Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

rokcomx I've been awfully curious about the The Manipulator, a 1971 flick with Mickey Rooney as a has-been movie makeup guy who kidnaps an actress and forces her to reinact movie scenes. That's what it says on the box, anyway. Rooney did some wacky evil roles, in Night Gallery (as a mob boss) and Twilight Zone (the jockey who wished to be "a big man"), so I decided to checkitout ---Since I found it on one of those dicey Mill Creek "50 Movie" multipacks, I should have known I'd be falling waaaaayyyy down the rabbit hole....There are almost no words to describe The Manipulator -- could be the trippiest movie I've ever seen. More trippy than The Trip! Somewhere between the psychedelic non-sequiturs of Wonderwall and crazed movie geek Eric Binford in Fade to Black -- it's mostly just Rooney, imagining stuff and people, all distorted with psychedelic sound FX and insane soliloquies. Sometimes, Rooney is seen in slowmo, sometimes speeded up, and frequently surrounded by pulsating hallucinations...this movie just seemed drenched in LSD. And BiPolar disorder ----Just...wow...

HumanoidOfFlesh "The Manipulator" is truly one of its kind.Supremely bizarre,surreal and acid inspired horror film set in an abandoned warehouse filled with plastic mannequins,cobwebs and dusty movie props.Mickey Rooney plays bearded B.J Lang,a madman who keeps a young woman played by Luana Anders captive in his building and keeps referring to her as Carlotta,his acting star.She is tied to a wheelchair and begs for food.Rooney torments Carlotta and forces her to act out scenes for his theatre piece."The Manipulator" may come across as obnoxious and boring,but I found it somewhat fascinating in its uncompromising portrayal of insanity.Mickey Rooney is certainly unforgettable as a completely deranged B.J Lang.The shots of mannequins are creepy and there are some brilliant scenes of dementia.6 out of 10 for manipulating of my consciousness.

dickson9 Mickey! Mickey, Mickey, Mickey. What was it that inspired you to act in this movie? Money? Or was it a need to demonstrate how bizarre you can get? This is Andy Hardy on Acid....in itself a treat to see a multi dimensional character played by someone who Uncle Walt Disney named That famous Rat after....sorry, a mouse.So if you are interested in trying to figure out what was really being said in a early 70's Avent Garde Drugged Out Movie dealing with the effects of Acid, either taken by the Audience or the Actors...then go and see it.As for me, I am still sitting on the fence as one of Mickey Rooney Most Bizarre Movies....sort of like William Shatner's singing...Bizare and Way Out.

lthseldy1 "Do you hear it, BJ? Do you hear me throw this piece of junk against my bedroom wall and hear it shatter?" This movie is not only the most awful movie that I have ever seen, it makes no sense at all whatsoever!! Why in the world is a Hollywood legend like Mickey Rooney even playing such a senseless character as BJ Lang? And playing Carlotta is an anorexic strung out washed out actress that he keeps as his prisoner hidden in his dorm of props. The whole movie is just hilariously funny and makes me wonder why in the world did anybody even make this movie at all? Was he that desperate that he had nothing else to do with his life and no more roles to play that he had to play this god awful character? The whole movie centers on BJ Lang a hopeless Hollywood makeup artist (and judging from his own makeup artwork on his own face I fear what the people looked like that he made up)kidnaps an actress and ties her to a wheelchair and starves her as he makes her recite lines from different plays that he directs. He goes through the movie barking out orders to an unseen crew, mops the floor as he sings "The Chatanooga Choo-Choo" (oh God that was hilarious!!), puts on fake heart attacks and chases his prisoner through the theater through rooms of costumes, mannequins and props. The movie dragged on as he endlessly recites poems and rehearsals with Carlotta, the camera zooms in and out as crazy 60's acid trip music plays on and on throughout the movie, flashbacks keep coming back as Carlotta stares at the only sane guy in the movie which is the janitor that ends up being the only death in this movie. And it just gets worse. But I guess that there is something to think about in this movie, as awful as it is, it makes you think of people that act like something that their not and the manipulation that they place upon people in order to gain the approval of who they want to be.