1973's "Craze" turned out to be a sad finale for producer Herman Cohen, who started out in Hollywood with genre efforts like "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla" and "Target Earth," turning to youth oriented fare such as "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "How to Make a Monster" before relocating to England and hooking up with Michael Gough for similar items like "Horrors of the Black Museum" and "Konga." Despite being based on an actual novel, Henry Seymour's "Infernal Idol," Cohen was content to simply rehash all his usual bromides from films past for a less than thrilling last hurrah: there's the older antagonist dominating a younger one as in "Teenage Werewolf" and "Black Museum," misogynist hatred of women found in "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" and "Black Museum," the villain's activities only broken up by scenes of a useless police investigation as in "Blood of Dracula" or "Konga," reunited with worn out director Freddie Francis after 1970's disastrous "Trog," which hammered the final nail in Joan Crawford's coffin. Gough's atypical absence is hardly offset by a detached performance from Jack Palance as an antiques dealer who imagines riches in store for every human sacrifice to an African god called Chuku, selecting numerous females like young beauty Julie Ege or elderly aunt Edith Evans, the suspicious authorities always a step behind to allow for more mayhem. Brief turns from Trevor Howard and Hugh Griffith make for a surprisingly strong cast but the cliche ridden script effectively put a halt to the producer's career (Herman Cohen passed away in 2002).
Review of Craze
