L'étrange histoire du juge Cordier

During the 1960s, Vincent Price became super famous as a horror actor--starring in countless low budget horror flicks. Many of them were very cheap and rather forgettable but he also did a few dandies that were quite watchable. In that latter category I would place this film. It's very enjoyable and despite the plot being awfully far-fetched, it is carried off well. Price plays a nice judge who visits a madman about to be executed. At this meeting, the evil spirit controlling the maniac jumps into Price's body and as a result, he goes from a saintly life of a life of evil and depravity. The acting and writing are good, but I must admit this sort of fare isn't going to be for everyone--deep intellectual stuff this isn't! But, if you like a good scare, give the film a viewing.

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.

Badly titled but very entertaining Price horror film.

For a while I had seen this movie floating around but since the title reveals zero about what the movie is about - I never bothered with it! Just had my first viewing. Better late than never!

Despite being too studiobound and needing about 20 minutes of dull footage cut out, Diary of a Madman is a knockout movie. And frankly, a very odd one, but odd in a good way.

We are missing the wonderfully campy Price dialogue we got in House of Wax and House on Haunted Hill, but instead we get a deadly serious Price who is very pleasing.

Having no location filming gives it a television movie look but the rich Richard LaSalle score makes the whole thing seem rather grand.

If you think you have heard some of the LaSalle cues before, you have, in TV's Lost In Space (1965) and Land of the Giants (1968).

Despite some mild flaws, an outstanding and wonderfully oddball flick.

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!

8/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

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"!