Maniac
Directed by Dwain Esper
USA, 1934
Roadshow Attractions
First Viewing

Dr. Meirschultz admires his heart.

When he isn’t busy being a maniac, Dr. Meirschultz conducts experiments aimed at raising the dead. His idiot assistant, Don Maxwell, apparently owes the doctor plenty for taking him in after he flopped as an impersonator on the vaudeville circuit. When the doctor suggests that Maxwell shoot himself so that he can be an experimental subject,  Maxwell shoots the doctor instead. He then makes himself up as the doctor  and assumes his personality, becoming a maniac himself.   In the meantime, we see various young women bare their breasts (I suspect this was the raison d’etre for the film), a man does a astoundingly bad tranformation to a monster, and Maxwell eats a “cat’s eyeball”. There are several “educational” intertitles with clinical descriptions of mental illnesses. Clearly, nobody planned to have this thing passed by the Hayes Office.

Buckley (after getting hypo of adrenaline): Oh!  Stealing through my body! Creeping though my veins!  Pouring in my blood!  Oh, DARTS OF FIRE IN MY BRAIN!  STABBING ME!  I CAN’T STAND IT!  I WON’T!

At 56 minutes, I had at least 5 LOL moments so I count this as a success on the bad movie front. I often wonder if the people involved really knew how bad these things were and were playing up the cheese factor. The acting is just so over the top here that it’s hard to think the actors weren’t trying for that effect!

Transformation scene