Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

HeadlinesExotic Boring

Keira Brennan The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

tomgillespie2002 The greatest of actors will always find themselves taking an unworthy role simply to pay the bills, but it is in their ability to carry these films on their own that truly establishes their greatness. Vincent Price, who starred in an endless array of crap (as well as the odd horror classic), had this ability. He was by no means the finest of actors, but his undeniable screen presence and often tongue-in-cheek approach has made him a gift to horror fans, and here he helps raise Diary of a Madman, one of his more obscure efforts, into the realms of the passable. Based on Guy de Maupassant's short story The Horla, Diary of a Madman is a very silly film indeed, but manages to retain a sort of camp charm.Beginning with the funeral of magistrate Simon Cordier (Price), his pastor begins to read out his diary to various friends and old acquaintances. Flashing back, he visits the cell of a doomed inmate who has killed a number of people without a motive, and who informs Cordier that he has been possessed by an evil and invisible entity named the Horla. He attacks Cordier, but is killed in the struggle, and the spirit of the Horla moves into Cordier's body. From then on, Corider experiences strange murderous urges, and is tormented by frequent visits by the mysterious being. He rediscovers his love for sculpting, and meets vain and selfish model Odette (Nancy Kovack), who appears to fall in love with him.The Horla itself is a ridiculous creation, flying in through Cordier's windows and announcing his presence in a voice reminiscent of the one you would put on when you have a bed sheet draped over your head. Better yet, the Horla's causes it's subjects eyes to glow green whenever they feel evil inside of them, here represented with some shoddy effects that looks like the director is simply flashing a light in the actor's eyes. But as previously stated, this raises some unintentional laughs and, with Price's presence, is quite charming. The Horla is a metaphor for the evil in every man, and the film at least manages to interpret de Maupassant's themes on a most basic level. I doubt it will ever get any home media release that will cause a cult rediscovery, but Madman is an enjoyable little oddity, and certainly a must-see for Price fans.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Michael_Elliott Diary of a Madman (1963) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Vincent Price turns in another winning performance as Simon Cordier, a nice judge who goes to visit a man on death row and ends up having to kill him in self defense. Unfortunately for Simon, the dead man's evil spirit follows him home and slowly starts to turn him into a murderer. This film is certainly far ahead of its time and it's a shame that so many good ideas and performances are brought down a few notches because of some questionable direction. LeBorg's credits include the really bad VOODOO ISLAND, the bizarrely awful HOUSE OF BLACK DEATH and the all-star lineup THE BLACK SLEEP. While no stranger to the genre, LeBorg is clearly out of his league here because the psychological nature of the film never gets fully realized because it seems the director didn't know how to tell the story. Several scenes just drag along when they should have zipped by and the entire film has a rather odd pacing that doesn't help matters. The rest of the movie is pretty nice and, as I said, it was way ahead of its time. The "voices of evil" that are haunting Simon is something probably expanded from the mental state of Norman Bates in PSYCHO. This film takes that to a new level and really shows us that voice, which is constantly haunting Price and I thought it was done very nicely as we never know if the voice is there or if Price is just imagining it. I think you also get a brief look at what would eventually become the giallo the following year with Mario Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. During the murder scenes, Price is dressed in black with the famous black gloves stalking his victims. This is certainly something that would become quite popular in the films of Bava and Argento but here it is before them. The supporting cast features Nancy Kovack as the woman Price falls for and she delivers a remarkable performance. Her and Price really sizzle on the screen together during the rather obvious sexual innuendo. Chris Warfield is also good as her husband. In the end, this is a pretty impressive film that probably works a lot better today than it did in 1963. The film still isn't a complete success but one only wishes a stronger director was involved. I can only imagine what would have happened had someone like Bava been brought on board considering he did work with Price. The rich colors, marvelous sets and great costumes just add to what the film does offer.

FloatingOpera7 Diary Of A Madman (1963): Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack, Chris Warfield, Ian Wolfe, Stephen Roberts, Elaine Devry, Lewis Martin, Edward Colmans, Mary Adams, Nelson Olmsted, Dick Wilson, Harvey Stephens, Gloria Clark, Wayne Collier, Joseph Del Nostro Jr, Don Brodie, Joseph Ruskin, Sayre Dearing, Stuart Holmes....Director Reginald Le Borg, Screenplay Robert E. Kent.By 1963, Vincent Price was a recognizable and very familiar name to many movie-goers. Through the 50's, he appeared in several well-made horror films, some of them very successful, others not as successful. He was, one can say, a breed of actor that was well-received during a generation of Alfred Hitchcocks and Rod Serlings, a time when horror, the bizarre, the supernatural, the grotesque and the mysterious was in vogue in film. Price would have fared well as a director but he remained first and foremost an actor, appearing in films through the 70's and 80's, his last film being "Edward Scissorhands" around 1991. Here, Vincent Price portrays the protagonist of 19th century French author Guy De Maupassant's obscure and little-known story - Simon Cordier, a court judge from Paris who sentences a psychopathic killer to death and is subsequently the victim of the same killer's possession, that is, the killer's spirit has taken over him and drives him to murderous acts. This film, however, does not do follow the Maupassant story faithfully and it's strictly Hollywood material. It's yet another vehicle for Vincent Price to flex his muscle as a skilled actor in this type of film. The film co-stars Nancy Kovack and Chris Warfield, a couple whose lives are affected by Simon's murderousness. Odette Duclasse (Nancy Kovack) is a model who poses for art and fashion magazines or tableaux vivants, and becomes the object of Simon's obsession. At first, Simon experiences a subtle change and begins to kill small animals like a pet canary. But gradually the spirit of the killer leads him to murder Odette. If this film works, it's because there is a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" influence and through the fine performance by Vincent Price, who never failed to step up to challenge of every role he undertook. Another element that makes this film pretty good is the revenge theme. Revenge has long been a preferred subject in historical fiction (The Count of Monte Cristo being the greatest sample) but the supernatural slant of the film makes this particular revenge story most engaging - a killer who's been sentenced to death dies and then gets back at the Judge by possessing his body and driving him to brutality and violence. Still, don't expect the same amount of gore and violence one finds in modern horror films. This film, however, makes use of fine special effects for 1963, these done by Norman Breedlove and include animation-within-a-live-film. The scene in which the killer's spirit breaks loose is evidence of this. The art direction and production design, which featured sculpture and artwork, are very evocative of 19th century Paris at the time of Maupassant and the costumes by Marjorie Corso are authentic, if a bit 1950's version of 19th century. The original music by Richard La Salle, a French composer, is a lovely touch. All in all, this is not a bad film but it lacks something other Vincent Price films have - some edge. Vincent Price has done better roles and this film is rather strange and dull. Therefore this film is mostly catering to Price fans.

The_Void I'm a big fan of Vincent Price and all of his films are a must see for me. Normally, this endeavour leads me to see some of the finest horror films of the fifties, sixties and seventies; but every now and again, it will turn up a lesser entry in the great man's filmography, and unfortunately - this is the case here. Based on stories by Guy de Maupassant, Diary of a Madman is a film without much to differentiate it from a number of similar films, and so to someone like me who has seen a great many horror movies; this one does fall a bit flat. Other bad elements include a rather long running time, which ensures that the flimsy plot always feel far too drawn out. The plot follows judge/sculptor Simon Cordier, a man who goes to visit a man put to death in his cell. He was put to death for various murders that he committed, and which he claims were under the influence of evil spirit Horla. However, after the death of the murderer; the evil spirit has nowhere to go, and so decides to take up residence inside the judge...It's a seriously good job that this film stars Vincent Price, as with almost anyone else in the lead role it would have been a complete dead loss. Price doesn't excel himself here; but even an average Price performance is great to watch, and the great thespian continually saves the film from tedium. Price is the only real star of the film, and that's not a problem in a way as he has more than enough to carry a film on his own; a film like this could really do with a few more distractions. The locations look nice, however, and the Technicolor cinematography excellently captures them. There's not a great deal of actual horror in the film; sequences that see Vincent Price's mirror reflection disappear, and a few where he has green eyes are about as horrific as it gets. The idea of an evil demon possessing someone isn't exactly original, but the basics of the story get good handling here; so it's a shame that the rest of the film wasn't better. Overall, this has it's moments I suppose; but aside from Price's performance, there isn't much to recommend it for. Interesting fact, though; a quote towards the start of the film was used by Rob Zombie in his song "The Return of the Phantom Stranger"!