Sex Maniac (Maniac)

Unique one-off display piece from the 1940's for Dwain Esper's horror movie, first released in 1934 as Maniac. This poster is a fascinating piece of Americana from the 'grindhouse' cinema circuit that catered to the more risque side of the film business, showing the kind of sexploitation movies that you wouldn't tell your mother you were going to see. In fact, you wouldn't tell anybody you were going which meant that unscrupulous cinema owners could get away with murder. In this case, they deliberately chose images and a tagline to suggest a raunchy plot – the reality was there was no sex and nothing in the least bit titillating but who were you going to complain to? This is far more than just a movie poster, it's a glimpse of a different time and an alternative world. The poster itself is composed of a 40” x 60” poster salvaged from another film, complete with a grossly misleading tagline, onto which is stapled the new film title (Sex Maniac), also misleading, and a selection of pasted on photos with glamorous women to complete the con trick. This poster is featured in Tony Nourmand's book Sexploitation Movie Art and was part of his collection. It's in generally good shape with light overall patina of age, pasted onto board with a tear in the top edge at the top which doesn't affect the overall presentation. It's currently conservation framed with non-refective UV glass.