Diary of a Madman | |
---|---|
Directed by | Reginald Le Borg |
Screenplay by | Robert E. Kent |
Based on | The Horla 1886 story by Guy de Maupassant |
Produced by | Robert E. Kent executive Edward Small (uncredited) |
Starring | Vincent Price Nancy Kovack Lewis Martin |
Cinematography | Ellis W. Carter |
Edited by | Grant Whytock |
Music by | Richard LaSalle |
Production company | Robert Kent Productions/Admiral Pictures |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 96 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Diary of a Madman is a 1963 American horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack, and Chris Warfield. [1]
The screenplay, written by producer Robert Kent, is an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story "Le Horla" ("The Horla"), [2] [3] written in 1887.
Following the funeral of Simon Cordier (Vincent Price), a French magistrate and amateur sculptor, his secret diary is read out by Simon's pastor friend to a group of people gathered around the table, Simon's servants, and a police captain. The diary reveals that Simon has come into contact with a malevolent entity. The invisible yet corporeal being, called a horla, is capable of limited psychokinesis and complete mind control. It is implied that Cordier's particular horla is one of a whole race of evil beings which devote themselves to driving humans insane.
Cordier first interacts with the horla when he meets a prisoner whom the entity drove to murder four people. The horla possesses the inmate and attempts to kill Cordier, who in self-defense accidentally kills the man. The magistrate inherits the prisoner's troubles as the horla turns its hauntings toward him.
As the horla begins to destroy Cordier's life, he fears he is going mad and seeks help from an alienist, who suggests that he take up a hobby. Cordier chooses to pick up his old interest in sculpture, meeting a model along the way. The model, a local woman by the name Odette Malotte, is already married. Wanting a better life, she claims to love Cordier and he pledges his love to her in turn. The horla insists the model is not the charming jewel that Cordier sees, but instead a conniving gold-digger, and compels Cordier to treat her as such. This sets up a conflict in Cordier, that he might not be the astute judge of character that his title indicates.
In an episode of insanity, Cordier murders Odette with a knife. Her decapitated body is found in the river, but her husband (not Cordier) is blamed for the crime. As his and others' lives are put in jeopardy, he becomes convinced of the horla's existence and decides drastic measures are needed to end its evil. He lures the horla into his house at night. When his presence is felt, Simon hurls an oil lamp towards the curtains, setting the house ablaze. Simon succeeds in destroying the horla, but not without sacrificing himself as the house burns in flames.
The film concludes with the people seated around the table after reading Simon's diary. Some believe Simon was mad and that the horla does not exist, others are unsure and believe that the horla might have existed. The priest's opinion is that wherever evil exists, the horla exists.
The movie was originally entitled The Horla. [4] Filming started 18 July 1962. [5] Director Reginald Le Borg said he wanted the voice of the horla to come out distorted, but producer Edward Small wanted it to sound clear, which the director thought was a mistake. [6]
The film was released on DVD by Willette Acquisition Corp. on January 15, 2011. [7]
Critical reception for Diary of a Madman has been mixed. The New York Times gave the film a negative review, calling the film "somewhat less than eye-opening". [1]
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was an American actor, art historian, art collector, and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television.
American International Pictures LLC is an American film production company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing films from 1955 until 1980, a year after its acquisition by Filmways in 1979.
Claude Sautet was a French film director and screenwriter.
Nancy Kovack is a retired American film and television actress.
Tales of Terror is a 1962 American International Pictures comedy horror film in colour and Panavision, produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson, and Roger Corman, who also directed. The screenplay was written by Richard Matheson, and the film stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone. It is the fourth in the so-called Corman-Poe cycle of eight films, largely featuring adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories and directed by Corman for AIP. The film was released in 1962 as a double feature with Panic in Year Zero!.
The Mummy's Ghost is a 1944 American horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg for Universal. It is the second of three sequels to The Mummy's Hand (1940), following The Mummy's Tomb (1942) and preceding The Mummy's Curse (1944). Lon Chaney Jr. again takes on the role of Kharis the mummy.
"The Horla" is an 1887 short horror story written in the style of a journal by the French writer Guy de Maupassant, after an initial version published in the newspaper Gil Blas, October 26, 1886.
House of Usher is a 1960 American gothic horror film directed by Roger Corman and written by Richard Matheson from the 1839 short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. The film was the first of eight Corman/Poe feature films and stars Vincent Price, Myrna Fahey, Mark Damon and Harry Ellerbe.
The Haunted Palace is a 1963 horror film released by American International Pictures, starring Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr. and Debra Paget, in a story about a village held in the grip of a dead necromancer. The film was directed by Roger Corman and is one of his series of eight films largely based on the works of American author Edgar Allan Poe.
The horror-of-the-demonic film is one of three subgenres of the horror film that grew out of mid- and late-20th-century American culture.
Calling Dr. Death is a 1943 Inner Sanctum mystery film. The "Inner Sanctum" franchise originated with a popular radio series and all of the films star Lon Chaney Jr. The movie stars Chaney Jr. and Patricia Morison, and was directed by Reginald Le Borg. Chaney Jr. plays a neurologist, Dr. Mark Steele, who loses memory of the past few days after learning that his wife has been brutally murdered. Aware of his wife's infidelity and believing he could be the killer, Steele asks his office nurse Stella Madden to help him recover his lost memories.
Tower of London is a 1962 historical drama and gothic horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price and Michael Pate. The film was produced by Edward Small Productions.
Twice-Told Tales is a 1963 American horror anthology film directed by Sidney Salkow and starring Vincent Price. It consists of three segments, all loosely adapted by producer/screenwriter Robert E. Kent from works by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Robert E. Kent was an American film writer and film producer.
Reginald Le Borg was an Austrian film director. He was born in Vienna, Austria with the surname Groebel and directed 68 films between 1936 and 1974.
Voodoo Island is a 1957 American horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg and written by Richard H. Landau. The film stars Boris Karloff, with a cast including Elisha Cook Jr., Beverly Tyler and Rhodes Reason. It is set in the South Pacific and was filmed on Kauai, Hawaii back to back with Jungle Heat. Adam West appears in a small pre-"Batman" uncredited role.
Le Diable et les Dix Commandements is a French film from 1962 directed by Julien Duvivier that consists of seven sketches played by an ensemble cast that includes Michel Simon, Micheline Presle, Françoise Arnoul, Mel Ferrer, Charles Aznavour, Lino Ventura, Fernandel, Alain Delon, Danielle Darrieux, Jean-Claude Brialy, and Louis de Funès.
Swann in Love is a 1984 Franco-German film directed by Volker Schlöndorff. It is based on Marcel Proust's seven-volume novel sequence In Search of Lost Time, specifically a self-contained section of the first volume, the title of which typically translates as Swann's Way (1913). It was nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards.
Harry Sukman was an American film and television composer.
House of the Black Death is a 1965 American horror film directed by Harold Daniels, Reginald LeBorg and Jerry Warren. The film was written by Richard Mahoney, based on a novel titled The Widderburn Horror by Lora Crozetti. The film is about two elderly brothers who are warlocks, Belial and Andre, who have been feuding with each other for years over the family estate. Belial, who sports small goat's horns on his forehead, has been using his black magic to bewitch members of the family, while Andre spends the entire film bedridden. The two actors did not share any scenes in the film.