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.
Review of Diary of a Madman
