girl charac ...

Production

The film was shot on a minuscule budget of $7,500, according to the film's financier's son, and like many of director

's films was self-distributed on the exploitation

roadshow Roadshow theatrical release is a practice in which a film opened in a limited number of theaters in large cities. Road show or Road Show may also refer to: *''Antiques Roadshow'', a BBC TV series where antiques specialist travel around the country ...

circuit. After initial disappointing returns (and no reviews in the media of the time), the film was retitled ''Sex Maniac'' with great success. It became notorious for a scene in which one character strangles a cat and then eats its eyeball. The footage that is superimposed over the scenes where the actor (having shot the mad scientist) is descending into madness while bricking his victim inside a wall, originated from the 1922 Danish-Swedish film ''

Häxan ''Häxan'' (, "The Witch"; Danish: ''Heksen''; English: ''The Witches''; released in the US in 1968 as ''Witchcraft Through the Ages'') is a 1922 silent horror essay film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. Consisting partly of d ...

''.

Reception and legacy

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on , with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating of 6.8/10. Many reviewers praise it as being "

so bad it's good A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage i ...

", such as Rob Gonsalves of ''eFilmCritic.com'', who called it "A true trash masterpiece."

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...

awarded the film the lowest rating of BOMB, calling it " Typically delirious Esper Schlockfest— filmed mostly in somebody's basement".

Danny Peary Dannis Peary (born August 8, 1949) is an American film critic and sports writer. He has written and edited many books on cinema and sports-related topics. Peary is most famous for his book '' Cult Movies'' (1980), which spawned two sequels, '' Cu ...

believes that ''Maniac'' is the worst film ever made. ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' critic Michael Wilmington, in a review for the 2005 horror film ''Chaos'', wrote: "I wouldn't say ''Chaos'' is the worst movie I've ever seen. There are some voyages into ineptitude, like Dwain Esper's anti-classic ''Maniac,'' that defy all reason." A Rotten Tomatoes editorial by Michael Adams placed the film on a list of 25 movies so bad they're unmissable, and the Italian '' Vanity Fair'' included it on its list of the 20 worst movies ever. The film was first released on DVD by Alpha Video March 18, 2002. It was also spoofed by

RiffTrax RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''M ...

on November 24, 2009.RiffTrax
/ref>

References

External links