One of the few instances where you get a good look at Robert Z’Dar in the original MANIAC COP
the victims, but detective Frank MacCrae (Tom Atkins) gradually comes up with a more unlikely suspect: legendary officer Matt Cordell (Robert Z’Dar). A dedi- cated lawman with a long track record of significant arrests, Cordell’s brutal methods eventu- ally backfired and landed him in prison, where he was attacked and fatally injured by some of the many criminals he had helped to incarcerate. However, thanks to a sympathetic prison doctor, the still-living Cordell is out for re- venge, killing not only city officials, but any innocent citizens unfortu- nate enough to cross his path. Aided by policewoman Theresa Mallory (Laurene Landon), Forrest is able to escape from custody and sets out to put a stop to Cordell’s rampage. While the horror angle more or less follows the slasher movie template, MANIAC COP benefits significantly from some very well- staged stunts (including the early use of a decelerator for a particu- larly impressive high fall gag that allowed the stunt man to hurtle towards the ground with no crash
pad beneath him) and Cohen’s quirky dialogue. That extra bit of effort in the writing, combined with the gravitas automatically brought to the show by veterans like Atkins, Sheree North, and William Smith (as Forrest’s heartless superior, sounding like he gargled with Drano) makes the characters more intriguing than the usual stock B-movie types and heightens one’s appre- ciation for the effort all depart- ments were making to give this $1.3 million picture as much bang-for-the-buck as possible. MANIAC COP was first issued on DVD in the early days of the format by Elite using their non- anamorphic laserdisc transfer. That release offered a few extras that were subsequently carried over to Synapse’s superior 2006 DVD edition. First and foremost was the entertaining audio com- mentary featuring director Will- iam Lustig, star Bruce Campbell, writer/producer Larry Cohen and composer Jay Chattaway, and there are also a handful of trail- ers and TV spots, plus a few scenes featuring Ken Lerner and
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Leo Rossi that were shot specifi- cally to pad out the Japanese television version. Synapse’s anamorphic 1.85:1 presentation offered a significant visual im- provement as well as enhanced audio options in 6.1 DTS, 5.1 Dolby Digital and the original 2.0 Ultra Stereo mix. New to this re- lease is a passable interview (12m 25s) with the Maniac Cop himself, Robert Z’Dar (who has since tragi- cally died, in March 2015, at the age of 64), and an animated gal- lery featuring promotional artwork. There is one small drawback: the Japanese TV footage has been censored to remove language and gestures that would not be allowed on domestic television. The visual quality is slightly better than the Elite release, but under the circum- stances, Synapse would have been better off lifting the unedited footage from that edition. The company followed up in 2011 with a 1080p 1.85:1 Blu-ray that presents the best rendition yet, albeit one that is somewhat brighter than the transfers ac- corded to the sequels, which were produced under the supervision of
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