Maniac is a British psychological thriller

Psychological thriller

Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...

, which was directed by Michael Carreras

Michael Carreras

Michael Carreras was a British film producer and director. He was best known for his association with Hammer Studios, being the son of founder James Carreras, and taking an executive role in the company during its most successful years.As producer, he worked on The Curse of Frankenstein , Dracula ...

 and stars Kerwin Matthews, Nadia Gray

Nadia Gray

Nadia Gray was a Romanian-born film actress.Born Nadia Kujnir-Herescu in Bucharest, she left Romania for Paris in the late 1940s to escape the Communist takeover after World War II. Her film debut was in L'Inconnu d'un soirin 1949...

 and Donald Houston

Donald Houston

Donald Daniel Houston was a Welsh actor whose first two films – The Blue Lagoon with Jean Simmons, and A Run for Your Money with Sir Alec Guinness – were highly successful...

.

Plot

It tells the story of vacationing American artist Matthews who becomes romantically involved with an older woman in southern France, while harbouring some attraction for her teenage daughter. A blowtorch murderer is operating in the region, while the artist is innocently drawn into a prison-break scheme.

Cast

• Kerwin Mathews
  Kerwin Mathews
  Kerwin Mathews was an American actor best known for playing the titular heroes in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , The Three Worlds of Gulliver and Jack the Giant Killer .-Life and career:...
  
   as Paul Farrell
• Nadia Gray
  Nadia Gray
  Nadia Gray was a Romanian-born film actress.Born Nadia Kujnir-Herescu in Bucharest, she left Romania for Paris in the late 1940s to escape the Communist takeover after World War II. Her film debut was in L'Inconnu d'un soirin 1949...
  
   as Eve Beynat
• Donald Houston
  Donald Houston
  Donald Daniel Houston was a Welsh actor whose first two films – The Blue Lagoon with Jean Simmons, and A Run for Your Money with Sir Alec Guinness – were highly successful...
  
   as Georges
• Liliane Brousse as Annette Beynat
• George Pastell
  George Pastell
  George Pastell was a Cypriot character actor in British films and television programmes. His real name was George Pastellides....
  
   as Inspector Etienne
• Arnold Diamond as Janiello
• Norman Bird
  Norman Bird
  Norman Bird was a British character actor. Often sporting a moustache and an air of worried resignation, he seemed to specialise in downtrodden roles...
  
   as Salon
• Justine Lord
  Justine Lord
  Justine Lord is an English actress, active on television throughout the 1960s.She began her acting career in repertory theatre, and in the 1960s made guest appearances on The Avengers, The Saint, The Prisoner and Man in a Suitcase as well as playing regular roles on Crossroads, Compact,...
  
   as Grace
• Jerold Wells
  Jerold Wells
  Jerold Wells was an English actor. He appeared primarily in British comedies. Some of his best-known roles were in Time Bandits, where he played Benson, a mentally disturbed follower to Evil, and in Jabberwocky, where he played a footless man known as Wat Dabney.He starred in films including '...
  
   as Giles
• Leon Peers as Blanchard
• André Maranne
  André Maranne
  André Maranne is an Anglo-French actor who appeared chiefly in English-language roles from the mid 1950s.-Career:Born in Toulouse, France, Maranne's most prominent recurring role was Sergeant François Chevalier in six of The Pink Panther films, alongside Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Before the...
  
   as Salon

Production

It was filmed in black and white in the Camargue

Camargue

The Camargue is the region located south of Arles, France, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhône River delta. The eastern arm is called the Grand Rhône; the western one is the Petit Rhône....

 district of southern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and the MGM British Studios in Borehamwood

Borehamwood

-Film industry:Since the 1920s, the town has been home to several film studios and many shots of its streets are included in final cuts of 20th century British films. This earned it the nickname of the "British Hollywood"...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

.