Craze (1974)

In Craze (1974), Neal Mottram (Jack Palance) never forsakes his god, the African idol, Chuku. When a woman dances naked and slices her stomach in front of it, he says, “I pray that the bloodletting pleased you.” When he discovers gold coins in his desk, he tells it, “We shall always serve you.” And when detectives question him about a dead body, he tells his reluctant accomplice, Ronnie (Martin Potter), “Chuku will protect us.”

Innocent bloodlettings from women dancing naked escalate to murder when a disgruntled ex-coven member argues with Neal and is impaled on the blades of the idol’s fists. Crediting Chuku for his unexpected good fortune, Neal continues sacrificing women at a reckless pace. This, of course, leads him down a dark road toward insanity and he will ultimately be the one betrayed.

The centerpiece of the film is an extended sequence in which Neal goes to extreme measures to premeditate the murder of his Aunt Louise (Edith Evans.) He establishes an alibi by visiting an old girlfriend, Dolly Newman (Diana Dors.) Pouring cherry brandy down her throat causes her to pass out so he can change into tennis shoes, put on an awesome mask, and jump out of Aunt Louise’s bedroom closet, giving her a heart attack.

He goes even further to make it look like a random, violent killing by driving a stake through her on the front lawn, then tossing the bloody stake out of the train window on his way back to Dolly’s bed, where she’s been sleeping peacefully. One of the detectives, though, doesn’t think Neal as a suspect is a dead end and Dolly proves to be the only weak crack in his story. She tells them why she originally stopped seeing Neal:

His idea of a good time was to take me to a coven. He was involved in black magic, witchcraft.

While Neal explains that black magic is no crime, Ronnie nevertheless loses his cool and confronts him. He throws a spear at Neal and it hits his arm. Then Neal tosses him through the front window to land at the feet of the police. The “nutty antique dealer” has become quite careless. With nowhere to turn, Neal humbly beseeches Chuku for its protection. I’ll let you learn if Craze takes a supernatural twist or if Chuku is a plain old wooden statue.

The movie comes to us from the dynamic duo of producer Herman Cohen and writer Aben Kandel and fits right in with their other joint ventures: Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), Konga (1961), Black Zoo (1963), Beserk (1967), and Trog (1970.) It was the final film for both of them. There’s no Michael Gough, but Jack Palance is perfect for the part of Neal Mottram. It could have been a train wreck, but while he’s suitably cuckoo, he’s also surprisingly restrained.