Peeping Tom
Directed by:
Michael PowellScreenplay:
Leo MarksCinematography:
Otto HellerComposer:
Brian EasdaleCast:
Karlheinz Böhm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey, Maxine Audley, Esmond Knight, Nigel Davenport, Keith Baxter, Roland Curram, Michael Powell, Shirley Anne Field (more)Plots(1)
Mark (Carl Boehm), a focus puller at the local film studio, supplements his wages by taking glamour photographs in a seedy studio above a newsagent. By night he is a sadistic killer, stalking his victims with his camera forever in his hand trying to capture the look of genuine, unadulterated fear – an obsession that stems from his disturbing and terrifying childhood at the hands of his scientist father. Mark slowly becomes enamoured with Helen (Anna Massey), who lives with her blind mother (Maxine Audley) in the flat downstairs, but how long before he turns the deadly gaze of his camera towards her? (StudioCanal UK)
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Reviews (2)
Ideally, Peeping Tom could have been a good Hitchcock, but for me it feels like a weaker De Palma. I didn’t like it at all, the immediate impression it left me with could be described as “unlikeable and unpleasant nonsense”. None of the characters behave like people, something I’m unwilling to accept, even in older films. Many older films don’t care too much about bulletproof logic (at least not as much as it is required today), but this one goes beyond the limit I’m able to tolerate. Just think about the first visit of Helen to Mark – who the hell would behave like her? Nobody! No, this is definitely not a good film.
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An interesting study of a peace-loving killer of women with a disturbed childhood who records his crimes on celluloid and plans to make an “epic film”. Peeping Tom has top-tier production values with artistic ambitions and it’s perfectly acted and filmed, but director Michael Powell focuses so much on the central character that he forgets the viewer. Suspense and shock are sadly absent from the film. Perhaps it seems so because of the time that has passed since the film was released. But considering the impact that Hitchcock’s thrillers still have on today’s viewers, that doesn’t excuse Powell.
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