"The Thrill Killers" - Maniacs on the Loose! Quiz

Answer: The Amazing Ormond

Billed as "America's Premier Hypnotist", the Amazing Ormond set the stage for the movie by explaining the process of "hallucinogenic hypnosis". Everytime a spinning hypno-disc would appear on the screen, the Amazing Ormond told the audience that they would see the face of one of the maniacs in the movie in the theatre among them.

This was very true during the original run of the movie in many theatres. One of the gimmicks to "Hallucinogenic Hypnovision" was to have people wearing masks resembling the face of Cash Flagg's character move through the theatre or drive-in during those intervals, (hopefully) scaring folks.

Answer: Mary Poppins

Joe Saxon (Brick Bardo) was a movie actor who was bemoaning his lack of fame and financial problems. Many of those problems were caused by the extravagant lifestyle he and his wife Liz tried to live. This was a facade they felt they had to put up to fit in with the elite crowd in Hollywood. The movie "Cleopatra" was also playing at another theatre Joe passed, yet another reminder of the success that eluded Joe.

This was the first movie that Ray Dennis Steckler started with a walk around Hollywood. Ron Haydock did much the same thing in "Rat Pfink A Boo Boo", though Ron's character was definitely not feeling sorry for himself.

Answer: Greek

Dennis Kesdekian was a hard-working salesman and father who was "caught in the world of reality" (according to the narrator), to parallel Joe Saxon being lost in the "web of non-reality" of Hollywood. The analogy, and Dennis, lasted maybe four minutes at the most before he was shot and killed by Mad Dog Click.

Dennis was played by Atlas King, who had also appeared in Ray Dennis Steckler's classic "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies". The character's name was Atlas King's real name, and he actually was a Greek immigrant who could speak English only passably. He didn't let that stop him from appearing in movies, though his career was relatively short (three or four pictures).

Answer: A pair of household scissors

Morty "Mad Dog" Click (Cash Flagg, a.k.a. director Ray Dennis Steckler) had offered the woman $50 to come back to his room, after having a ten-cent dance with her. Mad Dog continued to prove his maniacal nature by quickly getting perturbed at Erina, and coldly murdering her with a pair of scissors.

Answer: The State Asylum for the Criminally Insane

Herbie Click (Herb Robins), Keith Rogers (Keith O'Brien) and Gary Barcroft (Gary Kent) all escaped from the State Asylum. They killed five guards in the process, and somehow managed to get over a 20-foot-high, barbed wire fence. Herbie, who was Mad Dog's brother, carried a gun. Keith fancied his axe, and Gary seem to like using knives.

Answer: The Pleasant Inn

Linda (Laura Benedict) was Liz Saxon's cousin, and she was also a friend of the young newlyweds, Ron and Carol.

Movie producer Dennis Morgan (a real-life producer and partner of Steckler) offered her $100 a day for the use of the restaurant in a movie. He thought the little restaurant would be a great set for a murder scene in his next picture.

Answer: A radio program of "Little Red Riding Hood"

The radio program was being told by "Big Uncle Big John" (whom I believe was an actual radio personality in the Topanga Canyon area).

Before killing Ron and Carol (Ron Burr and Carolyn Brandt), the trio had murdered Hank Lowery. Hank was the man from whom the newlyweds were buying a house...the same one in which they ended up getting murdered. Keith made a joke about Hank having dandruff, while he was cleaning up his axe at the Pleasant Inn.

Friends often kidded Carolyn Brandt that perhaps she shouldn't get involved with Ray Dennis Steckler, because he was always killing her off in his movies. The two were married in the mid-sixties but divorced in the early seventies. Steckler and Carolyn have continued to work together on film projects together, and Steckler has kept killing her off in almost every one of them.

Answer: She laced his coffee with rat poison.

After Linda incapacitated Herbie, one of the thugs hit Joe. Liz managed to escape the restaurant and run into the canyon, pursued by Gary. After Morgan helped knock Keith out as well, Joe followed the lunatic. He and Gary had a free-for-all that ended with Gary falling off a cliff.

Unfortunately, while Liz did get away from Gary, she walked right to the car of Mad Dog Click, who was coming to pick up the three escapees. Click led the police on a truly interesting chase, which used cars, motorcycles and horses. He was finally shot and killed by a motorcycle police officer, played by Titus Moede.

Answer: Miss Transylvania

Joe's financial problems seemed to be solved with this new role, as he was promised $5000 per week for ten weeks. From the looks of things though, Morgan definitely got the better of deal, especially with the way Linda was sitting on his lap.

Answer: Liz Renay

Liz Saxon was your standard starlet-turned-housewife, being more concerned about the many parties she and Joe had instead of where the money to pay for them came from. Joe and Liz's experiences with Mad Dog Click and the maniacs definitely made them come together as a couple, especially with the financial success that Joe's new movie career was going to provide.

Liz Renay filmed her part in "The Thrill Killers" several days after getting out of prison. She'd been jailed for three years for refusing to help authorities convict her lover, gangster Mickey Cohen. She later worked a stripper, writer, and many other things, becoming the poster child for self-promotion. Liz was the closest thing to a "star" that Ray Dennis Steckler ever got to appear in one his movies - or perhaps it should be said that she was the only star who was able to find her proper niche in one of his excellent films.