L'étrange histoire du juge Cordier

Original title: Diary of a Madman

1963
12
1h 36m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

3.2K

YOUR RATING

Vincent Price and Nancy Kovack in L'étrange histoire du juge Cordier (1963)

Play trailer3:22

2 Videos

31 Photos

Horror

An evil spirit leaves the body of his human host, a criminal on death-row, and sneaks into the body of his next human host, a French magistrate.An evil spirit leaves the body of his human host, a criminal on death-row, and sneaks into the body of his next human host, a French magistrate.An evil spirit leaves the body of his human host, a criminal on death-row, and sneaks into the body of his next human host, a French magistrate.

Director
- Reginald Le Borg
Writers
- Guy de Maupassant
- Robert E. Kent
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

3.2K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Reginald Le Borg
Writers
- Guy de Maupassant
- Robert E. Kent
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos2

Trailer 3:22

Diary of a Madman

Clip 3:09

Diary Of A Madman: I've Paid For My Sins

Clip 3:09

Diary Of A Madman: I've Paid For My Sins

Photos31

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Final theatrical film of Lewis Martin.

Goofs
At the start of the movie the date in Magistrate Simon Cordier's diary states 1886 as the year. 18-19 minutes into the movie, when he returns the picture of his dead wife and son back to the trunk upstairs, the camera pans to the right after it's open and there is a Teddy Bear. Teddy Bears weren't around until shortly after the November 16, 1902 newspaper cartoon of "Teddy" Roosevelt's based on his bear hunting trip in Mississippi earlier in the month. ("Teddy" refused to kill a baby bear after its mother was killed). Steiff bears started at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903.

Quotes
[first title card]
Title Card: "... the vulture has eaten the pigeon; the wolf has eaten the lamb; the lion has devoured the sharp-tongued buffalo; man has killed the lion with an arrow, with spear, with gun-powder; but the *"Horla"* will make of man what man has made of the horse and of the ox; His chattel, His slave, and His food, but the mere power of His will. Woe to us!"... Guy de Maupassant

Crazy credits
Opening credits are revealed by a knife cutting through red fabric.

Connections
Featured in Creature Features: Diary of A Madman (1970)

User reviews63

Featured review

Okay, though somewhat stretched out

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.