Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Friday, May 05, 2017

Price Stepping Off AIP Reservation


Diary Of A Madman (1963): Is You Is Or Is You Ain't a Horror Movie?

Los Angeles and Surrounding Area Gets Saturation Booking
Imagined mid-1962 conversation between Vincent Price and American-International co-chief Samuel K. Arkoff: VP: Hey Sam, even though my contract with AIP is non-exclusive, I did want to stop by and let you know that I'm starting a new picture for Eddie Small. SKA: That's swell, Vince. You'll recall, however, that our contract prohibits your doing outside films along horror lines. VP: Oh no, Sam. This is based on a story by Guy de Maupassant. A fine literary adaptation. SKA: Our Poe movies are fine literary adaptations too, but they're still horror movies. What's this one about? VP: Well, it's about a man who is driven to murder by a malignant ghost. SKA: Gee, Vince. That sure sounds like a horror picture to me. By the way, what's the title? VP: de Maupassant's story is "The Horla," but they're calling it Diary Of A Madman. SKA: (shakes his head) Vince, Vince, Vince ... VP: After all, Sam, what else are people going to hire me for ... you want me to be happy, don't you? SKA: Alright, Vince, go ahead. But you know the damned thing will play across every street from our next Poe picture. VP: Thanks, Sam. But I'll be sure to emphasize to everyone that this is a gothic melodrama, not a horror movie. SKA: Sure thing, Vince. Here's luck.




Diary Of A Madman came on TCM recently. I had never seen more of it than a trailer at our Starlight Drive-In in July 1965. My mother, bless her, had driven me, a sister, several cousins, there to see Brides Of Dracula and The Haunted Palace. It was my summer dream come true, despite our having to leave before the third feature, Curse Of The Werewolf, unspooled. Enough was enough, after all. Here's how pervasive monsters were at the time: the moment we got home, around 11:30, I begged to stay up further for The Black Room, about to start on Channel 3's Horror Theatre, hosted by Dr. Evil. Could you blame parent concern for such overdose? It's as well I didn't return to the Starlight the following week, for what a stiff Diary Of A Madman was/is, Price an only reason to watch, even him not equal to task of keeping me awake through TCM's broadcast. I'd guess VP went into this with high hope, at a time when anything other than further AIP chilling would be an oasis. There had been effort at bending the mold, though we at the time scratched heads over Confessions Of An Opium Eater, the title suggesting opium was lethal, or at the least indigestible, but what was opium? To Price's immature following, a more apt label might have been Confessions Of A Toadstool Eater, or Confessions Of A Rat Poison Eater. Either way, this was an easy one to pass. I've still never looked at it.




Edward Small was reliable supplier to United Artists of copycat cheapies that fed off popular trends. His Jack The Giant Killer aped Columbia's hit The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad, and got Ed sued for the lift. Diary Of A Madman was nothing if not effort to re-strike lightning from the Poes and past occasion where Price did mad sculpting (House Of Wax). If the film wasn't precisely cut to horror's measure, at least selling could remove doubt ("The Most Terrifying Motion Picture Ever Created," so there!). From promise like that, Diary Of A Madman must have let down a lot of people. Under Reginald Le Borg direction (he of The Black Sleep and Inner Sanctums), Price and players move from one room to another at endless swap of talk, the "Horla" merely a human voice that can also tip over chairs and spill ink. To further upset of that, as in red ink, Diary Of A Madman went wanting through 1963 dates as tandem with Amazons Of Rome. Domestic rentals of $365,118, plus foreign at $363K, might have broken it even, assuming Small held fast to budget, though there wouldn't have been much, if any, profit, to spread around. Did Price have a percentage? --- if not, he probably took around the same Jim and Sam had been paying, $50K or upward. Diary Of A Madman is available as an On-Demand DVD from MGM.

10 Comments:

Blogger Dave K said...

Ha! Yeah, MADMAN is indeed a snooze fest... didn't catch up with it until I was a fifty year old with appropriately lowered expectations. Your comment about trying to negotiate a waiver on bedtime to watch THE BLACK ROOM struck a nostalgia nerve. Our Saturday night chiller theater was a hostless double feature also starting at 11:30. Since I also had Sunday morning responsibilities as an altar boy, some heavy duty deal making went into every late night dip into monster movie heaven. Always was the solemn promise I wouldn't stay up for the second feature. And I never did... well, never much beyond the credits and the first five minutes or so. So I entered adulthood with a bucket list of horror titles 85% still unseen. A lot of catching up to do over the years! THE MAD GHOUL, HOUSE OF HORRORS, FRANKENSTEIN 1970, THE ELECTRONIC MONSTER (wow, a pretty major let down on that last one!)

9:07 AM  
Blogger MDG14450 said...

I saw this on the TCM schedule and TCM On demand/Sling and made a point to avoid it. Like Twice-Told Tales from the same year, it felt like it was trying to grab the AIP Poe audience while being "better." Both have a feel of just going through the motions.

11:20 AM  
Blogger coolcatdaddy said...

You should check out "Confessions of an Opium Eater" - I rather enjoyed it as an eccentric little VP picture.

12:01 PM  
Blogger Kevin K. said...

That imaginary conversation was pretty funny, but I have a hard time picturing Vincent Price saying "Hey."

1:33 PM  
Blogger DBenson said...

I recognized Small's name from a handful of excellent if slightly thrifty looking swashbucklers: COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (my favorite version), MAN IN THE IRON MASK (James Whale's), THE CORSICAN BROTHERS (Fairbanks Jr. times two), and SON OF MONTE CRISTO (a fun pastiche of several non-Cristo swashbucklers). His Wikipedia entry includes a long filmography and, more intriguingly, a list of films he announced but never made.

JACK THE GIANT KILLER deserves points for sheer moxie, momentarily swinging a couple of limp skeletons on wires at Jack and showing them as fighting on the posters. It was burdened by a slightly off-key screenplay connecting the effects set pieces; Harryhausen and Schneer were always careful about having decent scripts.

4:58 PM  
Blogger Tommie Hicks said...

Off Topic Alert!

Many times when I see an old advert here, an advert that has the theater's address, I go to Google Earth to see what's there now. However, 99% of the time the theater does not print it's address. The advertisers assumed everyone knew where their local theaters were located.

Tommie Hicks

9:12 AM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

I do that very often, but you're right, there are times when it's impossible to determine the theatre's location.

10:23 AM  
Blogger Reg Hartt said...

Having read THE CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER I looked forward to the film. What we get is "Thomas de Quincy lived in London. I, Gilbert de Quincy live in San Francisco." The film is straight down hill from there.

Fun, though.

2:43 PM  
Blogger Jim Harwood said...

John, the film is also available on Blu-ray in one of the Vincent Price sets that Shout Factory put out. Looks quite a bit better there than the MGM MOD. I like the film a bit better than you, though it is one of Price's weaker movies to be sure.

9:42 PM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

Had forgotten all about that Blu-Ray, Jim, and I think that set is around here somewhere, unwatched as with so much that comes out in these prolific times of HD releasing. I'd need three more lifetimes to catch up with all of good stuff so far made available. 'Tis a Golden Era we're living in.

5:30 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024