Maniac

Joe Spinell wasn't blessed with leading-man good looks. Burly and pot-bellied, Spinell spent most of his screen time as a character actor, appearing as a loan shark in the first <i>Rocky</i> films, but he took on a rare starring role in 1980's <i>Maniac</i>, a disturbing splatter film he scripted himself. In it, he plays a slovenly, middle-aged landlord who prowls the street at night for women to murder, using their scalps to decorate mannequins he imagines are his dead, abusive mother. After the killer begins to date one of his would-be victims, he loses what little grasp on reality he has left. The Times screens this unsettling cult flick on 35 mm film. (Also Saturday, Jan. 14.) <P>