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Actors
Arnold Diamond
Donald Houston
Nadia Gray
George Pastell
Jerold Wells
Norman Bird
Kerwin Mathews

Director	IMDB Rating
Michael Carreras	5.7 out of 10 (273 votes)

Year	1963

Available Quality	DivX

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Plot Summary:

Kerwin Matthews, playing a dissolute drifter down on his luck, is stranded in a cheap bar in France where he falls for Annette, the pretty daughter of the proprietor, played by Nadia Gray. Nadia Gray gradually shifts the young mans attentions to herself, rather than her daughter, and together Matthews and Gray concoct a plot to help Grays estranged husband, now a homicidal maniac confined in an institution after a grisly series of killings dubbed The Acetylene Murders by the press, out of the mental institution so he can escape from the country.

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cynthia_h_49509

20 May 2012

Good Acting, interesting photography and scenery, poor plotting

I enjoyed the first part of this thriller produced by Hammer. KerwinMatthews is very appealing as the leading man and the first half of themovie I wasn't sure where it was going, who to trust and who wasdeceiving who. But the twist at the end made the actions of some of thecharacters in the first half of the movie illogical. When a films givesyou a twist at the end, I like to be able to look back and say, oh wow,now I see it. "Ten Little Indians", 1965, and "The Sixth Sense" ,1999,both are good examples of surprise endings that make sense when youlook back. This one doesn't. "Spoiler" When Eve's real motivations arerevealed at the end and we find out who Georges really is, the wholefirst part of the film unravels and Eve and "Georges" behavior isinexplicable. " Spoiler" I would recommend this to other fans of 60'sEnglish Cinema with the caveat that it is worth watching for theactors, and the scenery (even in black and white) but the plot has lotsof holes.

getcater

19 May 2012

A Hammer film that's more than the usual blunt instrument

As a Hammer film, Maniac comes as something of a surprise. One normallyassociates the brand with studio-based horror films of average to lowquality, typical Brit-flick production values and a home-grown cast ofstolid, reliable faces. If that's what you've come to expect fromHammer, Maniac will either disappoint or delight.Shot extensively on location in the Camargue, in high contrast blackand white 2.35:1 widescreen, the movie makes effective use of somestartlingly dramatic scenery that's exploited to the full by a clearlyabove average director of photography. The film noir mood andatmosphere are reminiscent of 1962's Cape Fear, and whilst Maniac failsto match that film's pitch of sustained suspense and repressed anger,it's a creditable attempt by Hammer to do something a bit darker andmore mature than usual.The acting is efficient, if somewhat underplayed, and it's a surpriseto see an actor of the calibre of Donald Houston being dubbed (itsounds like Roger Delgado Â any offers?) Thriller fans will bedisappointed at the lack of any truly scary moments, and the plot has afew more twists than are absolutely necessary; but if you appreciategood black and white photography and films that don't slavishly tickall the predictable boxes, Maniac has much to recommend it. A goodrestoration would certainly find an audience on DVD.

Woodyanders

08 May 2012

So-so Hammer thriller

Handsome nice guy American drifter Paul Farrell (a solid and appealingperformance by Kerwin Mathews) finds himself stuck in rural France. Heseeks room and board in the home of the alluring Eva Bryant (wellplayed with beguiling sexiness by Nadia Gray) and her sweet, butequally fetching teenage daughter Annette (a charming portrayal by theadorable Lilliane Brousse). Paul agrees to help Eva break herdangerously unstable husband Georges (a suitably menacing turn byDonald Houston) out of an asylum. Sound good and exciting? Well, alasthis middling Hammer thriller doesn't amount to much because of MichaelCarreras' competent, but pedestrian direction and Jimmy Sangster'sstrangely bland, talky, and uneventful script. The key problem is thatCarreras and Sangster let the meandering narrative plod along at tooleisurely a pace and crucially fail to generate much in the way oftension or momentum; it's only in the last third of the picture thatthe story finally starts cooking to some moderate degree with a niftydouble twist surprise ending. On the plus side, Wilkie Cooper's crispwidescreen black and white cinematography offers plenty of breathtakingshots of the lovely French countryside scenery and Stanley Black'sswinging jazzy score hits the right-on groovy spot. Moreover, the castdo their best with the blah material: Mathews, Gray, and Brousse areall fine in the lead roles, with sturdy support from George Bastell asthe no-nonsense Inspector Etienne and Arnold Diamond as affable localconstable Janiello. A strictly passable time-killer.

Wayne Malin

07 May 2012

Middling Hammer thriller

American artist Paul Farrell (Kerwin Mathews) is visiting France. Hefalls in love with hotel owner Eve Beynat (Nadia Gray). He helps her toget her husband George (Donald Houston) out of an asylum...and theneverything falls apart.Well-directed with some beautiful b&w cinematography--but that's allthis movie has going for it. The plot is old hat and the twists andturns that come fast and furious during the last half hour are nowfamiliar and obvious. To make matters worse the acting is prettyterrible. Mathews is tall, handsome, hunky--and totally blank as Paul.His face NEVER changes expression. I actually smirked when he gives noreaction at all to finding a dead body. Even worse is Liliane Brousseas Annette and her thick French accent doesn't help. Gray and Houstonare OK in their roles. This is OK to watch if you have nothing betterto do but don't expect much. I give it a 6.

melvelvit-1

01 May 2012

A gialloesque Hammer noir

American landscape painter Geoff Farrell (Kerwin Matthews), stranded inEurope, is attracted to Annette, a young French barmaid, but ends upfalling for her seductive step-mother, Eve (Nadia Gray), instead. Fouryears earlier, the teen-aged Annette was raped on her way home fromschool and her father, Georges, institutionalized for taking anacetylene torch to her assailant. Eve soon convinces Geoff to help herhusband, now a local hero, escape from the insane asylum but, oncefree, a frightening series of events makes it look like Georges was ahomicidal maniac after all...In the wake of PSYCHO, England's Hammer Studios made a few black andwhite "mini-Hitchcock" thrillers that tried to emulate the "Master ofSuspense". PARANOIAC, MANIAC, and HYSTERIA all featured real orimagined madness, murder, sex, and deception -along with numerous plottwists- to keep viewers on the edge of their seats with varying degreesof success. There's a stark, creepy, noir-like quality to MANIAC andthe unseen rape, torture and murder in the beginning is quitedisturbing. The location shooting in the isolated region of the FrenchCamargue is a decided asset and the compelling story, written by JimmySangster, includes a number of suspenseful sequences before a surpriserevelation that is near impossible to see coming. I've read complaintsthat this wasn't directed by Freddie Francis but Michael Carreras doesjust fine with the gialloesque material. Recommended.

Brian Walker

01 May 2012

Cast off

A good script from Hammer stalwart Jimmy Sangster who also wrote theexcellent Paranoiac, and matched by sharp direction and photography. Ashame, then, that the cast are such a let-down. The well-known hamDonald Houston lives down to his reputation - his voice was dubbed, apity that his performance couldn't be erased. The French actressLillian Brousse is excellent as the innocent daughter, but the AmericanKerwin Matthews makes for a very anodyne lead. The rest of the cast areBritish, utilizing French accents straight out of 'Allo 'Allo. Hammerhave made some excellent non-horror movies such as Taste of Fear, andbut for the dreadful acting this could have been one of them.

ferbs54

30 April 2012

Carrying A (Blow)Torch For His Lady Love

Up until recently, I had been aware of only two films with the title"Maniac": the 1934 camp classic directed by Dwain Esper and therepugnant 1980 picture with Joe Spinell as a deranged mannequin lover.The existence of the British "Maniac," a 1963 product from the greatHammer Studios, thus came as a nice surprise for me. Part of the Hammer"Icons of Suspense" six-film box set, the picture shares a DVD with thestudio's 1958 film "The Snorkel," with which it shares manysimilarities. Both are finely crafted exercises in suspense, shot inbeautiful B&W, written by Jimmy Sangster and taking place on theMediterranean coast. In "Maniac," we meet a hunky-dude American artist,Geoff Farrell (appealingly played by Kerwin Matthews, who many viewerswill recall from the Ray Harryhausen films "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad"and "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver"), who finds himself marooned in the wildsouthern region of France known as the Camargue after breaking up withhis wealthy girlfriend (Justine Lord, known to this viewer best asSonia, from my favorite episode of "The Prisoner," "The Girl Who WasDeath"). Staying at a small "pension," he gets lustily involved withthe attractive proprietress, Eve (Romanian actress Nadia Gray, who I'donly previously encountered in another "Prisoner" episode, "The Chimesof Big Ben"), AND her beautiful young stepdaughter, Annette (LilianeBrousse, who reminds this viewer a lot of the young Marianna Hill). Toobad, though, that the gals' husband/father--a homicidal nutjob who had,four years earlier, grotesquely murdered a man with an acetyleneblowtorch(!)--has escaped from his asylum and is now seeking newvictims...."Maniac" is surely a film that will keep the viewer guessing, and hasbeen cleverly plotted--perhaps overly plotted--by Sangster. Indeed,there are at least three plot twists in the film, one too many for thisviewer, although the story does manage to cohere together. Personally,I preferred the simpler story line and greater suspense of "TheSnorkel," but that's just me. To his credit, director Michael Carrerasdoes a fine, imaginative job here, exhibiting a shrewd sense of cameraplacement; he would go on to helm such Hammer entertainments as "TheCurse of the Mummy's Tomb," the shlocky camp dud "Prehistoric Women"and "The Lost Continent." Like "The Snorkel" again, "Maniac" featuressome beautiful nighttime photography, and its evocation of place isvery well brought off, whether the film was shot in France or not (Idon't believe it was). Matthews, as usual, makes for an enormouslylikable leading man, here playing a basically decent person whosuddenly finds himself in way deep over his head. Viewers, by the way,might enjoy making a drinking game out of "Maniac," taking a shot everytime Farrell does (I counted at least 10 such instances!). The filmfeatures an unfortunately weak ending, taking place in what appears tobe a deserted quarry of sorts, and, at the risk of belaboring a point,this denouement pales greatly in contrast to the supremely satisfyingdouble ending to be found in "The Snorkel." Still, the 1963 pictureremains a perfectly acceptable and riveting entertainment, and easilythe best exemplar of the filmmaking craft as compared to those othertwo "Maniac"s mentioned above!

planktonrules

30 April 2012

Yet another PSYCHO-like film from the early 60s

The film begins with a very sick and brutal murder with a blow torch!!While you could understand why the man killed, how he did it wasnaturally quite unsettling! Four years later, Kerwin Mathews iswandering about Europe aimlessly when he arrives in a small town inProvence, France. Here he stumbles upon a beautiful pair of ladies whoare mother and daughter. What happens next, I really don't want to sayas it would spoil the excitement and twists.The early 1960s brought us a lot of films about maniac killers. PEEPINGTOM seemed to be the film to start the craze back--debuting just beforePSYCHO. PEEPING TOM was probably the best of these films and for aboutsix years afterwords, there were a bunch of similar productions thatfocused on a mad killer. STRAIGHT-JACKET, HOMICIDAL, DEMENTIA 13,PARANOIAC and HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE are among scores ofpsychopathic killer films.In the middle of this mad killer craze came the film MANIAC. Like theothers, it involves a brutal killer who was seen as hopelessly crazyand the film had lots of nice twists and turns to keep the viewerguessing. Compared to these other films, I'd say that MANIAC is aboutaverage--very engaging but not among the cream of the bloody crop. Wellmade--just now good enough to put it among the best of the genre.

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