I'm a fan of Jimmy Sangster's work and after reading a few reviews of this movie here I was anxious to see it. Unfortunately I can't give this one a rave review. The best I can say is that it's not a bad movie and it's worth seeing once. After an intriguing opening the movie proceeds at a snail's pace for the longest time. It is excruciatingly slow. Since the actors involved are all as exciting as cardboard you can imagine how much slower that makes an already slow pace feel. Finally business picks up and then we're bombarded with one plot twist after another, not one of which is particularly impressive. The only twist I didn't see coming was one that was out of left field and there were no clues in the movie beforehand so it felt like a cheat. It's like Sangster knew his twists couldn't match Psycho so he decided on quantity instead of quality. If you're a fan of Jimmy Sangster or Hammer, then check it out but keep expectations low.
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utgard1427 October 2013
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claudio_carvalho28 November 2018When the American painter Jeff Farrell (Kerwin Mathews) dumps his girlfriend in Camarga, France, he meets the eighteen year-old waitress Annette Beynat (Liliane Brousse) in a bar and decides to stay in the town on vacation at a bed and breakfast owned by her stepmother Eve Beynat (Nadia Gray). Jeff feels a great attraction for Annette but soon he is seduced by Eve and has a love affair with her. He learns that three years ago Annette was raped by a man called Janiello (Arnold Diamond) and her father Henri (Donald Houston), who is locked in an asylum, killed the man using an acetylene torch. After visiting Henri, Eve tells to Jeff that he accepts to let her go with him provided they help him to escape from the asylum driving a runaway car to the harbor. Jeff decides to help Henri but soon he is visited by Inspector Etienne (George Pastell) and discovers dark secrets.
"Maniac" is a combination of film-noir with psychological thriller by Hammer having a triangle of love to complete the big picture. The sexual tension between Henri, Annette and Eve is constant and the relationship of Henri with the two women is unusual and strange. The plot has many twists and is engaging. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Maniac" -
melvelvit-11 March 2008American landscape painter Geoff Farrell (Kerwin Matthews), stranded in Europe, is attracted to Annette, a young French barmaid, but ends up falling for her seductive step-mother, Eve (Nadia Gray), instead. Four years earlier, the teen-aged Annette was raped on her way home from school and her father, Georges, institutionalized for taking an acetylene torch to her assailant. Eve soon convinces Geoff to help her husband, now a local hero, escape from the insane asylum but, once free, a frightening series of events makes it look like Georges was a homicidal maniac after all...
In the wake of PSYCHO, England's Hammer Studios made a few black and white "mini-Hitchcock" thrillers that tried to emulate the "Master of Suspense". PARANOIAC, MANIAC, and HYSTERIA all featured real or imagined madness, murder, sex, and deception -along with numerous plot twists- to keep viewers on the edge of their seats with varying degrees of success. There's a stark, creepy, noir-like quality to MANIAC and the unseen rape, torture and murder in the beginning is quite disturbing. The location shooting in the isolated region of the French Camargue is a decided asset and the compelling story, written by Jimmy Sangster, includes a number of suspenseful sequences before a surprise revelation that is near impossible to see coming. I've read complaints that this wasn't directed by Freddie Francis but Michael Carreras does just fine with the gialloesque material. Recommended. -
lorenellroy7 July 2003Hammer Studios will always best be remembered for the horror movies they made but their ventures into other styles were by no means negligible and this neat little mystery is a good example of the thrillers they embarked upon now and again. Kerwin Matthews is Paul Farrell ,an American stranded in a small French village in the Camargue ,where some four years earlier a young girl had been raped and her attacker murdered by her father ,who is languishing in prison for the crime.The girl works at the hotel/bar where Farrell is staying and she falls in love with the personable young American who in turn is attracted to her mother ,Eve ,played by Nadia Gray.Together Farrell and Eve plot to help her husband escape and flee the country so they can be free to pursue a relationship. The plot goes awry and soon they are coping with a body in the trunk of their car and mysterious activity in their garage .The twist ending is neat and unexpected . The acting is a little under powered but the whole thing is a neat little piece of double bill fodder that will keep an audience diverted till the main feature arrives.
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Maniac is directed by Michael Carreras and written by Jimmy Sangster. It stars Kerwin Matthews, Nadia Gray, Lillian Brouse, Donald Houston and George Pastell. Music is by Stanley Black and cinematography by Wilkie Cooper.
Vacationing in the Carmarque region of France, American artist Jeff Farrell (Matthews) gets more than he bargain for when he becomes romantic interest for mother and daughter Eve (Gray) and Annette (Brousse) Beymat...
Out of Hammer Film Productions, Maniac is one of a number of psychopath themed thrillers that followed in the footsteps of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Filmed in black and white on location in Caramarque, the film opens with a tremendous whack as young Annette Beynat is abducted on her way home from school and raped (off camera) by the side of the road. This crime is witnessed by a local man who fetches Annette's father who promptly captures the rapist and gets medieval on his ass with a acetylene torch (again off camera). It's quite an opening, but then the film settles into a leisurely pace for the next hour as Carreras and Sangster build their story in preparation for a big finale. Then things get tricky, and I'm not just talking about for handsome Jeff Farrell...
Realising they have gone for a "major" slow build and are desperate to add some added bite into what was becoming a bona fide sub-genre of thrillers, the makers cram so much into such a short space of time it collapses under its own weight. We know there's going to be a twist, the whole story is geared towards this fact, but they instead keep twisting, and twisting until it no longer becomes interesting. While the actual finale is something of a damp squib. There's a big problem with the location as well, Carreras' flat direction is unable to draw anything substantially atmospheric from the locale. True, a chase and reveal at the climax gets a splendid back drop in which to unfold, but it's a rare moment of inspiration and you are kind of taken out of because of piecing together the threads and implausibilities.
It's a very frustrating film, one where the usually great Sangster over reaches himself and Carreras doesn't come up to the standard of Terence Fisher or Freddie Francis. It holds the interest, is decently performed, has good production value and is fleetingly attention grabbing, but this should have been much much better. Both visually and with plot machinations. 6/10 -
adriangr27 March 2013Maniac is one of the lesser known of Hammer's "psychological thrillers" made in black and white around the 1960's. It's not fiendishly clever enough to be really memorable but it does have a few interesting twists. Basically the plot sees Kerwin Mathews stranded in a small French town where he books into a hotel and starts to feel attracted to the owners sexy young step-daughter. Soon after this, he also starts feeling attracted to the more mature but still sexy step-mother as well! Apart form this love triangle, there is a further problem, in that the missing family member in this scenario is the father, who is currently locked up in an asylum for a violent blow-torch murder committed years ago now but he wants out, and our hero is about to be roped into aiding in his escape! The film doesn't hang together very well for the beginning hour or so, sadly mainly due to Kerwin Mathews' wooden performance. Seeing him flirt with the daughter and then casually drop her and turn to her mother left me feeling quite disconnected from the plot as I found him a very unlikeable character. However when the plot to spring the insane killer gets going, things get to be more fun, and its after this point that a few nice twists start being revealed. I didn't guess the ending, which I am glad to say.
The movie is nicely shot, and makes a lot of use of it's location, with some very nice location filming, especially a very odd ruin/cave which features in the finale. Although why it's set in France at all is of no consequence, they really could have used the exact same plot and just stayed put in England. Anyway it's nice to see these old movies again, and luckily this is out on DVD. It's worth a look. -
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 was naturally quite unsettling! Four years later, Kerwin Mathews is wandering about Europe aimlessly when he arrives in a small town in Provence, France. Here he stumbles upon a beautiful pair of ladies who are mother and daughter. What happens next, I really don't want to say as it would spoil the excitement and twists.
The early 1960s brought us a lot of films about maniac killers. PEEPING TOM seemed to be the film to start the craze back--debuting just before PSYCHO. PEEPING TOM was probably the best of these films and for about six years afterwords, there were a bunch of similar productions that focused on a mad killer. STRAIGHT-JACKET, HOMICIDAL, DEMENTIA 13, PARANOIAC and HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE are among scores of psychopathic killer films.
In the middle of this mad killer craze came the film MANIAC. Like the others, it involves a brutal killer who was seen as hopelessly crazy and the film had lots of nice twists and turns to keep the viewer guessing. Compared to these other films, I'd say that MANIAC is about average--very engaging but not among the cream of the bloody crop. Well made--just now good enough to put it among the best of the genre. -
Scarecrow-881 June 2008Artist Paul Farrell(Kerwin Mathews) escaping a bad relationship, gets in over his head when he falls in love with the seductive step-mother Eve(Nadia Gray) of a young beauty, Annette(Liliane Brousse)who operates a sea-side café for which he's renting a room. Annette's father, Georges, is locked away in an asylum due to his brutal murder of a rapist who assaulted her. Paul, so completely blinded by his love for the married woman, agrees to help Eve in the escape of Georges, with dire consequences yielding problems he could never imagine. Georges, through a supposed conversation with Eve, wishes to escape hoping to rendezvous with his daughter Annette in another place far away from those out to get him. But, another missing prisoner, who might've possibly escaped with Georges, will come back to haunt Paul and Eve. With Inspector Etienne(George Pastell)often poking around, asking questions, it's only a matter of time before a sure-proof plan unravels with betrayal and deception on the horizon..
Super-slick and slippery as only Hammer scribe Sangster can deliver offers several twists, with certain characters not as they appear. One particular character twist some might see coming because of the endless parade of thrillers and courtroom dramas which have come after "Maniac." But, there's one twist regarding the escaped madman which might raise eyebrows..it's certainly inspired, I'll say that. Moody photography helps enhance the mystery as it slowly develops and the setting is alluring. The attractive cast also adds to the already beautiful landscape the characters inhabit, and the seedy elements give the film a nice naughty quality. You know, Hammer is known for their gorgeous Gothic color films, but I really think the studios produced some excellent B&W psychological thrillers as well.
The opening sequence is quite startling in how it sets up the tone of the rest of the film, with a salivating old man looking on at an innocent teenager from behind the bushes, offering her a ride home, moving her out of the visibility of the viewer behind waves of green, as one of Annette's school chums gets her father, with the result of an off-screen altercation and blow-torch murder giving way to the credits of the film. -
Coventry2 May 2014If Hammer movies had been released the same way as vinyl records "Maniac" would be a typical B-side effort; meaning it's an extremely low-keyed, low-budgeted and nearly forgotten little black-and-white thriller that understandably stood in the shadows of the studios' contemporary Grand-Guignol horror productions, like the Frankenstein cycle starring Peter Cushing and the Dracula series featuring Christopher Lee. There are quite a bit of hidden treasures to discover amongst Hammer's modest thriller productions of the 1960's ("Scream of Fear", "Hysteria" ), but sadly "Maniac" isn't the studios' – or writer Jimmy Sangster's – finest piece of work. The film nevertheless opens very promisingly and provides a fairly large number of slick and unpredictable plot twists during the grand finale, but everything in between is dull and incredibly uninteresting. But what a great opening! In the usually quiet and peaceful French Camargue, a father catches the rapist of his 15-year-old daughter in the act and promptly extracts his bloody vengeance with a blowtorch! Hell yes! Four years later, the man – Georges - resides in a mental asylum while his gorgeous wife and astonishing daughter both fall in love with the traveling American painter Jeff Farrell. In return for his wife, Jeff agrees to help Georges escape from the institution and out of the country. But the plan goes horribly wrong and the blowtorch will have to be used some more! The basic plot is ingenious and suspenseful enough, but the 90% of the film revolves on the dire and slowly unfolding triangular relationship between the American, the mother and the daughter. The "maniac" in question also doesn't really deserve to be referred to as a maniac, as he doesn't come across as very menacing and makes a couple of really dumb moves during the climax. Still, the killer's choice of weapon is original and Michael Carreras occasionally generates a tense and unsettling atmosphere. "Maniac" is reasonably interesting material for Hammer fanatics, but not exactly recommended viewing.
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I found this interesting enough at the start particularly with the bold and brave opening but I was soon hearing that good old postman ringing once if not twice and I rather took my eye off the ball as twist followed twist and the leading man switches from daughter to mother and back again and back again. Location shooting effective except the completely wasted finale scenes and the look generally was okay. Certainly it looked better than it sounded. Even on my shiny new Blu-ray the dubbed and undubbed accents were a strain to follow even with the dialogue being somewhat repetitive. The stuff with the blowtorch is fine and perhaps if there had been some more hard hitting sequences instead of all those loving clinches after only a couple of exchanges things might have been more involving, and believable.
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AaronCapenBanner21 November 2013Michael Carreras directed this complex mystery about an American painter and drifter named Jeff Farrell(played by Kerwin Mathews) who is stranded in a bar owned by a woman named Eve(played by Nadia Gray) who seduces him away from her daughter Annette in order to enlist him in an effort to spring her estranged husband from a mental asylum, where he had been committed for killing Annette's alleged rapist with a blowtorch. It turns out(of course) that there is much more to it than that, as Jeff will discover...Complicated but uninspired film seems to combine "Psycho" with "The Postman Always Rings Twice" with mostly tedious results.
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MarieGabrielle12 March 2008portrayed by the lovely Nadia Gray, Roumanian born actress. This suspenseful thriller is a nice surprise, and it has Polansky undertones to it which make it chilling.
The idea of a maniac with a blowtorch, and no one knows who or what is his next target. The actor portraying said villain was very good, and menacing as well as believable.
Eve has a daughter whose father is languishing in prison. He may be the blowtorch killer. He may have committed crimes. We don't know until the end.
Some of the scenes with the outdoor markets reminded me of Montmartre. So real and well photographed. A must see for any suspense film fan. 9/10 -
gavin694228 October 2014An American painter (Kerwin Mathews) has an affair with a bar owner (Nadia Gray) in a French village and agrees to help her murderer husband escape from a prison for the criminally insane.
Something of a Hammer Horror, though not of the Gothic type (this killer prefers blow torches). This is constant suspense, with plenty of twists and turns, and you will definitely keep guessing throughout the plot. As Bosley Crowther wrote, it has "a plot of extraordinary cunning...(It) takes on a twitching suspense that simmers, sizzles and explodes in a neat backflip". Turner Classic Movies calls Jimmy Sangster's script "gimmicky and obvious", but they are dead wrong.
Besides writing from Sangster, we have direction from Michael Carreras (the son of Hammer's founder). The cinematography is courtesy of Wilkie Cooper, who was raised under the wing of Ray Harryhausen on such films as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad". He had previously shot this film's star, Kerwin Mathews, in that film (with Mathews as Sinbad, no less).
Nadia Gray ("La Dolce Vita") plays the femme fatale, and does an admirable job, but she is overshadowed by Liliane Brousse, who plays her stepdaughter Annette. Her credits are short (this was her second to last film), but Hammer fans may have seen her in "Paranoiac" (1963) alongside Oliver Reed, which was also written by Sangster and directed by the visionary Freddie Francis.
Although not well know, this is a must-see film for Hammer fans, and is available in the "Icons of Suspense" box set. Now if only Hammer would take a more active approach in releasing their back catalogue... hundreds of great treasures. -
bkoganbing18 September 2014Kerwin Matthews an American expatriate painter is essentially bumming his way across France when he encounters a mother and stepdaughter Nadia Gray and Lilianne Brousse. He starts getting interested in Brousse, but then Gray turns on the charm because she has plans for Matthews.
She wants Matthews to help her break her husband out of an insane asylum where he's been incarcerated for several years after killing someone and judged insane. So he's had the padded jail cell, but all I can say is that Gray has her own reasons for wanting her husband and they have nothing to do with what she tells Matthews.
I had a lot of trouble with this one. Primarily with the character of Matthews who in his salad days usually played honest and sincere men. But never outright fools as he is here. Granted Gray is one attractive woman, but I think most of us would have been out the door in three seconds flat when she mentioned a prison break for her husband. And the reason Gray tells Matthews she wants to bust him out wouldn't fool the horniest male teenager.
Donald Houston plays a guard at the asylum who has an agenda of his own. Hardly the best from Hammer Pictures. -
laffinsal24 January 2005A Hammer production, filmed at M.G.M., and released through Columbia. Sound confusing? Well, so is the plot to this attempt at out-psycho-ing "Psycho".
Kerwin Matthews is actually pretty good, in this tale of an American artist visiting France, who gets mixed up with both a young woman, and the woman's stepmother (notice she's a "stepmother"; hint, hint, wink, wink). For some reason I had an easier time believing Matthew's interest in the young woman, but not so much in her stepmother (whose high painted eyebrows, and puffy bouffant hair reminded me of Divine). Along the way Matthews learns of the older woman's husband, and how he committed a crime trying to protect his daughter years before. They try to help the husband escape from an asylum (so they can be together), and then the confusion starts.
Though the location footage, and stark black and white photography help this film create a good atmosphere, the direction is somewhat muddled, as is the dialogue, which at times I found difficult to follow. The French accents, in addition to some questionable dubbing make it hard to understand what they are saying. When I could understand the dialogue, it seemed forced and elementary; characters having to explain things that just happened, to further the story (and make sure that we get it).
Overall a slow start and a bunch of interesting twists in the latter half, but only a couple mildly startling moments. I found myself rather unsatisfied at the end. Perhaps this would have benefited by being directed by Freddie Francis...his collaboration with Jimmy Sangster that same year, for "Paranoiac", produced a much better film then this is. -
Hey_Sweden24 March 2018Kerwin Mathews plays Jeff Farrell, an American painter on vacation in the South of France. He is soon caught between two females: a bar owner named Eve Beynat (Nadia Gray) and her stepdaughter Annette (Liliane Brousse), although ultimately decides to pursue the older woman. He then gets mixed up in the effort to help Eves' husband escape from incarceration in a mental asylum. Much to his regret, of course.
Written and produced by the great Hammer screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, "Maniac" is a fairly efficient film combining romance and chills. It's very nicely shot in the actual Carmarque region of France, with a pleasing amount of black & white widescreen visuals. Sangsters' story is engaging, and although some people may see some of its twists coming, it's the twist delivered to us in the closing minutes that makes it all worthwhile.
Mathews comes off as a real jerk at first, although it's revealed that he wasn't getting along with the companion (Justine Lord) he has at the start of the film. He's okay, but some of the supporting players come off better. Donald Houston is a good poster boy as the crazed Henri, Brousse is appealing, Norman Bird very likeable as easygoing cop Monsieur Salon, and Hammer repertory player George Pastell is once again solid as a rock in the role of a savvy police inspector.
This does suffer a little from an antagonist who's rather like a Bond villain who wastes time chattering away, and will also leave the hero's presence, convinced that everything will go according to plan.
In general, good entertainment given capable direction by Hammer executive / sometime filmmaker Michael Carreras.
Seven out of 10. -
preppy-313 May 2011American artist Paul Farrell (Kerwin Mathews) is visiting France. He falls in love with hotel owner Eve Beynat (Nadia Gray). He helps her to get her husband George (Donald Houston) out of an asylum...and then everything falls apart.
Well-directed with some beautiful b&w cinematography--but that's all this movie has going for it. The plot is old hat and the twists and turns that come fast and furious during the last half hour are now familiar and obvious. To make matters worse the acting is pretty terrible. Mathews is tall, handsome, hunky--and totally blank as Paul. His face NEVER changes expression. I actually smirked when he gives no reaction at all to finding a dead body. Even worse is Liliane Brousse as Annette and her thick French accent doesn't help. Gray and Houston are OK in their roles. This is OK to watch if you have nothing better to do but don't expect much. I give it a 6. -
bribaba-847-1407413 October 2010A good script from Hammer stalwart Jimmy Sangster who also wrote the excellent Paranoiac, and matched by sharp direction and photography. A shame, then, that the cast are such a let-down. The well-known ham Donald Houston lives down to his reputation - his voice was dubbed, a pity that his performance couldn't be erased. The French actress Lillian Brousse is excellent as the innocent daughter, but the American Kerwin Matthews makes for a very anodyne lead. The rest of the cast are British, utilizing French accents straight out of 'Allo 'Allo. Hammer have made some excellent non-horror movies such as Taste of Fear, and but for the dreadful acting this could have been one of them.
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So much of the dialog exchanges between a French mother and daughter is hardly discernible (to American ears), that MANIAC, with its complex plotting, is sometimes difficult to follow. Only Kerwin Mathews, as the hunky artist who finds himself attracted to both women, is fully understandable. Not so understandable is why he allows himself to be taken in so easily by the manipulating Nadia Gray.
The acting is only so-so, almost indifferent when it should be strong, so the suspense is further undercut by the underwhelming performances of the principal cast. Only Donald Houston, as the villainous Henri, gives a vivid and chilling performance.
Filmed in B&W amid some interesting locations, it has too many twists and turns before it ends rather limply in a deserted quarry. But those thick French accents really needed a good dubbing job. -
Woodyanders19 May 2010Handsome nice guy American drifter Paul Farrell (a solid and appealing performance by Kerwin Mathews) finds himself stuck in rural France. He seeks room and board in the home of the alluring Eva Bryant (well played with beguiling sexiness by Nadia Gray) and her sweet, but equally fetching teenage daughter Annette (a charming portrayal by the adorable Lilliane Brousse). Paul agrees to help Eva break her dangerously unstable husband Georges (a suitably menacing turn by Donald Houston) out of an asylum. Sound good and exciting? Well, alas this middling Hammer thriller doesn't amount to much because of Michael Carreras' competent, but pedestrian direction and Jimmy Sangster's strangely bland, talky, and uneventful script. The key problem is that Carreras and Sangster let the meandering narrative plod along at too leisurely a pace and crucially fail to generate much in the way of tension or momentum; it's only in the last third of the picture that the story finally starts cooking to some moderate degree with a nifty double twist surprise ending. On the plus side, Wilkie Cooper's crisp widescreen black and white cinematography offers plenty of breathtaking shots of the lovely French countryside scenery and Stanley Black's swinging jazzy score hits the right-on groovy spot. Moreover, the cast do their best with the blah material: Mathews, Gray, and Brousse are all fine in the lead roles, with sturdy support from George Bastell as the no-nonsense Inspector Etienne and Arnold Diamond as affable local constable Janiello. A strictly passable time-killer.
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richardchatten14 December 2022This resembles an episode of 'The Saint' rather than a conventional Hammer Horror. Exotically located in France, the regulars in front and behind the camera are all conspicuous by their absence.
With the possible exception of the maniac's daughter none of the cast appears to be bona fide French people (Norman Bird is obviously dubbed as a gendarme and the title role - who employs an acetylene torch rather than a stake - is played by one of the British cinema's most famous Welshmen).
The saxophone and bongo score by Philip Green is suitably trashy, Nadia Gray cuts an impressive figure in jodhpurs and boots while wielding a riding crop as the treacherous wife who husband has been in an asylum for four years, and the caves at Les Baux-de-Provence provide a dramatic backdrop for the finale. -
LeonLouisRicci28 October 2013Overlong and Overwritten, this is a Plodding and only Occasionally Interesting Psycho-Drama from Hammer Studios. it is Definitely a Lesser Film than the Other Psychological Pictures they made around this Time.
After a Lurid and Effective Beginning things become Tedious with some Unnecessary Scenes and the Movie takes the Longest Time Setting-Up the Suspense and the Twist Filled Ending. The Middle Bit with all that Scenery makes for an Atmosphere of Expanse and is there, it seems, to be nothing more than Languishing on Location.
The Ending too Suffers from the Ill-Advised and Badly Used Catacombs that do nothing but Distract from the Necessity of Piecing Together the Novel Conclusion. It all is Rendered Rather Routine the way the Climactic Confrontations are Played Out, as is Probably the Case of the Audience by the Time all is Said. -
jadedalex27 October 2019So many movies involve such predictable situations that you have figured most of them out before the ending. Jimmy Sangster's 'Maniac' starts out with a jarring abduction and then leaves you wondering who the title role belongs to.
Kerwin Matthews is surprisingly good. So is Nadia Gray, playing the quintessential evil stepmother. But lest you think this film is full of cliches, it is not. The screenplay is intelligent, and plot twists abound. It may not be up to the level of a Hitchcock film, but the movie held my interest throughout.
Frankly, I have viewed some of Hammer's 'film noir' attempts and was disappointed. This movie is NOT film noir, but there is something quite sinister in many of its characters. A real sleeper. -
getcater23 November 2009As a Hammer film, Maniac comes as something of a surprise. One normally associates the brand with studio-based horror films of average to low quality, typical Brit-flick production values and a home-grown cast of stolid, reliable faces. If that's what you've come to expect from Hammer, Maniac will either disappoint or delight.
Shot extensively on location in the Camargue, in high contrast black and white 2.35:1 widescreen, the movie makes effective use of some startlingly dramatic scenery that's exploited to the full by a clearly above average director of photography. The film noir mood and atmosphere are reminiscent of 1962's Cape Fear, and whilst Maniac fails to match that film's pitch of sustained suspense and repressed anger, it's a creditable attempt by Hammer to do something a bit darker and more mature than usual.
The acting is efficient, if somewhat underplayed, and it's a surprise to see an actor of the calibre of Donald Houston being dubbed (it sounds like Roger Delgado – any offers?) Thriller fans will be disappointed at the lack of any truly scary moments, and the plot has a few more twists than are absolutely necessary; but if you appreciate good black and white photography and films that don't slavishly tick all the predictable boxes, Maniac has much to recommend it. A good restoration would certainly find an audience on DVD. -
Bunuel19761 April 2009This was one of two Hammer thrillers (even if it was watched on a "Fantasy" day) that had eluded me thus far; for the record, the remaining title – CRESCENDO (1970) – has, controversially, just been released on DVD-R as part of Warners' U.S. exclusive "Archive Collection". While MANIAC has a reasonable reputation, I have to say that I was ultimately let down by it and I would place the film in the lower rank of the studio's efforts in this vein. Its main fault, basically, lies in a not very interesting plot (courtesy, as were many of these outings, of screenwriter Jimmy Sangster): besides, it tries – but fails – to recapture the sense of eeriness inherent in a remote seaside location (in its case, the Camargues) already seen in the much superior TASTE OF FEAR (1961) and THE DAMNED (shot in 1961 but only released 2 years later). That said, characterization is quite well rounded: Kerwin Mathews, infrequently seen in a modern-day setting, makes for a surprisingly effective lead (in fact, he had previously starred in Hammer's splendid adventure film THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER [1962]); Nadia Gray is sultry and conniving, Liliane Brousse her ingenue – but no less sexy – stepdaughter (who gets raped in the film's very opening sequence!). Coming into play during the latter stages is Donald Houston as the titular figure, though he proves to be someone other than who the audience had been led to believe; therefore, we have a number of nice twists (and implied violence) here but, then, end up with a rather ordinary mystery – actually anticipating a number of gialli in this regard! Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the film was further dampened by all kind of technical problems (after the picture in the copy I acquired initially failed to visualize) – with stretched image (fixed by altering the TV setting to 16:9), fuzziness, combing (the latter also causing the audio to drop out a couple of times) and lip-synch issues all rearing their ugly head throughout the viewing!