Maniac (1963)

Starring Kerwin Mathews, Nadia Gray, Donald Houston, Liliane Brousse, George Pastell
Directed by Michael Carreras
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

An American painter looking to restart his life in a French coastal village falls for the beautiful local tavern owner, and to have her, agrees to help her estranged husband escape an insane asylum.

One of a series of psychological thrillers writer/producer Jimmy Sangster made for Hammer Films in the 1960s, this is a well-acted effort with quality photography, but the script applies maybe one or two plot twists too many.  It's also a little difficult to believe that Mathews' character would abandon his initial interest in young beauty Brousse for her less attractive stepmother.  There are still some good suspenseful moments in a garage where the "maniac" confronts his victims with a welding torch, and in a stone quarry which serves as the background for the film's climax.  It's an entertaining enough thriller if you can suspend some of your disbelief.