Maniac (1963)

You won't be disappointed!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Kerwin 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.

American 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.

This 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!

American 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.