LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

ECheatwood65 I have to agree with another reviewer and say that, while not a great film, it is definitely not the worst. In fact, I found it a rather creepy journey into mental illness. Yes, the acting is over-the-top and you are left scratching your head at some things, but it also leaves an impression that I know I won't soon forget.

qmtv This was part of 50 movie dvd horror set. I had no clue on what to expect, except I read the first line of the dvd description, mad scientist. After reading the reviews I discovered that it was one of the first exploitation films. I was surprised to see nudity in a 1930s film. And, I guess it must have been passed off as some type of documentary, with the insertion of definitions of insanity every so often. As other reviewers have pointed out, the story is all over the place. The audio made it difficult to understand what the actors were saying. Most of the acting is garbage. What works is that it is so ridiculous that it is enjoyable. Some would call it "So bad, it's good". Some say "So bad, it's bad". I say if you've seen enough movies and are tired of the cookie cutter Hollywood films, and want to watch twisted scenes, and even fathom what is going on in the filmmaker's mind to make such a film, and can find some humor in the performances, then you should see this movie.Basic story, mad scientist with a vaudeville performer hiding from the police as an assistant, going to the morgue to inject a serum to a recently dead woman to bring her back to life. She is revived. So far so good. Standard Frankenstein horror. Then the Doc wants his assistant to kill himself so that he can replace his heart and also revive him. The assistant, rather than shooting himself, kills the doc, goes insane, and then impersonates the Doc.So far, the comedy is in the performance. It's ridiculous. And may be unintentional. But it's funny. Then we have a woman bringing in her sick husband to the Doc. The Doc accidently injects the same serum that brought the dead woman to life on the sick husband. The man goes insane. The revived woman comes walking in. The insane man carries the woman out the house into a filed, rips her clothes off, and I guess rapes and kills her. So far this thing is a mess. At this point, the wife of the insane man finds the dead Doc. The impersonating Doc tells her it's his assistant and that he killed himself. To keep her silence, she wants the Doc to make her husband into some kind of obedient zombie. We don't get to see this man ever again. Or the revived dead woman, who he chased into the field. Next we see 4 women in skimpy clothes, talking, exercising, and reading something. Now, due to the audio problem, I have no idea what the hell is going on. But apparently from reading the reviews, one of these women was the assistants wife, and she just found out that he has inherited a fortune. This woman goes to the mad scientist's house and meets up with her husband who is in disguise. In between all the mess, we have scenes of cats chasing mice, cats fighting cats, and maybe even a dog fighting a cat. There's a cat far next door, where the farmer states some wild dialogue "Cats eat the rats, the rats eat the cats, and I get the skins" - now that's something!The impersonating Doc buries the real Doc behind a brick wall in the basement, and the house cat gets buried in as well. Edgar Allen Poe. Before all that the he actually chased this cat, and ripped it's eye out, and ate it. Renfield anyone? Now if things aren't weird enough. The mad impersonating Doc, somehow instigates a syringe fight between his wife, and the wife of the first insane patient. These two are led into the basement for a full on cat fight. The neighbors alert the cops, the cops come in and free the women, and hearing the cat behind the brick wall, break open the wall to discover the real dead Doc.What a mess. It's a bunch of ideas thrown in. We don't know what's coming in next. Like I mentioned earlier, the only way to appreciate this is if you have some twisted tastes in film. My rating is a C-, or 4 stars.

jadedalex Upon second viewing, Dwain Esper's 'Maniac' had the offbeat charm of an amusing Ed Wood movie. Esper must be credited with offering up what in its time may have been the worst movie ever made.On the plus side, the nudity contained in the movie is surreal and enchanting in its leering way. Scenes are very brief and fairly provocative. Frankly, I needed these scenes to wake me up. Wood's 'Orgy of the Dead', by contrast, becomes a ninety minute 'borefest' of titty dancers; it is presented in such an insipid way. For sheer bizarro value, I have frankly never seen a cat's eye gouged out, and then eaten by the sadist, who likens the eye to a 'grape'. (We've long ago ALMOST forgotten Divine eating poodle poop in 'Pink Flamingos'.) And I must admit, Bill Woods is not bad in the demented lead. In fact, this film could have made a decent horror movie had not the story stopped frequently to strains of sappy music as the screen displayed psychobabble supposedly describing the story in 'clinical' terms. These interruptions are comical and annoying at the same time. And Horace Carpenter would have fit beautifully into the strange Ed Wood entourage. It was hilarious as Carpenter accuses Woods' character of being a 'ham'...as Horace chews the scenery like a ravenous screen glutton! (Carpenter may have thought he was in a silent film for all I know!)This is a bad film, and I refuse to read any deep artistic value into what was done here. It lacks the sophisticated humor of 'Plan 9 From Outer Space'. And Bill Woods is no Tor Johnson. If you feel compelled to watch this oddity (maybe you loath cats), try to remember this cinema will never be confused with 'Citizen Kane'.

artpf Don Maxwell is an ex-vaudeville ham, wanted by police, who has now found himself as the unlikely assistant to Dr. Meirschultz, a mad scientist in the business of reanimating corpses. Maxwell's gift of impersonation gets him and Meirschultz past the guards and into a morgue where they use a special serum to revive the corpse of a pretty young woman. But that's nothing. Dr. Meirschultz has a heart beating in a jar of solution and is eager to put it into a corpse that really needs it. Meirschultz gives his assistant a gun and advises him to commit suicide, so that he can put the heart in him, but Maxwell shoots and kills the scientist instead and hides the body. People will miss Meirschultz, Maxwell quickly realizes, but no one will miss his lowly assistant; and so Maxwell dons eyeglasses and a fake beard to become his onetime benefactor. The trouble is, he impersonates the mad doctor too well and goes crazy himself. Director Esper was truly WAY worse than Ed Wood. WAY.The film is nearly unwatchable.