Heat of Madness (1966)
** (out of 4)
Susan (Jennifer Laird) is a delivery girl who stops by a photographer's office. John (Kevin Scott) and her immediately lock eyes and before long the two are in a fun but serious relationship. Everything is going well until Susan begins to lose interest and this is when John snaps.
HEAT OF MADNESS was sold as one of those roughie exploitation pictures but I think the truth of the matter is that director Harry Wuest wanted to make some sort of art picture but since something like that wouldn't sell he added a few darker elements and the distributor did the rest. HEAT OF MADNESS isn't going to win any awards from fans who want sex, nudity or violence in their roughies but there are a few interesting moments in the film.
Again, if you're expecting skin or violence then it's best that you don't even bother with the picture because there's really none of that. What you do get is basically a character study of a troubled man who slowly begins to go nuts when the woman he loves begins to fade away. I think the film benefits from being well-made and for the most part the cinematography was quite good.
There's a certain rawness that the film has, which is a plus and I'd add that both Scott and Laird are good in their roles. With that said, there's really nothing special about the story and I must admit that after a while both of the lead characters started to bore me. I'm sure this here would have played out better as a mini-movie but what's here just can't hold your interest throughout the running time.
