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.

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.

A 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.

Handsome 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.