Tag: Dwain Esper

Maniac

  • Directors: Dwain Esper
  • Producers: Dwain Esper, Louis Sonney, Hildegarde Stadie
  • Writers: Edgar Allan Poe, Hildegarde Stadie
  • Genres: Horror
  • Actors: William Woods, Horace B Carpenter

Don Maxwell (William Woods) is a former vaudeville impersonator who is working as the lab assistant to Dr. Meirschultz (Horace Carpenter) a mad scientist attempting to bring the dead back to life. When Don kills Meirschultz, he attempts to hide his crime by “becoming” the doctor, taking over his work, dressing like him, wearing his beard, and slowly going insane.

The “doctor” treats a mental patient, Buckley (Ted Edwards), but accidentally injects him with adrenaline, which causes him to go into violent fits. Buckley’s wife (Phyllis Diller) discovers the body of the real doctor, and blackmails Don into turning her husband into a zombie. The ersatz doctor turns the tables on her by manipulating her into fighting with his estranged wife (Thea Ramsey), a former showgirl. When the cat-breeding neighbor Goof (played by an unknown actor) sees what’s going on, he calls the police, who stop the fight and, following the sound of Satan the cat, find the body of the real doctor hidden behind a brick wall.[2][3]

Marihuana

  • Directors: Dwain Esper
  • Producers: Dwain Esper, Hildegarde Stadie
  • Writers: Hildegarde Stadie
  • Genres: Crime, Drama
  • Actors: Harley Wood, Hugh McArthur, Pat Carlyle, Paul Ellis, Dorothy Dehn, Richard Erskine, Juanita Fletcher, Hal Taggart, Gloria Browne

Burma is a good girl who goes to a party, smokes marijuana, and winds up going skinny-dipping with her girl friends. When one of the girls drowns, the dope pushers come up with a plan to hide the body. A turn of events leads up to Burma being pregnant and unmarried. She is forced to give the child up for adoption and become a drug dealer. In the film’s “twist” ending, Burma hatches a plan to kidnap her sister’s adopted daughter, but the child is, in fact, her own.

Tell Your Children

  • Directors: Louis Gasnier
  • Producers: Dwain Esper
  • Writers: Paul Franklin
  • Genres: Drama
  • Actors: Dorothy Short, Lillian Miles, Dave O Brien, Thelma White, Warren McCollum, Carleton Young

Mae Coleman (Thelma White) and Jack Perry (Carleton Young), her lover,[4] sell weed. Mae prefers to sell weed to customers her own age, whereas Jack sells the plant to young teenagers. Ralph Wiley (Dave O’Brien), a former college student turned fellow dealer (and “addict,” according to the film), and Blanche (Lillian Miles) help Jack sell cannabis to young students. Young students Bill Harper (Kenneth Craig) and Jimmy Lane (Warren McCollum) are invited to Mae and Jack’s apartment by Blanche and Ralph. Jimmy takes Bill to the party. There, Jack runs out of reefer. Jimmy, who has a car, drives him to pick up some more. Arriving at Jack’s boss’ “headquarters,” he gets out and Jimmy asks him for a cigarette. Jack gives him a joint. Later, when Jack comes back down and gets into the car, Jimmy drives off dangerously, along the way running over a pedestrian with his car. The pedestrian later dies of his injuries. [5] Jack agrees to keep Jimmy’s name out of the case.

Bill begins an affair with Blanche. Mary (Dorothy Short), Jimmy’s sister and Bill’s girlfriend, goes to Mae’s apartment looking for Jimmy, and accepts a joint from Ralph, thinking it to be a normal cigarette. When she refuses Ralph’s advances, he tries to rape her. Bill comes out of the bedroom after having sex with Blanche, and hallucinates that Mary strips for Ralph. He attacks Ralph, and as the two are fighting, Jack tries to break it up by hitting Bill with the butt of his gun. The gun goes off and Mary is killed.[6] Jack puts the gun in the hand of an unconscious Bill, and wakes him up. Bill sees the gun in his hand, and is led to believe that he has killed Mary. Bill is sent to prison. The group of dealers lie low for a while in Blanche’s apartment while Bill’s trial takes place. Ralph, losing his sanity, wants to tell the police who is actually responsible for the death of Mary. The film attributes Ralph’s insanity to marijuana use.

…

The film’s story is told in bracketing sequences at a lecture given at a PTA meeting by a high school principal, Dr. Alfred Carrol. At the end of the film, he tells the parents he has been talking to that events similar to those he has described are likely to happen again, and then points to random parents in the audience and warns that “the next tragedy may be that of your daughter’s… or your son’s… or yours, or yours…” before pointing straight at the camera and saying emphatically “…or YOURS!” as the words “TELL YOUR CHILDREN” appear on the screen.