Dwain Atkins Esper (October 7, 1894 â€" October 18, 1982) was an
American film director and producer of exploitation films.A veteran of
World War I, Esper worked as a building contractor before switching to
the film business in the mid-1920s. He produced and directed
inexpensive pictures with titles like Sex Maniac, Marihuana, and How
to Undress in Front of Your Husband. To enhance the appeal of these
low-budget features, he included scenes containing gratuitous nudity
and violence that led some to label him the "father of modern
exploitation."Esper's wife, Hildagarde Stadie, wrote many of the
scripts for his films. They employed extravagant promotional
techniques that included exhibiting the mummified body of notorious
Oklahoma outlaw Elmer McCurdy before it was acquired by Dan
Sonney.Maniac, also known as Sex Maniac, an exploitation/horror film
directed by Esper, is a loose adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story
"The Black Cat" and follows a vaudeville impersonator who becomes an
assistant to a mad scientist.
American film director and producer of exploitation films.A veteran of
World War I, Esper worked as a building contractor before switching to
the film business in the mid-1920s. He produced and directed
inexpensive pictures with titles like Sex Maniac, Marihuana, and How
to Undress in Front of Your Husband. To enhance the appeal of these
low-budget features, he included scenes containing gratuitous nudity
and violence that led some to label him the "father of modern
exploitation."Esper's wife, Hildagarde Stadie, wrote many of the
scripts for his films. They employed extravagant promotional
techniques that included exhibiting the mummified body of notorious
Oklahoma outlaw Elmer McCurdy before it was acquired by Dan
Sonney.Maniac, also known as Sex Maniac, an exploitation/horror film
directed by Esper, is a loose adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story
"The Black Cat" and follows a vaudeville impersonator who becomes an
assistant to a mad scientist.
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