Film Masters brings a pair of mean and gritty black & white crime films to Blu-ray

This article includes comparative images which display both the original and widescreen presentations of the films, both of which are included in this release. Images have been matched as closely as possible but may not be the exact same frame.

This week Film Masters beings the latest entry in their well-received lineup of Blu-ray double features highlighting quality versions of independent genre films from yesteryear, successfully delivering many titles up from the public domain hell of low-quality grey market releases.

The newest addition to this library brings the Johnny Cash starring oddity Door to Door Maniac (also known as Five Minutes to Live, my preferred title), and an obscure passion project Right Hand of the Devil, starring, written, directed, and produced by character actor Aram Katcher.

Both films share an unusual trait of focusing on their criminal villains as their main characters.

DOOR TO DOOR MANIAC (aka FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE), 1961

In the 1960s, Johnny Cash was trying to pivot his successful music career into Hollywood. While he had some interesting roles, and eventually a popular television variety show, his acting career never reached the same level of stardom or accolades as his music. (Inversely, his good friend Kris Kristofferson would remain in Cash’s shadow musically but arguably become known primarily as a movie star).

Cash plays Johnny Cabot, a dapper but menacingly evil hoodlum who targets a suburban housewife in her home. His job is to hold her hostage, providing leverage for his partner to pull off a daring robbery at the bank where her husband is employed.

The film is a weird feature debut for Cash, whose real life folk hero image and warm, rustic charm sharply contrast with his fiendish villain (despite his tendency to position himself as an outlaw). With his cowboy appeal, the country star was naturally suited for other genres like westerns and faith & family narratives (and would go on to do these), but his Cabot is a nasty customer.

After her husband Ken and son Bobby (Donald Woods and a very young Ron Howard) have left for the day, Cabot invades the home of Nancy Wilson (Cay Forester), subjecting her a morning of mental and physical torture while he awaits phone calls from his partner (Vic Tayback), who threatens her husband at the bank to cooperate with their scheme to quietly rob the vault with his coerced assistance.

I’ve seen the film before, but forgot what a vicious piece of work it is. Cash does a great job with his role, and is quite magnetic to watch, but his character is incredibly sadistic and cruel, sexually assaulting and eventually raping his victim.

And when young Bobby unexpectedly comes home for lunch, it causes the panicked criminal’s plan to suddenly go off the rails, making him even more dangerous and unpredictable.

Besides Cabot’s horrific cruelties, the film also feels pretty heavy in other respects. Cabot imagines Nancy and her husband, who are known and involved in their community, as a sort of perfect couple, but in truth they bicker constantly and their marriage is dissolving. By happenstance, this was the day that Ken was planning to leave his wife – it’s this attack that causes him to reconsider his plan.

On this viewing, I also noticed a detail I hadn’t before, which highlights both the Blu-ray’s higher picture fidelity as well as just how rough-edged this film is for its time: In a scene when Cabot takes flight and grabs Bobby to hold as a hostage for his escape, you can see a wet spot on the the boy’s trousers indicating that he has wet himself.

Door to Door Maniac can be a rough watch, especially with its depictions of sexual assault. It’s a decent but mean-spirited little thriller, and primarily of interest for fans of Johnny Cash, who is definitely the movie’s most interesting and chaotic element.

RIGHT HAND OF THE DEVIL, (1963)

Right Hand of the Devil is the B-side of this pairing, but a pretty appropriate one. Like Door to Door Maniac, it’s a crime film from the perspective of the predatorial villain who engages in a major heist by targeting and victimizing a female character.

The film is the brainchild of oft-supporting character actor Aram Katcher, who not only plays the lead but developed every aspect of the film as its multi-hyphenate producer, writer, director, and hair stylist (his actual day job), among other roles, as a vehicle for himself. Shrewd and calculating, Lusara is a career criminal who recruits a team of crooks to carry out the robbery of a sports arena’s receipts.

The key to his plan is to exploit a weak link in the arena’s security, a keyholder who can provide em with access: the head cashier, an older woman named Lisa. The handsome Lusara sets about a plot to seduce the lonely old maid, sweeping her off her feet and gently probing to learn more about her workplace.

From there the film takes some turns which are better left to find out, but it’s a twisty little morality tale with some pretty gnarly elements. Lusara’s crimes include murder, and he disposes of bodies in an acidic chemical soup – one of them while still alive.

While Katcher can be a little over the top as an actor, I did enjoy his work. The film is clearly a passion piece and I admire his dedication to mastery of all elements of its creation.

The Package

Door to Door Maniac and Right Hand of the Devil arrived this week on Blu-ray as a 2-disc double feature from relatively new distributor Film Masters, who have put out several similar retro double features focusing on great new presentations of films that have historically had poor ones.

Door-to-Door Maniac is scanned in 4K from 35mm original archival elements
Right Hand of the Devil scanned in 4K from 16mm archival elements.

Both films are presented in both original and new widescreen aspect ratios, as highlighted by the comparative images in this article. (Door-to-Door Maniac in 1.85:1 and 1.37:1, and Right Hand of the Devil in 1.66:1 and 1.37:1)

I appreciate the inclusion of a widescreen format, even if it’s not really the ideal presentation and more of a bonus feature. The widescreen versions are cropped and have a very slight horizontal stretch. The cropping is centered rather than dynamic, so occasionally a shot doesn’t work as well, for example when Johnny Cash is talking about big stacks of money – in the original format you can clearly see his hands indicating the form of a stack of cash, while in the widescreen version this gesture is partially cut off. It’s still a perfectly readable in context to viewers, just not the ideal version of the scene.

The 2-disc package gives each film its own disc, and includes a hefty full color 24-page booklet with writings on both films by Don Stradley (Door to Door Maniac) and C. Courtney Joyner (Right Hand of the Devil).

Special Features & Extras:

Commentary tracks for both films
Player Piano: The Passion of Aram Katcher (10:52), a featurette about the creator and star of Right Hand of the Devil. This short film describes highlights of Katcher’s acting career and discusses how this film was his most ambitious triumph, using all his creative skills to brute-force his creation into the world: the kind of starring role that Hollywood wouldn’t hand to him.