“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash, and I’m here to kill you”. That is not the way the famed country and western singer used to open his shows, but after watching Door-to-Door Maniac (aka Five Minutes to Live) you might think he should have. In 1961, when the film was made, Cash was already a country music superstar, but country music was more of a niche genre back then and he was looking for some crossover appeal. He signed on as the star of this dirty little film noir instantly turning it from a forgettable no-budget movie into a cult favorite now getting a newly restored Blu-ray release.
Buy Door to Door Maniac Blu-rayHe plays Johnny Cabot, a hardened criminal hired by Fred Dorella (Vic Tayback) to help him rob a bank. Cabot is to hold Nancy Wilson (Cay Forrester) hostage in her home while Fred forces her husband Ken (Donal Woods), vice president at the bank, to cash a $70,000 check. If he refuses Fred will call Cabot and have him kill Nancy.
That’s a pretty good plan, or at least an interesting setup for a story, but the movie takes it in some truly strange directions. Naturally, Johnny Calbot gains access to the Wilson home by pretending to be a door-to-door guitar instructor. Naturally, this means we get to watch Johnny Cash play that guitar and sing a song. It makes perfect sense for a low-budget movie to employ Cash’s natural abilities, but it is really weird in a movie where he’s playing a psychotic killer. Nothing terrorizes a hostage like a good old sing-along. He sings and noddles, but mostly, he just talks and tries to look menacing. This was very much during Johnny Cash’s hard-partying, addicted-to-pills phase and he has that completely strung-out look to him. He also caused more than a few problems with the production by not showing up to work on time and when he was there, being rather hung over. But all of this works for the performance.
He shoots his gun in her general direction from time to time and eventually realizes that he’s a man and she’s a woman. This leads to a grotesque rape scene where she winds up enjoying herself after all. Because in the movies women secretly want to be dominated. Or something.
Meanwhile, at the bank, Fred delivers the news to Ken who seems pretty nonplussed about it. Turns out, he’s been having an affair and was planning on leaving Nancy anyway. Killing her might be less messy than a divorce. Eventually, he wises up and cashes the check. Fred’s plan also involves calling Johnny every five minutes to keep him up to date with how everything is going. If he doesn’t call in exactly five minutes, Johnny is supposed to shoot to kill. Cinematically, this should create a great deal of tension, making the audience worry that our friend Johnny Cash is gonna be a murderer, but realistically, I found it difficult to care one way or another.
Door-to-Door Maniac got terrible reviews and was barely seen by anyone. It was decidedly not the entryway to Hollywood Johnny Cash hoped it would be. It is a film that would be completely lost to time were it not for Johnny Cash being in it. But there he is and here I am talking about this new Blu-ray release of the film all of these years later. So that’s something.
Also included on this disk is Right Hand of the Devil, a strange, goofy little film from Aram Katcher, a hairdresser so desperate to break into the movies he funded this vanity project all by himself. He’d been trying to make it as an actor for years but was only able to land bit parts. So he saved $20,000 from his successful hair-dressing business and shot this film throughout four weekends. It was an auteur project if there ever was one as he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in it, plus designed the sets and did all the makeup for it.
To tell the truth, it’s a better film than Door-to-Door Maniac. Katcher plays Pepe Lusara, a mysterious man who hires four strangers to rob a sports arena right after a heavyweight fight. He brings them together and demands absolute loyalty while also telling them as little as possible about the actual score. Meanwhile, he’s secretly stealing chemicals from a nearby factory and filling his bathtub with it. That’s something that will come into play after the heist. Also, he’s seducing the sports arena’s chief cashier and pumping her for information.
It isn’t by any means a good film. It is weirdly scripted and poorly acted. But it has personality. Say what you will about the story but Katcher had a definite point of view and he directed the hell out of it. Imagine a film by Ed Wood, except give him a modicum of actual talent and you’ll get the idea of what this film is like.
According to the audio commentary, it is a small miracle Right Hand of the Devil exists at all. Katcher was so disappointed with the film’s poor reception that he took a knife to the original negatives and destroyed every copy he could get his hands on. Thankfully at least one print survived and now we have it on Blu-ray.
Film Masters has done an incredible job with this two-film set. They restored Door-to-Door Maniac with a new 4K master from original 35 mm film elements. It looks incredible for what it is. Both films include audio commentaries, theatrical trailers, and written essays in the booklet. Maniac also comes with a visual essay.
