Dementia 13: Director's Cut (1963)

When her husband (Peter Read) dies suddenly of a heart attack, a scheming wife (Luana Anders) hides his body in a lake so she can coerce her mother in law (Eithne Dunn) to change her will. But there's an ax wielding killer on the family estate who might have plans of his own. Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Roger Corman gave many young directors, Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme among them, their first break letting them cut their teeth on exploitation films before they moved on to the big time. Here, it's a young Francis Ford Coppola at the helm directing his first feature film. It was made for about $30,000, Corman was unhappy with the final product and shot additional scenes against Coppola's wishes. The transfer I saw was the restored directors cut which is some  ten minutes shorter than Corman's version. Coppola has basically taken out what Corman put in. What remains is a rather silly but richly atmospheric PSYCHO rip-off. The dialog is mundane and the acting with the exception of Luana Anders, Eithne Dunn and William Campbell (who plays her brother in law) is amateurish. No one is worse than Patrick Magee (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) because he overacts so terribly that he makes the amateurish performances look good! The score is by Ronald Stein. With Mary Mitchel and Bart Patton.