I'm a big Vincent Price fan and will watch anything starring the great man, but I do think that other IMDb reviewers are being far too kind to this film. Price is fine, as always, but the plot, which is loosely based on a story by Guy De Maupassant, isn't really strong enough to sustain an entire movie.
The opening scene doesn't bode well: a funeral that takes place on a wholly unconvincing studio set. It's like they couldn't be arsed. The burial is that of magistrate Simon Cordier (Price), who has requested that his diary be read after his interment. In a flashback, Cordier visits murderer Louis Girot (Harvey Stephens) on death row, who claims that he is under the influence of an evil force. When Girot attacks Simon, the magistrate accidentally kills the prisoner in self defense and becomes possessed by the evil force, which later reveals itself to be a Horla, a malevolent being from another plane of existence.
Cordier turns to art to try and focus his mind but, controlled by the Horla, he eventually murders his model, gold-digger Odette Mallotte (Nancy Kovack), the blame being pinned on her husband Paul Duclasse (Chris Warfield). In the none-too-thrilling finale, Cordier fights back against the Horla, but dies in the process.
Listless direction and dreary pacing make the ninety-six minutes really drag, and with the Horla manifesting as a disembodied voice and a green light that illuminates its host's eyes, there isn't much to see here either. The highlight of the film is the discovery of Odette's severed head hidden inside Cordier's clay bust of the woman: with a bit more of the macabre like this, Diary of a Madman would have been much more memorable, but as it stands, it is for Price completists only.
The opening scene doesn't bode well: a funeral that takes place on a wholly unconvincing studio set. It's like they couldn't be arsed. The burial is that of magistrate Simon Cordier (Price), who has requested that his diary be read after his interment. In a flashback, Cordier visits murderer Louis Girot (Harvey Stephens) on death row, who claims that he is under the influence of an evil force. When Girot attacks Simon, the magistrate accidentally kills the prisoner in self defense and becomes possessed by the evil force, which later reveals itself to be a Horla, a malevolent being from another plane of existence.
Cordier turns to art to try and focus his mind but, controlled by the Horla, he eventually murders his model, gold-digger Odette Mallotte (Nancy Kovack), the blame being pinned on her husband Paul Duclasse (Chris Warfield). In the none-too-thrilling finale, Cordier fights back against the Horla, but dies in the process.
Listless direction and dreary pacing make the ninety-six minutes really drag, and with the Horla manifesting as a disembodied voice and a green light that illuminates its host's eyes, there isn't much to see here either. The highlight of the film is the discovery of Odette's severed head hidden inside Cordier's clay bust of the woman: with a bit more of the macabre like this, Diary of a Madman would have been much more memorable, but as it stands, it is for Price completists only.