The Joe Spinell Story2001

William Lustig:
The drinking and the drugs with Joe escalated after we finished Maniac. He was really getting bad after that, both personally and professionally. I think the financial success of Maniac might have facilitated some of his behavior. He owned a sizeable portion of the film, and profits were coming in within six months after the release, and the distributors then gave him his share of the money, which Joe took and went out and did stuff that he might not have done.