MANIAC (1934) - Did Ed Wood see this?

[The Burgomaster]

A few nights ago, I watched MANIAC (1934).  This movie is every bit as bad . . . and maybe even worse . . . than most of Ed Wood's celluloid disasters.

First of all, it was released as an "adults only" feature, so it has a few scenes that must have been considered "shocking" at the time.  (Including a topless woman and a guy gouging out a cat's eye with his thumb and then eating it).

The movie involves mad scientists who have discovered a serum to revive the dead.  In several scenes, the mad scientists actually throw their heads back and laugh hysterically in the true, mad scientist cliche tradition.  Throughout the movie, intertitles keep popping up with definitions of various psychological problems.

The dialogue and acting are poor, but get a load of who is in the cast: Phyllis Diller!

This movie has a running time of less than 1 hour, so you can easily squeeze it into your busy schedule.  You can find it in the HORROR CLASSICS 50 MOVIE PACK.

[odinn7]

I am a huge fan of Maniac (1980) with Joe Spinell and used to wonder (years ago) if the earlier Maniac had anything in common. I have never seen it but I do have the Horror Classics set that you have and now after your brief little write-up, I think I will need to make time to watch it.

[Scott]

The doctor was a terrible actor and then the assistant kills him and he puts on the beard and glasses an takes his place.

[Gerry]

A true exploitation classic! That cat's eyeball scene has to be seen to be believed.

[AndyC]

Cool. I got that pack for Christmas. Rather pleasant to see, at the end of your glowing endorsement, that I already own the movie.

Also quite useful to get recommendations, since it's not always easy to separate wheat from chaff when it comes to the couple of dozen movies in the collection that I haven't seen. A good title and a good plot description are often misleading.

[Vermin Boy]

Words cannot describe my deep, abiding love for this movie. You just know the director realized that he could get away with anything as long as he could pass it off as educational (dig the psychological definitions randomly thrown in the middle of scenes!), and just went for broke. Then there's the acting, which reminds me of the Futurama episode where Zoidberg's vaudeville uncle directs a film, and demands they overemote every line.

"Why, this cat's eye's not unlike an oyster-- OR A GRAPE!"

Priceless.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Sweet mother of god......

I've had this 50 pack for over a year now, but somehow overlooked Maniac until now.  I just got done watching it....I can feel my brain bleeding.....

The acting is some of the worst that I've seen in my life, especially the acting done by the fat, bald morgue worker.  The sound is awful, the plot stupid and the psychology definitions threw me off when they first appeared.  Nevermind the fact that the beginning of the film starts with a 2 minute text scroll about psychosis.

But, atleast now I know that I can easily revive a dead body by rubbing the bodie's arms and neck.....

[odinn7]

I just got done watching this. Wow...just...wow.
What the hell did I just sit through?
How about the scene where the "doctor" injects the guy and then the guy goes into this long, overacted spiel about it burning and all that?
How about the scene with the 4 women running around in their "sexy" underwear?
How about the dark haired woman in that scene that sounds like a mouse?
The mad doctor laughs, the cheesy assed lab, the cat eating the heart, the lunatic (was he supposed to be a zombie?) running down the street with the chick and pulling her top down...
I am even having trouble putting sentences together right now. All my thoughts are jumbled. Bed, time for bed. I sleep now. I sleep...

[Scott]

And those long educational prints about mental disorder.

[AndyC]

Just watched it yesterday. Funny, some of it was actually familiar. I remember seeing the old doctor's face used on a movie site somewhere. And that whole "fire in my brain" monologue appeared in It Came from Hollywood. I always assumed it was from a movie about the evils of drugs. Nice to see it in its original context.

[odinn7]

I still hurt...

[Gerry]

AndyC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just watched it yesterday. Funny, some of it was
> actually familiar. I remember seeing the old
> doctor's face used on a movie site somewhere.

Doesn't Dr. Freex use the Mad Scientist from this one as his icon?

[Flangepart]

He does indeed, Garry.
This flick is a hoot. The sheer insanity of it all! The bit with the cat/rat guy should be played when ever anyone proposes a new tax bill....it just seems so...right...