The Maniacs (1964)

• 57%
• 1964
• Comedy
• Lucio Fulci
• Walter Chiari
• Enrico Maria Salerno
• Barbara Steele

A series of comic sketches revolving around the "mania" in people's deepest personality. In "The Elaboration", a hearse driver has his favorite hearse made out to perfection for his "clients". In "Sport" a bossy office supervisor loses a sports bet to co-workers and is forced to pimp out his wife, while one colleague decides to take advantage of it. In "Overtaking" a man tries to outrun a set of lights on a highway late at night... not realizing that it's an airplane. In "The Hobby" two best friends, Barbara and Carla, team up to find where one's husband is going to every weekend and being secretive about it. In "Advice" a bickering couple out for a drive bicker about one's well being which leads to a traffic accident. In "The Protest", Pasquale and Mario are two men who cannot seem to pass up every attempt to protest against the government from 1943 to present day 1964. In "The Antique", a couple travels to a remote monastery to shop for antiques and seek which ones to buy or leave. In "The Swear Word" Ilario Boietti is a writer who seeks advice about work for his latest book by consulting with a brash has-been author, who advices Boietti to embrace his wild side. In "The Strip-Tease" a lonely Lothario ventures to strip clubs in search of his true carnal pleasures. In "The Interviews", Micozzi is a government spin doctor who spins his tails to avoid the questions of government corruption. In "Hitchhiking", the thoughts of a off-duty policeman and a Sicilian hitchhiker whom he picks up, are displayed in this collision of cultures tale. In "Bill of Exchange" two couples, the Brugrolis and the Bonfanls, seek to out-spend the other in a war of wealth. In the final hilarious tale, "The Weekend", two thieves, Franco and Ciccio, break into a mansion to rob it thinking that the owners are out of town, only to have the unfaithful wife with her soldier lover, and the unfaithful husband with his foreign mistress, arrive wanting to spend time alone, and all parties try to avoid direct contact with the other.