Cast:
Cash Flagg, Liz Renay, Brick Bardo [ More ]Director:
Ray Dennis StecklerWriters:
Ray Dennis Steckler, Gene PollockProducer:
George J. MorganCinematographer:
Joseph V. MascelliEditor:
Austin McKinneyProduction Designer:
Tom SchermanProduction Company:
Morgan-Steckler ProductionsAccording to the 12 Jun 1964 DV, principal photography began five days earlier. The 22 Aug 1965 LAT stated that filmmaker Ray Dennis Steckler shot the picture on a $34,000 budget, primarily in the Santa Monica Hills of Los Angeles, CA. Although he expressed regret over a beheading scene, Steckler conceded that “gory pictures” were the easiest to finance. The filmmaker appeared on screen as the character, “Mort Click,” and was credited under the pseudonym, “Cash Flagg.”
Decades later, Steckler told the Apr 2004 Fangoria that the film was re-released in the early 1970s under the title, The Maniacs Are Loose. Shown primarily at drive-in theaters, screenings were often enhanced by “squads of hatchet-wielding Cash Flaggs” pretending to run amok among the audience. Steckler supplied the Cash Flagg masks created by Don Post, blue hooded sweatshirts, and luminescent rubber hatchets to theater owners, who hired local residents to participate. Steckler occasionally donned the disguise himself and joined the staged mayhem. Various source state that Mad Dog Click was another of the film’s alternate titles.
Despite giving The Thrill Killers a negative review, the 9 Jun 1965 DV admitted that Steckler showed promise as a director.
A news item in the 24 Aug 1964 issue credited actor Titus Moede as associate producer.
...
According to the 12 Jun 1964 DV, principal photography began five days earlier. The 22 Aug 1965 LAT stated that filmmaker Ray Dennis Steckler shot the picture on a $34,000 budget, primarily in the Santa Monica Hills of Los Angeles, CA. Although he expressed regret over a beheading scene, Steckler conceded that “gory pictures” were the easiest to finance. The filmmaker appeared on screen as the character, “Mort Click,” and was credited under the pseudonym, “Cash Flagg.”
Decades later, Steckler told the Apr 2004 Fangoria that the film was re-released in the early 1970s under the title, The Maniacs Are Loose. Shown primarily at drive-in theaters, screenings were often enhanced by “squads of hatchet-wielding Cash Flaggs” pretending to run amok among the audience. Steckler supplied the Cash Flagg masks created by Don Post, blue hooded sweatshirts, and luminescent rubber hatchets to theater owners, who hired local residents to participate. Steckler occasionally donned the disguise himself and joined the staged mayhem. Various source state that Mad Dog Click was another of the film’s alternate titles.
Despite giving The Thrill Killers a negative review, the 9 Jun 1965 DV admitted that Steckler showed promise as a director.
A news item in the 24 Aug 1964 issue credited actor Titus Moede as associate producer.
The Maniacs Are Loose
Hitchhiker Mort Click murders Dennis Kesdekian, a salesman from whom he accepted a ride. Click then stabs prostitute Erina Devore to death with scissors. Gary, Herbie, and Keith, three psychopaths recently escaped from a mental hospital, behead a landlord and kill two lovers. In a roadhouse, cigar-smoking Linda poisons Herbie's coffee, and Keith is killed by Joe Saxon, an unsuccessful actor who has trailed his wife, Liz, to the country. Mort Click and Gary are finally tracked down and ...
Hitchhiker Mort Click murders Dennis Kesdekian, a salesman from whom he accepted a ride. Click then stabs prostitute Erina Devore to death with scissors. Gary, Herbie, and Keith, three psychopaths recently escaped from a mental hospital, behead a landlord and kill two lovers. In a roadhouse, cigar-smoking Linda poisons Herbie's coffee, and Keith is killed by Joe Saxon, an unsuccessful actor who has trailed his wife, Liz, to the country. Mort Click and Gary are finally tracked down and apprehended.
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