Diary of a Madman (warning spoilers)
Okay, confession time. I love this YT Horror Movie Discussion Group and really have grown to enjoy the early 1980's slasher films that we typically review. But, largely that is because most of these films are new to me. I must admit that my tastes in horror have traditionally run more towards the classic Universal Studios' Monsters of the 1930s-1950s. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Creature of the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, ect. I also really dig the British Hammer Horror films from the 1950's up to the early 1970s. As a young kid and early adult, I never really got into the slasher type films that we watch in this group, but I have now developed an appreciation for them.
So this 1963 Vincent Price film was a real treat for me to watch and review for our group. While Brian was understandably put-off by the fake "Hollywood" sets, I appreciated their beauty and to me the artificial quality of these sets helped me to accept that this film was set in the distant past more so than if natural settings were filmed. I especially enjoyed the rich colors and incredible costumes that Marjorie Corso utilized. Vincent Price looked regal in his deep red judicial robes and very dapper in his impeccably tailored suits. I defy anybody to find a more delightfully garbed actress than Nancy Kovack in this film. It seems like Ms. Kovack wore twenty different dresses in this film, each more colorful than the last and each seemingly accurate for the setting of this movie, France in the late 1890s. Some might complain that this movie was over lighted and therefore lacked the necessary shadows and darkness needed to create fear. But, I enjoyed the lighting effects, as unnatural as they were, because they enabled the sets and costumes to be lit as if to display a work of art. Richard La Salle, the French Composer, adds a lot to this movie with his original score that carries each scene to the next and unmistakably sets the exact mood desired by the director for each scene.
Unfortunately, the acting in this movie was a little hard to swallow though. Nobody even tried to affect a French accent. At least Vincent Price did not mangle the pronunciation of some of the French names as poorly as some of the other actors did. The best acting in this movie by far was between Nancy Kovack (Odette Mallotte) and Vincent Price (Magistrate Simon Cordier), especially the modelling and sculpting scenes.
Robert E. Kent's screenplay is a mixed bag. Kent blatantly lifted the majority of his ideas from two separate short stories by the French horror author, Guy de Maupassant: "Diary of a Madman" (1885) and "The Horla" (1887). Both of these stories are very short and both are written in the form of diary or journal entries. The scenes in which Magistrate Cordier burns down his house; can't see his reflection in the mirror; and, struggles to resist the Horla are all cribbed from "The Horla". The scenes were Magistrate Cordier kills his bird; condemns a man to death for a murder he commits; and, has his diary discovered after his death are all cribbed from "Diary of a Madman". The love triangle/square between Magistrate Cordier, Odette and Paul Duclasse and Jeanne D'Arville is 100% Robert E. Kent's work as no such scenes are in either of Guy de Maupassant's short stories. However, the interesting debate between Police Captain Robert Rennedon and Magistrate Cordier as to the nature of evil actions is very much in the spirit of the internal musings of the evil madman in the short story "Diary of a Madman".
One interesting thing about this film is that it is a story within a story. That means the viewer can really only trust the opening scene in the cemetery and the closing scene in the art gallery as 100% cannon. Every other scene in this movie is a depiction of Magistrate Simon Cordier's narration from his diary. Sure some of the scenes can be corroborated by the other characters, but some can't and should therefore not be blindly trusted. For example, Police Captain Robert Rennedon who appears at the funeral scene and again in the closing scene in the art gallery can verify that he invited Magistrate Cordier to meet with the condemned Louis Girot in prison, but we have only Magistrate Cordier's journal to explain how Louis Girot died in that cell. Further, Magistrate Cordier would have us believe that Odette Mallotte willingly left her husband for him, perhaps because she was a gold digger. But what really transpired between Magistrate Cordier and Odette is largely documented only by Cordier's journal. Was Odette maliciously stalked by Cordier and then murdered in a fit of jealous rage or was there really an invisible "Horla" that possessed Cordier and forced him to kill Odette? The original source material, Maupassant's short stories, are very clear that it is madness that causes the main characters in those works to kill. In fact the "Horla" in French is a combination of words that loosely means the other or outsider and is indicative of saying "someone or something else is responsible". So just like in the short stories, the tale told by Magistrate Cordier in his journal should be looked at skeptically by the viewer when watching this film as Cordier may only be trying to protect his reputation by blaming some supernatural force for his evil acts.
Okay, confession time. I love this YT Horror Movie Discussion Group and really have grown to enjoy the early 1980's slasher films that we typically review. But, largely that is because most of these films are new to me. I must admit that my tastes in horror have traditionally run more towards the classic Universal Studios' Monsters of the 1930s-1950s. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Creature of the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, ect. I also really dig the British Hammer Horror films from the 1950's up to the early 1970s. As a young kid and early adult, I never really got into the slasher type films that we watch in this group, but I have now developed an appreciation for them.
So this 1963 Vincent Price film was a real treat for me to watch and review for our group. While Brian was understandably put-off by the fake "Hollywood" sets, I appreciated their beauty and to me the artificial quality of these sets helped me to accept that this film was set in the distant past more so than if natural settings were filmed. I especially enjoyed the rich colors and incredible costumes that Marjorie Corso utilized. Vincent Price looked regal in his deep red judicial robes and very dapper in his impeccably tailored suits. I defy anybody to find a more delightfully garbed actress than Nancy Kovack in this film. It seems like Ms. Kovack wore twenty different dresses in this film, each more colorful than the last and each seemingly accurate for the setting of this movie, France in the late 1890s. Some might complain that this movie was over lighted and therefore lacked the necessary shadows and darkness needed to create fear. But, I enjoyed the lighting effects, as unnatural as they were, because they enabled the sets and costumes to be lit as if to display a work of art. Richard La Salle, the French Composer, adds a lot to this movie with his original score that carries each scene to the next and unmistakably sets the exact mood desired by the director for each scene.
Unfortunately, the acting in this movie was a little hard to swallow though. Nobody even tried to affect a French accent. At least Vincent Price did not mangle the pronunciation of some of the French names as poorly as some of the other actors did. The best acting in this movie by far was between Nancy Kovack (Odette Mallotte) and Vincent Price (Magistrate Simon Cordier), especially the modelling and sculpting scenes.
Robert E. Kent's screenplay is a mixed bag. Kent blatantly lifted the majority of his ideas from two separate short stories by the French horror author, Guy de Maupassant: "Diary of a Madman" (1885) and "The Horla" (1887). Both of these stories are very short and both are written in the form of diary or journal entries. The scenes in which Magistrate Cordier burns down his house; can't see his reflection in the mirror; and, struggles to resist the Horla are all cribbed from "The Horla". The scenes were Magistrate Cordier kills his bird; condemns a man to death for a murder he commits; and, has his diary discovered after his death are all cribbed from "Diary of a Madman". The love triangle/square between Magistrate Cordier, Odette and Paul Duclasse and Jeanne D'Arville is 100% Robert E. Kent's work as no such scenes are in either of Guy de Maupassant's short stories. However, the interesting debate between Police Captain Robert Rennedon and Magistrate Cordier as to the nature of evil actions is very much in the spirit of the internal musings of the evil madman in the short story "Diary of a Madman".
One interesting thing about this film is that it is a story within a story. That means the viewer can really only trust the opening scene in the cemetery and the closing scene in the art gallery as 100% cannon. Every other scene in this movie is a depiction of Magistrate Simon Cordier's narration from his diary. Sure some of the scenes can be corroborated by the other characters, but some can't and should therefore not be blindly trusted. For example, Police Captain Robert Rennedon who appears at the funeral scene and again in the closing scene in the art gallery can verify that he invited Magistrate Cordier to meet with the condemned Louis Girot in prison, but we have only Magistrate Cordier's journal to explain how Louis Girot died in that cell. Further, Magistrate Cordier would have us believe that Odette Mallotte willingly left her husband for him, perhaps because she was a gold digger. But what really transpired between Magistrate Cordier and Odette is largely documented only by Cordier's journal. Was Odette maliciously stalked by Cordier and then murdered in a fit of jealous rage or was there really an invisible "Horla" that possessed Cordier and forced him to kill Odette? The original source material, Maupassant's short stories, are very clear that it is madness that causes the main characters in those works to kill. In fact the "Horla" in French is a combination of words that loosely means the other or outsider and is indicative of saying "someone or something else is responsible". So just like in the short stories, the tale told by Magistrate Cordier in his journal should be looked at skeptically by the viewer when watching this film as Cordier may only be trying to protect his reputation by blaming some supernatural force for his evil acts.