Dwain Esper


Dwain Atkins Esper was an American director and producer of exploitation films.

Biography

A veteran of World War I, Esper worked as a building contractor before switching to the film business in the mid-'20s. He produced and directed inexpensive pictures with eye-catching titles like Sex Maniac, Marihuana, and How to Undress in Front of Your Husband. To enhance the appeal of these low-budget features, he included scenes containing gratuitous nudity and violence that led some to label him the "father of modern exploitation."
Esper's wife, Hildagarde Stadie, wrote many of the scripts for his films. Together they employed extravagant promotional techniques that included exhibiting the mummified body of notorious Oklahoma outlaw Elmer McCurdy, before it was acquired by Dan Sonney.

''Maniac'' (1934)

Maniac, also known as Sex Maniac, an exploitation/horror film directed by Esper, is a loose adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Black Cat" and follows a vaudeville impersonator who becomes an assistant to a mad scientist.
It is considered by many film critics and historians to be the worst film of all time. Danny Peary believes that Maniac is the worst film ever made, Charlie Jane Anders of Gawker Medias io9 described it as "possibly the worst movie in history" and Chicago Tribune critic Michael Wilmington wrote that it may be the worst film he had ever seen, writing: "There are some voyages into ineptitude, like Dwain Esper's anti-classic Maniac, that defy all reason." Rotten Tomatoes placed Maniac on their list of movies "So Bad They're Unmissable", the Italian Vanity Fair included the film on its list of the 20 worst movies ever, and it is featured in The Official Razzie Movie Guide.
Esper died in San Diego, California, at the age of 88. He and Hildagarde had two children, Dwain Jr. and Millicent.

Filmography

Director credits