Dwain Esper was born 7 October 1894. Or 1893. It depends on who you listen to.

And who was Dwain Esper? He was an early exploitation filmmaker. The first films were all what we would consider exploitation. Hollywood had professionalized by the late 1920s. And so there was an opening for men like Esper.

This worked because Esper was a showman. And he only produced films to make a buck. It’s hard not to appreciate such a clear vision. It contrasts so well with the pretense of Hollywood.

He worked closely with his wife, Hildagarde Stadie. They married in 1920 and stayed so through his death in 1982. The couple stopped making films in the 1940s. They were very rich by that time, it would seem.

Today, we know Dwain Esper for a handful of films:

• The Seventh Commandment (1932): A country boy goes to the big city only to find debauchery. But once he decides to leave. he learns he has syphilis. Beware, young men!
• Narcotic (1933): A young medical student gets seduced by drug culture and dies. Beware, medical students!
• Sex Madness (1934): A former burlesque dancer with syphilis wants to be cured so she can go back to her small hometown and marry her sweetheart. Beware, burlesque dancers!
• Maniac (1934): A lab assistant kills his mad scientist boss and walls up the corpse. Then he pretends to be the mad scientist. Eventually, the police find the corpse just like in “The Black Cat.” Beware, mad scientists!
• Marihuana (1936): A young woman and her boyfriend go all the way because of the title drug. She gets pregnant but he is murdered working for drug dealers. Beware, young couples!

Esper ran his business much in the way William Castle did during the late 1950s and early 1960s. He traveled around the country promoting and showing his films. Of course, Castle was a great filmmaker. Esper, well, wasn’t. But I do think people overstate his incompetence. I’ve seen worse films — much worse.

I think everyone should watch Maniac. It is such a bizarre film and Esper uses everything in his arsenal. This even includes a topless woman. It was released after the Hays Code went into effect. But that didn’t really apply to people like Esper who distributed their own films.

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Sex Maniac (1934) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.