Ten Days of Terror!: Diary of a Madman

Film: Diary of a Madman
Format: Streaming video from Amazon Prime on Fire!

I genuinely enjoy just how dedicated horror movie producers were to sticking with the Gothic through the 1960s. Sure, there are some exceptions and Gothic films continued to be made and are still being made today, but the heyday was the 1960s when horror movies meant castles and Victorian garb and a hell of a lot of Vincent Price. Diary of a Madman is very much in line with that. Taking its inspiration from a Guy de Maupassant story, Diary of a Madman is told in flashback about one man’s interaction with a terrible creature that has the ability to control his mind and commit terrible crimes.

As just mentioned, this takes place in flashback. All we know at this point is that magistrate Simon Cordier (Price) is dead, and that he demanded that a box he entrusted to others be opened upon his death. Since that box is being opened, we can assume he is dead. What we find inside is a diary (no shock; it’s in the title), and the diary tells a dark and twisted tale.

All Wrapped Up

Film: The Mummy’s Ghost; The Mummy’ Curse
Format: DVD from Cortland Public Library on basement television.

I’m continuing to find my way through the Universal monster films, and have now made it to the end of the Mummy franchise, more or less. With The Mummy’s Ghost, we’re going to get a great deal of movie packed into a one-hour running time. We’re also going to get Lon Chaney Jr. playing the title character. It would seem that eventually, all roads lead to Lon Chaney Jr. in the Universal monsters world.

We’re going to start with a lot of exposition, giving us the back story of how Kharis (Chaney) become the undead monster he is. It’s the way all of these movies start, more or less. We learn about Kharis and his love for Princess Ananka. An attempt to raise her from the dead gets Kharis cursed for all eternity, and naturally his tomb was eventually discovered and his body brought to America. Now, his new high priest, Yousef Bey (John Carradine!) must retrieve the body of Kharis and Ananka and bring them back to Egypt.