Johnny Cash could act but, let’s face it, he wouldn’t have been in anything in that capacity if he hadn’t been a famous musician first.  His one performance which always stands out in my mind was that episode of Columbo, but he even played a famous country musician in that. Not exactly a stretch.

In 1961’s Door-to-Door Maniac lets the man show some range by playing a hired killer named Johnny Ca…bot.  He even has a guitar to noodle on for a great deal of the runtime, so I’m guessing the experience of making this film was a bit like his day job, except with somebody yelling “CUT!” from time to time.

The title reminds me of Stephen Wright’s joke about attempting door-to-door hitchhiking.  Technically, Cash only goes to one door, and that is where he talks his way into the house of suburban housewife Cay Forester under the pretense of selling correspondence school guitar lessons.  Really, he is there as the partner of Vic Tayback, who will be waiting at the bank for her husband, bank vice president Donald Woods.

If Woods doesn’t pony up the dough by a certain time, Cash will shoot Forester.  In the looong time while waiting for Tayback’s call, Cash and Forester yell at each other, throw things and he eventually rapes her.  What I find baffling is Forester was one of the authors of the screenplay, which means a woman wrote a scene for herself to be violated on screen, thus perpetuating the terrible myth of all women having a fantasy of being raped.  Who needs the patriarchy to keep women down, then they can do the work themselves?

That scene aspires to be art and falls far short of the mark.  Still, it was odd to see a film of that era even remotely suggest a woman having an orgasm—and, once again, while being forced into sex against her will.  A more successful attempt at art is the opening credits.  Under a rather unnerving song sung by Cash, we see little vignettes of American life.  The very end of the film attempts something similar as we essentially see the entire film again in various shots short enough to be nearly subliminal.  If a statement was intended by that, the meaning was lost on me.

Social commentary surfaces through many potshots taken at the suburban lifestyle.  Cash comments that he had never seen so much nothing before.  Tayback couldn’t be happier with the bland, clockwork daily routine of the neighborhood he’s been scoping out, as he knows the exact time Woods will leave for work and when the son of the family (Ron Howard!) will go to school.  One thing they didn’t factor into the plan is Woods has a mistress (Pamela Mason), and he might avoid a messy divorce if the robbers should kill Forester.

The performances are all over the place.  Woods is solid in a shallow role.  Forester spends almost the entire time in hysterics, which leaves me all the more bewildered she wrote this material.  Tayback fares the best of the cast, and I’m surprised I can’t recall anything else I have seen him in aside from the 70’s sitcom Alice. 

But the real reason anybody will watch this is to see Cash play a dangerous psycho.  He is somehow both the best and worst aspect of this film.  In some isolated moments, he is genuinely scary and radiates an unpredictable energy.  Other times, he aims for terrifying, but goes too far when chewing the scenery.  Alas, for most of the runtime, he seems awkward in front of the camera.  His performance isn’t as uniformly bad as he would claim in later interviews, but it is quite inconsistent.

But the weirdest element of Door-to-Door Maniac is the script’s fixation on an allegedly slutty piece of lingerie Woods bought Forester as a “joke”.  It is no surprise this article of clothing is almost hilariously chaste by today’s standards.  What I found interesting is how much Forester hates it, as mention of it at the end triggers a traumatic response in her.  So, guys, think twice before considering such a purchase as a gift.  This film reinforced an important takeaway for me from Tod Davies’s commentary on the bluray for Dennis Hopper’s Backtrack: women really hate lingerie.

Dir: Bill Karn

Starring Johnny Cash, Cay Forrester, Donald Woods, Vic Tayback

Watched on Film Masters blu-ray