Diary of a Madman (1963)

A Masterpiece!

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Not bad early 60's Vincent Price horror film. Price plays a French magistrate (a judge?) who slowly becomes possessed by an evil spirit called a Horla. Usually a respectable, decent man, he starts n affair with a married artist's model (who's a tramp) and eventually murders her. When the model's husband is accused of the killing, the magistrate, still under the influence of the jeering Horla does his utmost to make things right. Not Price's best but watchable. Joseph Ruskin's marvelous voice plays the unseen Horla. The DVD-R is excellent quality. The only extra is the trailer. Recommended for horror movie fans

Although I am a fan of Vincent Price, I only caught this particular effort of his today. Watching it, I think I know why it slipped past my attention for all of these years. Don't get me wrong - it is not a terrible or bad effort. Price is in top form as always, the low tech special effects are actually pretty good, and the script's basic idea is an intriguing (if a little familiar) one. However, the actual execution of this idea by the director and the screenwriter is kind of lacking. The main problem with the movie is that at 96 minutes it seems quite long and stretched out. It would have worked better at a much shorter pace; in fact, I think the story would fit very well as an episode of the television show "The Twilight Zone" than as a feature film. If you are a Vincent Price fan, the movie is adequate, though it doesn't match up to some of his other movies of this particular era like the Poe films directed by Roger Corman. For all other viewers, it passes the time painlessly, but that's about all.

This one had the makings of a great Vincent Price horror flick but somehow just manages to be 'ok.' I think part of the problem is that it just sort of hovers around the middle the entire time. It never rises above. No great scenes or moments. It's all competently produced and enjoyable but still there's something missing. Perhaps if director Reginald Le Borg's original vision of the Horla as being some distorted evil voice had been allowed it might have added an extra bit of creepiness to it that would have elevated the picture. But the studio didn't like that idea so we got the rather ordinary and underwhelming voice for the Horla instead.Basically it's a nice sort of Jekyll & Hyde movie with nothing exceptional about it except for the beauty of Nancy Kovack. Wow she was a stunner. I enjoyed it though and I would recommend it to all Price fans or classic horror fans, with the understanding that it's a movie with its limitations. Still entertaining though.

Most horror movies made between the '50's and '70's weren't very much psychological once and featured for instance monsters, gore and tons of blood. In that regard "Diary of a Madman" is a quite refreshing movie. It lies its emphasis on the psychological aspects of the movie and uses it for its tension, mystery and just overall horror, even though the movie still features a 'supernatural' horror theme.The movie has a well build up and constructed story, that only gets better and better as it heads toward the ending. The movie begins quite typical but soon becomes very intriguing when it becomes obvious that just is not just another average standard '60's horror flick, with Vincent Price in the lead role. The movie shows how the highly respected magistrate/sculptor slowly looses his mind when he is being possessed by a strange mysterious spirit called an Horla. Of course no one believes him at first when he starts to hear and see things. He starts to question his own sanity, until the Horla has him in his almost complete control. Good old Vincent Price however decides to fight back and we already at the start sort of know what has happened, since the movie is told in the past time, when people read his diary in which he described the strange events that had happened.So you don't really have to expect an horror movie with monster, gore and scare effects. This movie is mostly about its build-up and overall atmosphere. It's a psychological movie, though visually the movie is also a good one.The movie features quite some early and variating special effects and other cinematic tricks. It's quite clumsy looking all of course but at least you can say that they really tried and put some effort in it to making something new.Vincent Price of course always had been at his best in roles such as these, so this movie forms no exception to that. He is highly convincing as the respected magistrate but also as the 'madman'. Two of course total opposite elements, which Price perfectly knows to handle, without ever making anything look ridicules or totally unbelievable. It's a real surprisingly good and quite different '60's horror flick, that deserves to be seen and known better, starring genre-legend Vincent Price!8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/