While trying to make sense of this horrible mess of a movie, I tried to understand why the once Hollywood legend, Mickey Rooney, had gotten mixed up in this atrocity?
He was 93 when he passed away and had once been a top star for that Tiffany of old movie studios, MGM, since the silent era. World War II changed his golden status since he had out-grown his Andy Hardy period where he was the wired up, dynamo who always wanted to put on a big how, usually with the help of Judy Garland.
But watching "The Manipulator" was like watching a nightmare of what happens when you're no longer the golden boy of MGM, you lost your millions several times from gambling and declared bankruptcy over and over again.
The plot of this dismal production has something to do about a mad movie maker who...oh, who knows? I tried watching 30 minutes as Mickey goes into a secretive room where a woman is tied up and she keeps shrieking; "I'm hungry." He then feeds her baby food and then he screams and runs around and shoves his face close to the camera. And then he dreams of an orgy or something although there's no sex or skin shone.
The movie actually begins impressively with a nicely filmed scene of Mickey preparing to enter his den of madness. But after that, it's downhill.
Mickey looks as if he's near death throughout as we see countless shots of his sweaty, unshaven face and then he begins to scream and grovel.
What he was trying to convey isn't known so if you want to waste two hours of your life trying to figure out this ungodly mess, welcome to "The Manipulator."
Review of The Manipulator
