SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Brilliant and touching

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

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

Since he's my favorite actor of all times, I just owe it to myself to track down and watch every single movie, TV-episode, cartoon and narrated documentary the almighty Vincent Price has ever been involved in. This has been going on for several years now, so naturally I have seen the most widely acclaimed and easily available ones numerous times already, and the ones I still occasionally discover are often obscure and practically forgotten for a reason. "Diary of a Madman", for example, certainly isn't a highlight in Price's career and understandably got pushed to the background when it came out in between much bigger crowd-pleasers like "The Raven", "The Haunted Palace", "Last Man on Earth" and "The Masque of Red Death". But seriously, even a mediocre Vincent Price film is still very much worth checking out, and "Diary of a Madman" is actually quite underrated and very entertaining. Simon Cordier has always been known as wealthy and highly respected magistrate, but nevertheless he was an emotionally tormented soul ever since he lost his first wife and child. The movie opens with Cordier's funeral service and a bizarrely horrific confession through his carefully updated diary. Whilst visiting a condemned man in jail, Cordier "inherits" his possession with an evil spirit called "The Horla". The next few days, Simon Cordier undergoes a mental metamorphosis and become restless and aggressive. He decides to take up his old hobby of sculpting again, and by doing so he meets and falls in love with a beautiful model named Odette. But The Horla homing inside Cordier is stronger and forces him to murder the girl and even abuse his magistrate position to have her ex-husband charged for it. Perhaps the main reason why "Diary of a Madman" isn't that great or memorable – not to me, at least – lies with the type of evil good old Vincent struggles with here. "The Horla", spawn from the mind of French novelist Guy De Maupassant, is sort of like a variant on "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" without the physical transformations. The evil spirit talks aloud (and way too much) to his host and behaves itself quite pompous and superior. Whenever Simon Cordier feels its presence, his eyes are covered in flashy green light and the widows blow open. But even worse than its attitude is the fact that the Horla doesn't specifically wants or needs anything. It gains absolutely nothing from possessing Cordier and even less from murdering the poor girl. Fans of obscure and almost- forgotten 60's horror will surely still enjoy "Diary of a Madman" is spite some of the defaults. The dialogs, choreography, camera-work and acting performances are splendid. Reginald Le Borg's direction is a bit absent occasionally. The murder sequence is quite gruesome and sadist for its time and the scenario touches some fairly progressive themes, like adultery.

If one has read "LE HORLA" in French, this movie has little to do with it, only in name. In the book story, the character IMAGINES that a supernatural being has come from Latin America, where there are epidemics of madness. The character sinks into the mire of his insanity, but the only murder in the story are his servants, unadvertently killed while he sets his house on fire to hopefully kill the horla (=out there) he never meets or speaks to, tough. Then the character announces he'll commit suicide.This movie is a very loose/distorted adaptation, but it isn't bad per se. Price delivers fine acting, yet the story at times is too predictable, eg Price's trance when the horla controls his will. As well, it looks like in the end they were in a hurry to end the movie, so the horla's accurate plan failed to take into account that the servants were a card in the game, having seen the greedy Odette pose for him. Too simple, i say; they could have come out with a better storyline at that. For example, a letter could have come announcing the "mysterious" death of the servants in a accident in Switzerland; or the servants could have been away while Odette was in the house. Supporting characters aren't worth of much mention. A good movie for one time, but not one i'd watch twice, unlike eg PREMATURE BURIAL.

Vincent Price lends his always welcome presence to this routine ghost-possession story. It's adapted from two stories by Maupassant 'The Horla' and 'Diary of a Madman' that are somewhat mashed together. Not a bad mashing, but still this is well-worn territory. It certainly looks good and has a rousing romantic-horror score by Richard LaSalle that helps immeasurably, but it's flatly directed and features a terrible performance by Chris Warfield as the unjustly accused painter in love with pretty Nancy Kovack. The Horla is voiced by Joseph Ruskin with the declarative timbre of a radio announcer, sounding less the slithery voice of evil you'd expect or desire and more the voice of advertising, or even the doom-laden boom of the "Control Voice" from 'The Outer Limits.' And the green light-band on the eyes is a cheap effect, but even it would be acceptable if the desires of the Horla were a little more interesting than breaking up Price's relationship just to prove the woman is greedy (one would expect the mis-use of Price's position as magistrate would be the real interest of the Horla). But overall the film is competently made and does have the shock effect of the ultimate disposition of Kovack's head. Otherwise it's not bloody or clumsily handled. Certainly not a bad film to spend time with, especially for devotees of pre-Seventies horror films.