Why assign nine out of ten stars to a film that fits the Supreme Court's definition of obscenity, namely a work that appeals to one's prurient interests with no redeeming social value? Because the work in question is an absolutely brilliant character study of a societal deviant and borderline psychotic by scenarist Don Carpenter and director Darryl Duke, with a performance by Rip Torn as said sociopath that is at the peak not only of his distinguished career but of all similar performances and that includes Cagney in "White Heat" and Pacino in "The Godfather". From the moment Maury Dann enters our radar with his detritus eating grin that can turn on a computer chip to rage and abuse we are hooked. Torn, like all great actors, instantly inhabits the body and personality of this abusive, petulant, entitled scumbag and not only can we not look away, we are fascinated. It's like being at a somewhat safe distance at a carnival peep show from The Monster. Ably assisting Torn are a gallery of talented unknown at the time (and to me simply unknown) actors like Ahna Capri as a sassy floozie whom Dann dumps for her sassiness, Elayne Heilveil as a too innocent, submissive floozy who is in way over her head with Dann's cruelty, Cliff Emmich as a mentally challenged bodyguard (and amateur chef), and Michael Gwynne as Dann's slick, amoral manager. I had a couple problems with Carpenter's story if not his dialogue which, like all this fine novelist's work, struck me as true to its locale, in this case redneck Tennessee/Mississippi/Alabama. I felt the scene where the bodyguard, even though portrayed as slow, instantly agrees to be the fall guy to a possible murder charge lacked credibility. And as long as you have a scene where Dann returns to his ex wife's and kids' house at night then why not have a scene with the kids? But these story caveats aside this is a crisply directed, sensitively written and brilliantly acted near masterpiece. So I guess it only meets half the Court's definition of obscenity since no artistic masterpiece, even a near one, can be socially valueless. A minus.