{"id":38693,"date":"2017-04-10T09:09:33","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T16:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=38693"},"modified":"2020-12-09T18:49:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T01:49:33","slug":"maniac-1934","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=38693","title":{"rendered":"Maniac (1934)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Doctors and scientists often have some queer things on their mind.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Poster-150x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-38695\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Poster-150x300.jpg 150w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Poster-64x128.jpg 64w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Poster-768x1540.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Poster-511x1024.jpg 511w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Poster.jpg 780w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nMad Dr. Meierschultz (Horace Carpenter) enlists the help of his assistant, an ex-vaudevillian (Bill Woods), in stealing corpses to bring back to life. After killing Woods in self-defense, Carpenter assumes his identity and continues his work, going mad himself in the process.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mad Doctors and Scientists<\/li>\n<li>Mistaken or Hidden Identities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary is a huge fan of this &#8220;legitimate challenge to <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=16611\"><em>Plan 9 from Outer Space<\/em><\/a> as the worst film ever made&#8221;, calling it &#8220;unbelievable and unforgettable&#8221;, a &#8220;consistently hilarious Poverty Row sleaze masterpiece&#8221;, and &#8220;the camp-lover&#8217;s dream come true&#8221;. He argues that it &#8220;manages to be tasteless and ridiculous the entire way through&#8221;, and notes that the &#8220;acting is sublimely bad&#8221;. I&#8217;ll admit I&#8217;m not nearly as enamored by this Z-grade flick as Peary is; sure, it&#8217;s ludicrous through-and-through, but it comes across merely as a pastiche of inept scenarios &#8220;interrupted throughout with text describing various forms of mental illness&#8221;. The two most infamous scenes show Wood wreaking gory vengeance on a cat who has eaten a preserved heart by &#8220;squeezing out its eyeball and swallowing it&#8221;, and an unlucky visitor (Tod Andrews) who is accidentally shot up with the wrong solution and &#8220;goes into an astonishing dying routine, rubbing his hands over his body and then his head, distorting his face, and speaking of terrible burning pain&#8221;, then imagining &#8220;himself as the orangutan murderer from <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3826\"><em>Murders in the Rue Morgue<\/em><\/a>&#8221; and picking up a &#8220;revived but catatonic &#8216;dead&#8217; woman as she just happens to walk through the office&#8221;, carrying &#8220;her through the woods &#8212; her bare breasts show! &#8212; and then put[ting] her down and&#8230; strangling her&#8221;. If this all sounds like your cup of tea, go for it &#8212; but truly, this one simply belongs to the annals of early cinematic ineptitude. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Some creepy imagery and reasonably effective low-budget cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Imagery.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Imagery.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"386\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-38697\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Imagery.png 480w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Imagery-128x103.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Imagery-300x241.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"386\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-38696\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Cinematography.png 480w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Cinematography-128x103.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Maniac-Cinematography-300x241.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though you may be curious to view it once for its cult status &#8212; and it&#8217;s easy enough to find as a public domain title. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0025465\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=5219&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.badmovies.org\/movies\/maniac\/\">BadMovies.org Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Doctors and scientists often have some queer things on their mind.&#8221; Synopsis: Mad Dr. Meierschultz (Horace Carpenter) enlists the help of his assistant, an ex-vaudevillian (Bill Woods), in stealing corpses to bring back to life. After killing Woods in self-defense, Carpenter assumes his identity and continues his work, going mad himself in the process. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Mad Doctors and Scientists Mistaken or Hidden Identities Response to Peary\u2019s Review: Peary is a huge fan of this &#8220;legitimate challenge&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=38693\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38693"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56662,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38693\/revisions\/56662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}