This 1961 movie, originally titled 'Door-To-Door Maniac' (GREAT title, wish they’d kept that one!) stars singer Johnny Cash, of all people, as a seriously deranged and intensely dislikeable homicidal psycho. His bravura performance is uncannily convincing and played with such gusto that it really is rather disturbing! Despite its silly and cheesy original title, this is a good thriller with a gripping story which is as much worth watching just for the story as it is for the novelty value of Johnny’s performance.

We next see Johnny lazing around playing his guitar in a cheap motel room while a woman nearby gets dressed, and are told by the narrator that he spent his time dossing about while his girlfriend went out to work to support him. Charming. He gets a phone call from a friend offering him a part in a good 'job' working for Fred Dorella whom, it transpires, wants to rob a bank. But not just an ordinary stick-up: Dorella’s plan is for Johnny to hold Ken Wilson the bank manager's wife hostage in their home while Dorella goes to the bank to see Wilson, and Johnny is to make a phone call to Wilson there at a pre-determined time threatening to kill his wife in five minutes if he doesn't fork over the money to Dorella.

This is an engrossing film with a good story, albeit looking low-budget and being a bit short at an hour and fourteen minutes, plus the ending is a tad unconvincing in some respects. I would have given it three stars but the presence of the great Johnny Cash bumps it up to four stars for me. The story is fairly complex with a few unexpected elements thrown in that add to the suspense, and there are some good twists, so despite being a relatively short film it is quite action-packed and you don’t notice the short running time.

The performances on the part of the other actors is of a good calibre too (albeit not as overwhelming as Johnny’s), particularly from Vic Tayback as Dorella, and we even have serious actress Pamela Mason (wife of James Mason) in a supporting role, the nature of which I won’t reveal here as it would be a spoiler for the story. And of course, it's fun to see now-famous top Hollywood director Ron Howard (The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind, Cocoon, Frost/Nixon, amongst many others) in his former persona of child star Ronnie Howard, playing perky little Bobby. There is also a small part for Merle Travis, another famed country singer of the time (writer of the song ‘Sixteen Tons’).