Robber extortionist Fred (Vic Tayback) narrates, going back over the catastrophic hold-up scheme that he and his partner, the unstable Johnny (Johnny Cash), devised to pry a small fortune away from a local bank. While Johnny, posing as a door-to-door salesman, holds the bank president’s wife (Cay Forester, who also wrote the screenplay) hostage at their home, Fred delivers an ultimatum to her husband (Donald Woods) at his office: he’s got five minutes to cash Fred’s personal check for $70,000 or Johnny will shoot his spouse. Despite the low budget, the film develops a raw power from its totally-shot-on-location style, gritty black and white cinematography and Cash’s unusually intense performance. It was slightly cut, retitled (as Door-to-Door Maniac) and re-released by American International in 1966. “It could be your street… your house… your life!” was one of the taglines.
