After the funeral of French Magistrate and amateur sculptor Simon Cordier (Vincent Price), his secret diary is read by his friend Friar Raymonde (Lewis Martin) to a group of listeners, including his servants and Police Captain Robert Rennedon (Stephen Roberts). Simon believed he was in contact with a malevolent entity, invisible yet corporeal, called a Horla, which controlled his mind and had psychokinetic powers. This was only one of an entire race of evil beings devoted to driving human beings insane.
It first came into contact with Cordier when he met a prisoner named Louis Girot (Harvey Stephens) who had murdered four people. It was still in possession of the prisoner and tried to kill Cordier, who accidentally killed the prisoner trying to defend himself. The being then proceeds to possess Cordier. He was already deeply troubled by the death of his wife and child.
The Horla slowly begins to make Cordier insane and when he seeks help, he is told to take up a hobby. He turns to an early interest in sculpture. He hires a lovely model named Odette Malotte (Nancy Kovack), a model who is already married to a poor artist but thinks she can better her life by falling in love with Cordier. He falls for her as well. The Horla convinces him that she is only a conniving gold-digger. He stabs her to death. When her decapitated body is found in the river, her husband is suspected. Cordier is now convinced of the Horla’s existence and decides to destroy it if he can. He lures it into his house at night and sets fire to the curtains with a smashed oil-lamp. This does destroy the Horla but Cordier is burned to death himself in the blazing house.
The people sit around the table after hearing the tale and are somewhat stunned. Some believe that Cordier was simply mad, others that the Horla may have existed, but agree that the confession means that Odette’s husband is not guilty. The priest believes that the Horla is present wherever evil manifests itself.
The film was directed by Reginald Le Borg from a script by Robert Kent, and it was produced by Edward Small and by Robert Kent, based on an 1887 story by Guy de Maupassant. It received largely unfavorable reviews but is now more respected. The Horla’s voice by Joseph Ruskin was controversial, in that the director wanted the Horla’s voice to be distorted and unworldly, but Edward Small wanted it clear for the audience. The film is a bit clumsy and talky at times, yet suitably creepy. Price is spooky and charming by turns, and certainly carried the film. It came with literary pretensions from Guy de Maupassant and time was spent on debating the nature of evil. Cordier is possessed by a demon and yet kills only one person. Today there would be two hours of blood-letting and little philosophizing. In fact, you can see a bigger body-count on the nightly news every day, often just as senseless. Makes you wonder if the Horla exists.