User Reviews

To understand the stir that Peeping Tom caused when it was released in 1960, you need to think about what audiences at that time were accustomed to when they went to the cinema. Innocent love stories, historical epics, action-packed westerns and colourful musicals were the staple cinematic diet of the time, certainly not dark, disturbing and intensely violent murder thrillers like this. What probably unsettled contemporary film-goers even more was the fact that a film of this kind could come from a much-loved and revered director like Michael Powell. In modern times, the equivalent would be if Steven Spielberg were to make a graphic and reviled film about paedophilia or bestiality, consequently never being allowed to stand behind a movie camera again. When Peeping Tom hit the big screen, it was rejected by the public and crucified by the critics, and left Powell's hitherto glorious career in ruin.

A film cameraman, Mark Lewis (Karl Boehm), displays psychotic tendencies as he murders women with a spiked tripod attached to the bottom of his camera, capturing on celluloid their final screams of agony. It is revealed that when he was a child, Mark was used as a guinea pig by his father (Michael Powell) in a series of psychoanalytical experiments about the symptoms of fear. Among other things, Mark's delightful dad would wake him throughout the night and shine lights in his eyes, drop lizards into his bed, and on one occasion even forced him to pose for photographs next to the dead body of his mother. As a result, Mark has an unhealthy obsession with fear and, in particular, the expression that people have on their face during moments of fear.

Peeping Tom is one of the few films that still has the power to shock all these years on. Psycho, released roughly at the same time, is still a great film but its shock value has been diminished by years of repeat viewings and increasing permissiveness in the cinema. But Peeping Tom is an altogether more disturbing piece of work. Boehm is excellent as the killer whose entire outlook has been skewed by his father's experiments. Also impressive is Anna Massey as the killer's fragile and unsuspecting fiancée. Powell directs the film brilliantly, using bold and dazzling colours to disguise the horrific atrocities that punctuate his film. It is understandable that the film was met with revulsion and rejection at that time, but in retrospect it is a film of real importance and power. In a 21st century world bombarded and desensitised by harrowing images on the news and in the movies, the theme of losing one's grasp on what is and isn't morally acceptable is more pertinent than ever. This is not easy viewing, but it IS essential viewing.

Despite a long and distinguished career the production team of Powell and Pressberger were effectively ruined by the furore of criticism and demands for censorship generated by this film.

'Peeping Tom' is a great film and one that modern film makers could learn from. Even good films like 'Seven' and 'Silence of the Lambs' have a regretable tendency toward melodrama and gross overacting in the portrayal of serial killers. 'John Doe' (Kevin Spacey) and 'Buffalo Bill' (Ted Levine) are laughable travesties of their real life counterparts, who seem harmless when approaching or luring a potential victim.

One of the things that critics of his time could not forgive Powell is that he makes his killer 'Mark Lewis' (Karl Boehm) human and likeable. a sensitive and intelligent young man, he is the product of bestial cruelty inflicted upon him in childhood (the scenes showing film of him being tortured as a boy by his scientist father are horrifying in the true sense of the word)

This is a sophisticated film demanding of the viewer that he or she not only takes part in watching a compelling thriller but are also provoked into contemplating the forces that work on a man who commits such crimes.

After watching 'Peeping Tom' one does not have the customary closure common in such thrillers of seeing a 'monster' the viewer could not emphasise with destroyed and the world made safe again, (much the theory behind the justification of capital punishment). Rather we have the experience of seeing the tragic self destruction of a man arguably as much a victim as those he killed.

To critics this was reprehensible - 'siding with the murderer'. The man who wrote the script, however, knew at first hand what makes a killer - since he was responsible for selecting secret agents to fight behind enemy lines in World War 2. He had to choose men - and women - who would not hesitate to kill. How many writers can claim this level of insight?

'Peeping Tom' is a classic and I rate it an eye catching 9 out of 10

Years of trauma, have inspired your ideas, to capture death throes as a woman's life is speared, when the reels turn and spin, the blade is forced through bone and skin, recording nightmares for a late night premiere. It's a torment that's impossible to wipe, these negatives of life create a type, no celluloid illusion, only psychotic delusion, the development of terror, of dread, of fright.

A serial killer chiller, leaves you reflecting what a master of his craft Michael Powell was, how convincing Karlheinz Böhm is as the titular character and whether you can pass off any of your less than desirable attributes to one or both parents (probably).

In these supposed enlightened times, director Michael Powell is considered a genius of British cinema. Emerging during the War as one of Britain's finest craftsmen, Powell and his partner Emeric Pressburger created the undisputed classics The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948).

But despite critical and commercial success, his career was in tatters by the early 1960's. The abrupt death of Powell's career can virtually be pinned down to one film, his most uncompromising portrait of madness, 1960's Peeping Tom.

Powell's infamous shocker opens with a movie camera-wielding Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) following a prostitute to her boarding house room. Once inside, he slides a spike from his tripod leg and films her action of terror before stabbing her to death. As the credits roll, we find Mark alone in his apartment, replaying the footage with wide-eyed fascination.

As the film progresses, Mark is revealed as a stuttering loner whose sex drive has been somehow twisted into a murderous voyeuristic mania - working at a movie studio by day, he moonlights as a ‘glamour' photographer above a seedy newsagents. His blonde buxom model (Pamela Green), constantly taunting his virility, is the embodiment of the female he despises. The inquisitive girl downstairs, on the other hand, becomes his ideal and his possible salvation. Ultimately she is doomed by her altruistic attraction when she insists Mark must show her one of his 'films'. Horrified, she watches Mark as a child, tortured by his father's camera experiment of recording a child's reaction to fear. Mark's own experiment of filming his murder victims leads him on a downward spiral of insanity to the film's tragic conclusion.

Despite Peeping Tom's sensational subject matter, Powell's intention was deadly serious: to make a sober study of sexual violence, as well as a meditation on the audience's role of voyeur. Powell's camera positions us directly behind Mark and his spectators so that we become his unwilling accomplices - the audience watches Mark watching his films. Carl Boehm as Mark gives a chilling performance, at once icy reserve and murderous rage. Powell creates a garish red and pale blue twilight landscape of backstreet London in perfect detail.

At the film's completion, Powell believed he had made a masterpiece. Peeping Tom is certainly a personal film; Powell and his co-scriptwriter toiled for months until they had mastered a sympathetic three-dimensional serial killer. In later years, Powell would remain tight-lipped about his real reasons for making the film. But Britain's premiere 'glamour' pinup queen Pamela Green - Peeping Tom's photo-model and penultimate victim - would offer clues to Powell's hidden agenda.

Green became his leading choice for the role, although she had not appeared outside 8mm stag films, after seeing a life-sized nude portrait in her business partner Harrison Mark's studio. Her initial reception on the set was one of polite British reserve - until Powell unleashed his Jekyll and Hyde personality and she became one among many targets for his boorish, intimidating manner. On the day of Green's death scene, Powell changed his former plans of prudence and demanded she sprawl topless across her bed before she is skewered with Mark's tripod leg. She reluctantly gave in. Mid-shot she looked across the studio in horror. Beneath Powell's camera were his two pre-teen sons, watching unwaveringly according to their father's instructions. This incident brought a chill over Powell's casting of his son as Mark junior and of himself as Mark's father.

Whatever reasons drove Powell to make Peeping Tom, he had effectively signed his career's death warrant. The film opened to scathing reviews in April 1960, just months after the similarly-themed Psycho. Ironically, Hitchcock floated out of the controversy surrounding Psycho as the consummate old trickster, and saved his slowly sinking career. The time seemed ripe for Peeping Tom among audiences and critics alike. Unfortunately for Powell, the critics could find none of Psycho's black humour in his sober tome. 'Sick' and ‘vile' were a small sample of their vitriol. The papers were outraged that a filmmaker of Powell's calibre could sink his talents into material so vulgar and perverse. Powell hoped the distributor would weather the storm and allow the audience to find the film on its own merits. Instead, the plug was pulled on Peeping Tom after five days and at least in Britain the film was buried.

The print was sold to the American Roadshow circuit, with a lurid ad campaign designed to sell the film to a jaded American public. Shorn of twenty minutes footage, the film was considered too 'British' and was shelved after a limited run. There it sat, gathering dust for almost 20 years. Then in 1978 a cabal of admiring filmmakers led by Martin Scorsese (himself no stranger to controversy) rescued a complete print from Britain. Peeping Tom was thus relaunched in 1979 at the prestigious New York Film Festival to a predictably mixed reception. Correct-minded commentators grudgingly accepted its 'masterpiece' tag but were nonplussed with the Film's treatment of its sexual violence.

As for Powell, the British film industry no longer considered him bankable after Peeping Tom. He made one more film in Britain before exiling himself to Australia. The antipodean They're A Weird Mob (1966) was on of his final films before his death in 1984. Luckily for Powell, the film he considers his masterpiece is still revered and reviled, but no longer ignored.

Michael Powell, the distinguished English director, probably contributed to his own demise from the film industry with "Peeping Tom", a movie that proved to be well ahead of its times and a masterpiece by this man who gave so much to enhance the industry in Great Britain. In fact, it's a shame this was almost the last film he directed before going on to a kind of exile in Australia.

"Peeping Tom" is an exercise in voyeurism Mr. Powell, and his screen writer, Leo Marks, created to prove to what extent how one is capable of watching things one shouldn't watch. At the same time, Mr. Powell created a psychological essay about what makes Mark Lewis, the central character of the film, act the way he acted. Mark has been scarred for life thanks to what his own father did to him during a period of his growing years that formed his character into the reclusive man who feels at home doing the despicable crimes he commits.

One of the strengths of the film is the amazing portrayal of Mark Lewis by the German actor, Carl Boehm, who made a superb contribution to the movie. Mr. Boehm is perfect because by just looking at him, one would never guess what's inside his soul, or what motivates him to kill and record his crimes.

Mr. Powell brought together an amazing cast that shines in the film. Moira Shearer, Anna Massey, Maxime Audley, Brenda Bruce, Bartlett Mullins, are among the most prominent players one sees in the film.

The newly restored copy we saw as part of the retrospective shown at the Walter Reade this year has been enhanced in ways one didn't think would be possible and it's a tribute to the great director, who should have been proud of how today's audiences are reacting when they discover his movies that seem will live forever.

It's ironic that Mr. Powell didn't get the recognition he deserved during his lifetime.

Peeping Tom is a philosophical movie that investigates the nature of perception, rather than an edge-of-the seat thriller. The phrase "snuff films" hadn't even been invented in 1960, nor did videotape cameras exist, so the movie was far in advance of its time. You might be disappointed if you looking for pure excitement, you have to be willing to examine deeper issues.

Carl Bohm is perfect in the role of the killer, and his faint German accent (which might be interpreted as a. psychogenic speech defect) adds to the creepiness of his character. Instead of an over-the-top maniac (Jack Nicholson, are you listening?), he portrays a frightened and insecure little person who can only relate to the world by looking at it, preferably through a camera lens. It is easy to condemn him for his obsession with peeping, but -um- aren't we doing the same thing by watching this movie, or any movie? The most interesting movies are those that provoke such questions in us. This aspect also helps explain why Peeping Tom was so fiercely condemned in 1960.

(The scenes between Bohm and Massey remind me of those between Gustav Diesel and Louise Brooks in the last part of Pandora's Box (1928), and you can bet the Michael Powell was familiar with Pabst's work.)

The idea that scrutiny = punishment was explored by Michel Foucault in his book Surveiller et Punir, which I happened to read a long time ago. We will be finding out more about this as the "National Security State" draws closer. Anyway, here you have a powerless little guy who tries to feel the same sense of control by turning his camera - literally - into a murder-weapon. The technical details of this contrivance seem unrealistic, but the symbolism is so powerful they scarcely matter.

The hard-edged sound of late-50s cool jazz works very nicely in setting the atmosphere, similar to Town Without Pity (1960). Nowadays we tend to think of that era as idyllic, so its useful to remind ourselves of the dark edges that existed.

An effectively off-beat serial killer film from Michael Powell, the visionary director that gave us "Black Narcissus" (one of my favorites of all time) and "The Red Shoes." As with those films, he chooses to shoot everything in vibrant color, enhancing the luridness of this lurid story.

Carl Boehm plays the disturbed young man who enjoys filming women as he kills them and then watching the films later. He and Norman Bates, the momma's boy serial killer from "Psycho," released the same year, could write a manual on sexually motivated ritual killings. In both films, the psychology is laughably obvious and heavy-handed, though it probably seemed shocking to audiences at the time who weren't used to such frank discussions of the unsavory aspects of the human id. But the film is certainly accomplished, and reminded me somewhat of the films of Dario Argento, without the gore.

Moira Shearer puts in a brief appearance as one of the victims, and even gets an inexplicable dance number to perform. While the number doesn't make a lot of sense in context of the film, she certainly looks lovely doing it. Too bad she ends up in a trunk.

Grade: A-

I'll admit it: I was completely stumped; for almost all of the running time I had no idea where Michael Powell was going with this one. (Not that there are any twists in the plot - my uncertainty was of a different kind.) I think this made me all the more delighted when I at last found out.

Although it was made without co-archer Emeric Pressburger, we see the old Archers' logo at the start; except that this time it's overlaid with `A Michael Powell Production' - in tiny letters. This gave me a pang of sadness. `Peeping Tom' all but completely destroyed Powell's career; and however much and for whatever reasons critics and audiences may have loathed the film, this simply ought not have happened - especially since, good or bad, it's manifestly the work of a director at the height of his powers. The photography is wonderfully assured, the colours are as bright and stark and controlled and fantastic as ever, the script is clever and trusts to our intelligence, and Powell still knows how to keep our minds glued to the screen even when our eyes tell us that nothing much is happening. Every scene is unsettling. Most are creepy.

I could go on about the technical details - the use of sound and music is amazingly innovative, too - but what really elevates `Peeping Tom', what makes so many of the contemporary criticisms absurd, is its compassion. There's none of that watered-down Freudian guff we encounter in `Psycho'. Powell makes us feel for his serial killer - not so much by showing us that he feels pain but by showing us that he has ordinary, likeable human qualities as well as madness. A number of Powell's war-time said the same thing about Nazis. It's clear that he really meant it.

Not that this is an overt message of `Peeping Tom', and not that there aren't a lot of other things going on as well. I not only recommend, I BEG, that any admirer of Powell's earlier work give this one a try as well. Since Powell is striking out in a new direction there's an excellent chance you won't like it; but it deserves to be tried.

A shocking , unnerving and controversial film at the time , that caused real controversy , being no apt for the easily nauseated or sickened ; in fact it was extremely panned by critics . It deals with a psychopath called Mark Lewis , Karlheinz Bhom , who lures women before his film camera , then he records their feared faces . Meanwhile , two police inspectors , Jack Watson and Nígel Davenport , are investigating the weird events .

Disturbing subject matter about a psychopatic cameraman who uses his camera to record women's agonies , it is rendered breathtakingly by a great director , the British Michael Powell who performs briefly the part of Mark's abusive daddy , as he is shown on home movies harassing and tormenting the little boy ; furthermore , including a brilliant cinematography by Otto Heller. This is a splendid , thrilling , and gripping as well as adult entertainment, no recommended for nervous or squeamish . A classy of its kind but ultimately not for everyone . Powell is usually associated to great and colorful films , but here he made one of the most terrifying and frightening contributions to the cinema of the macabre since WWII. The killings themselves are horrifyingly tense , causing panic and fear . Karl Bohm gives a nice acting as the ruthless psychopath young photographing his terrified victims at his hand , he couldn't be bettered as the horrible and cruel psycho. Support cast is frankly excellent, such as : Anna Massey, Maxine Audley as her mother , Moira Shearer , Shirley Anne Field , Keith Baxter , Michael Goodliffe , Brenda Bruce , Esmond Knight , Miles Malleson , Martin Miller , Nigel Davenport, Jack Watson, among others.

The motion picture was originally made by Michael Powell , but it was so vilified by reviewers and officials alike , that he didn't work in Great Britain for a very long time. As the original uncut version was not realised until 1970 . Michael started working at various jobs in the English studios of Denham and Pinewood on a series of quota quickies . Later on , he made all kinds of genres with penchant for Dramas , Musical and WWII films . As he directed : The tales of Hoffman , The red shoes , The elusive Pimpernel , Pursuit of Graf Spee , The small black room , Black narcisus , Contraband , The thief of Bagdad , Edge of the world , I know where I am going , Night ambush , The lion has wings , Spy in black , The forty-ninth parallel , One of our aircrafts is missing, Life and death of Colonel Blimp , Canterbury tale . Many of them are considered masterpieces, and being produced under banner his production company : The Archers , along with Emeric Pressburger . Powell was rediscovered in the late 1960s and early 70s by Martín Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola . In fact , Powell worked as Senior in Coppola's Zoetrope Studios and he married Scorsese's longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker. He died of cancer in 1990.

I've watched Michael Powell['s PEEPING TOM a couple of times on TV but I've yet to give my Criterion DVD a spin. Certainly one of the most original, challenging and bleakest films ever made and to have come from a British film-maker, albeit an iconoclastic one, makes the achievement all the more remarkable. While I do think that comparisons to its contemporary PSYCHO (1960) are a bit tenuous, it has to be said that both films can be thought of as belonging to the horror genre – in fact, PEEPING TOM was the third British "slasher" movie in a row, following HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM (1959) and CIRCUS OF HORRORS (1960) - but can also lay claim to being a very dark sort of black comedy. Besides, both films feature dysfunctional, immature, adult male protagonists haunted by a terrible upbringing which vents itself in a series of murders. Furthermore, while both films have been harshly reviled by critics when first released, in time, they have had their reputations make a complete about face and nowadays are numbered among their respective directors' unassailable masterpieces!

Yes, Pepping Tom has a fascinating plot and yes, some of the images are haunting. Anna Massey is very, very good in her part as a kind and intelligent young woman who likes the extremely-flawed hero. And certainly the movie is nowhere near as bad as the British critics made it out to be. But...Carl Boehm looks, but doesn't act, the part. As little as he speaks, his strong German accent is still apparent, and mystifying in a character who has supposedly been born of British parents and spent the whole of his life in London. This wouldn't matter so much if Boehm were a better actor, if he inhabited the role and made Mark Lewis a real person. (Veteran Miles Malleson puts more oomph into his bit part as a dirty old man, and he's only on the screen for about three minutes). The inclusion of Moira Shearer was, surely, just a favor between old friends--she is too old, too glamorous, too star-like for her very small part. What was the significance of the disfigured woman earlier in the movie? It's a fascinating minute or so, but the idea of how Mark sees imperfection is not picked up again. (If he's that fascinated, surely the heroine's mother, with her ruined eyes, would be more interesting to him?). Better casting and, I think, more money overall would have achieved a better movie--a real masterpiece, where this movie is just the germ of one.

After having heard and read about this movie for years, I finally got the chance to see it on TCM this weekend, during the month-long Michael Powell tribute. I was really looking forward to seeing it, but I have to say that I was a little disappointed. Compared to "Black Narcissus" and "The Red Shoes" - both amazing films - "Peeping Tom" seemed a big step down. I was left with the impression that the critics were probably right, in that it was not a very good movie. Had it been better paced and better written, it might have made a much better impression on critics at the time, but as it is, it just sort of came across as a rather dull and poorly done version of the sort of thing that British television specialized in at the time (The Saint, The Avengers, Thriller, etc.), only more lurid. Carl Boehm was miscast, and the scene with Moira Shearer seemed to go on for far too long, and its only purpose seemed to be to show off her dancing. I would have preferred having her play a larger role. The detective element of the film was weak at best. The notion of Mark Lewis moonlighting as a porn photographer was interesting, and I would have liked to have seen that explored a little more. It just seemed like the film was made up of a whole bunch of loose ends that were never tied up. The brightest spot was the casting of Anna Massey as Lewis' girlfriend. She brought an honesty to the role, and her plain looks brought a certain beauty to the part that a more traditionally glamorous actress might have spoiled.

Overall, not a bad movie but not a great one either, and Michael Powell didn't deserve to have his career ruined over it.

It's difficult to imagine the effect that this film had on critics and audiences when first shown as in the 90's we have become desensitized by the violence and cruelty of slasher movies.

Yet even today this film is deeply disturbing. The lead character is portrayed in a sympathetic light, thanks to a stunning performance from Carl Boem. He is a victim of a cruel and abusive father, desperate to escape the curse that has been handed down to him. There are some memorable scenes: the home movie showing him and his father (played by Michael Powell and his own son), the shot of the beautiful model turning round and showing her hare lip and the projection of one of the murders to the blind mother, with part of the frame projecting onto the murderer.

This is a deeply unnerving film but brilliantly made. Go see.

"Peeping Tom" is a masterpiece of school-created horror and suspense cinema, the first film in history belonging to the slasher subgenre. The script is smart, it was also controversial for its time touching psychological issues. The cinematographic direction is well done. The performances are tremendous. The cinematography is very colorful, giving the film a great aesthetic atmosphere, which obviously influenced the later giallo subgenre. "Peeping Tom" is a first-rate classic.

'Peeping Tom' (1960): Michael Powell (Director), Leo Marks (Screenplay), Karlheinz Böhm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer & Pamela Green. Rating 8/10

'Peeping Tom' was a controversial film directed by a master of British cinema ('The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, 'One of Our aircraft is Missing, 'Black Narcissus, 'The Red Shoes', etc.). It was ahead of its time in 1960. In our somewhat puritanical age, the same could perhaps be said of today. As for the film, it is easier to say what this film is not. It is not a proto-slasher movie. It is not principally a movie about a serial killer. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the sexual dimension is arguably secondary.

The story focuses on Karlheinz Böhm's character Mark Lewis. Ultimately a killer, Mark was traumatised by his father, who monitored him intensively throughout his youth (including on film) for 'scientific purposes', e.g. Mark's reaction at his mother's deathbed was captured on film. The voyeuristic theme of the movie is thus introduced. Capturing fear and distress on tape/film seems to have been particularly important to Mark's father. The father, young son and dead mother in these old films were played, rather significantly, by the director and his own wife & son (Columba). As for the cinematography, apart from the costumes, we are presented with a lush almost 'Hammer Horror-like' backdrop. More interestingly perhaps, the death scene with Moira Shearer is remiscent of Antonioni's later 'Blow Up' (the famous photo shoot - David Hemmings & Vanessa Redgrave). Moira Shearer's performance, her third for Powell, is quite remarkable.

It is suggested that part of the critical outrage on the film's release was due to the sympathetic portrayal of the protagonist. Indeed, we can empathise with Mark - or at least recognise that he, too, is a victim. To understand all is to forgive all. Hitchcock was apparently so concerned by the reception of 'Peeping Tom' that he consequently released his contemporary work 'Psycho' without a press viewing.

It is a matter of cinematic lore that this film destroyed Powell's career. Whether this is true or not - as his 'next' film was not highly regarded ('The Queen's Guards') & he had perhaps unrelated funding difficulties, the work was at least recognised as a significant film during his own lifetime. It must also be remembered that Powell later directed the excellent 'Age of Consent' with James Mason and Helen Mirren (1969).

So, what is the film really about? Whilst I recognise that many an academic paper could be written on this work, (in my view) the film is about the nature of cinema. In particular, the role and motivations of the director and 'his' audience. Whilst the writer (Marks) suggested a strong sexual motivation for Mark, this is largely only hinted at in the movie. The first clear indication in the movie that his motivation was sexual was when Helen kissed him (I stand to be corrected here). He does not react until she leaves, when his erotic response was directed towards his ever-present camera, or perhaps more so towards what his camera represented. Mark considers himself to be a scoptophiliac and even tries to identify a possible therapy. He is a man obsessed, a victim of his compulsions and disturbed youth. However, he desperately fights to overcome these in the case of the 'final girl', Helen (Anna Massey) - for whom he feels genuine affection.

Pamela Green (Milly) is said to have reported, perhaps rather disturbingly, that Powell had his two young sons witness the filming of her 'nude' scene in the studio (not in the UK print). This reinforces the voyeuristic theme, the director as voyeur. Powell is watching his film being filmed, in which a film is shown portraying Powell and his family (as actors), who are the family of our primary voyeur Mark. He, in turn, films others in order to catch the ultimate height of emotion (fear) in his 'victims'/'actresses' faces, as the director himself Powell might do - and as we will ultimately witness ourselves on the big screen. One thing is clear, the principle voyeurs here are Powell and the audience. Perhaps this is what made and still makes the film so disturbing. It is certainly no 'slasher'. If anything, the film challenges the motivations of those drawn, like Mark, to filmed graphic and horrific scenes - scenes which are are largely absent from 'Peeping Tom'. Apart from the denouement, the horrors are largely suggested, rather than shown.

Thoroughly recommended. A compelling and thought-provoking film from a master of British film.

Mark Twitchett 07/20

In London, the lonely photographer Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) works in a film studio and moonlights supplying cheesecake photos to a magazine store. He lives in the huge house that he had inherited from his parents that is rented to tenants to help him pay the bills and keep the building. Mark was the subject of bizarre experiments of effects of the fear conducted by his scientist father since he was a child and he has become a disturbed man obsessed by the face of frightened women in the moment of death. He kills women filming their faces while he stabs them in the throat.

When Mark meets his neighbor and tenant Helen Stephens (Anna Massey) on the day of her birthday, he befriends her and sooner he dates the young woman. Mark has a crush on Helen and does not want to film her. But Mark is one of the suspects and a detective is tracking down Mark.

"Peeping Tom" is a good film with an unusual serial-killer, since Mark Lewis is an educated and likable character and also a victim of the experiments of his cruel and abusive father. His character creates a great empathy with the viewers and despite being a murderer, he is charismatic. I believe that the feelings of Helen for him are shared by most of the viewers. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Tortura do Medo" ("The Torture of the Fear")

Michael Powell will always be considered one of the great film directors of all time. Peeping Tom is without doubt his darkest and most troubling. Serial killers in the 50's and prior lived in the shadows, were uneducated and born to fallen women, or so the movies would show. Here is a killer who has wealth, high intelligence, is likeable and perhaps has a reason for his demons, not the thing you showed on the big screen in the 50's. An easy watch now compared to 60 years ago, but still troubling. This movie changed things. Martin Scorsese considers this one of his favourite movies and who am I to disagree with a genius.

I can recall being genuinely scared when I first saw this film in the early 1970s. Young women are being found murdered. What makes their crimes especially heinous is the look of sheer terror found on their faces - and that is what is further perplexing the pursing Scotland Yard detective "Gregg" (Jack Watson). Meantime, actress "Vivian" (Moira Shearer) is filming her new movie and on the set is the camera-obsessed "Mark" (Karlheinz Böhm) who rents out the bottom part of his sprawling house to a group of youngsters. Usually keeping himself to himself, he is befriended by "Helen" (Anna Massey) and soon a relationship, of sorts, develops as she takes an interest in both him and his films. When tragedy occurs at the studio, the police investigation initially includes the sound stage crew, and gradually the plot unfolds in a dark and menacing fashion. Böhm and Massey are great here and under Michael Powell and Otto Heller's creative direction and photography, deliver us an intimate and well paced story that takes it's time, but does so in a cumulatively effective fashion. The dialogue is disarmingly potent too - there is something almost childlike about "Mark" and almost maternal about "Massey", illustrative of the underlying psychology of the story. On a dark night with the rain battering against the window, this is about as good as cinema gets.

I'm remiss to say that last week was the first time I'd ever seen Peeping Tom. As a horror fan, I'd heard about it incessantly throughout the years, but the opportunity to see it never came up. I finally sought it out and I'm not sure if the hype ruined it for me or what, but I found the whole thing a bit underwhelming.

Putting Peeping Tom into the context of the time in which it was made, it's easy to see why it was so controversial. Unlike Psycho, it was shot in color which makes everything more realistic and lurid with the bright red blood really popping off the screen and Peeping Tom even has the added bonus of some light nudity here and there, which I'm sure is what really got it in trouble with the censors.

The film is about your typical, semi-handsome loner who is the landlord for his childhood home which has been converted into apartments. He stays upstairs, watching his home movies that he shoots of him killing random women, focusing on their horrified faces at the moment of impact. Things take a turn when he starts to fall for a young boarder, but will her blind mother cause them some problems?

The main issue I had with Peeping Tom is that the lead character isn't terribly interesting. He's not a charismatic psycho like, say, Norman Bates. I'm not sure if it was the writing or the acting, but it kept me from getting too invested in his plight. Since he's rarely off screen, this was a bit of an issue for me.

It's also a bit on the slower side, pacing wise, and I found myself drifting in and out. It's still worth seeing and the cinematography is outstanding.

This was a movie that I heard about through podcasts and the idea that was a proto-slasher that came out the same year as Psycho intrigued me. If you've seen Scream 4, they give this movie the nod as the first slasher film and I will admit, it does have more elements for sure. This one is from the United Kingdom. I decided to finally give it a viewing as part of the Journey Through the Aughts segment over on Journey with a Cinephile: A Horror Movie Podcast. The synopsis here is a young man murders women, using a movie camera to film their dying expressions.

We start this off with a bull's eye with arrows being shot into it. It then shifts over to point of view with someone coming up to a prostitute on the street. There's an agreement to go up and she starts to undress. What is interesting here is that we're seeing this through a camera lens that has the crosshairs as well. The woman starts to scream as she is attacked.

The man who is doing the filming is Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Böhm). He keeps to himself and lives in an apartment building with a few others. His downstairs neighbors are the Stephens. Helen (Anna Massey) is having a birthday party when Mark looks in through the window. I found this interesting as he legit being a peeping tom here. He goes up to his room when Helen follows him up.

He is intrigued that she wants to learn more about him. He's quite shy and doesn't really know how to respond. For a birthday gift, she wants him to show a movie he has made. Before she came up, he was watching what he just filmed with the prostitute. He almost puts that back on, but instead shows her a movie his father made. He was a doctor that was researching fear in children. What he shows her is pretty disturbing psychologically, but is an interesting way to introduce us, the audience, to a bit of his back-story.

Mark turns out to be the person who owns his building. It belonged to his father and he rents out the rooms to pay for it. He also takes pictures of scantily clad women as a side job. He does this above a store that sells them. It is here we get to meet Milly (Pamela Green), who is brash, as well as Lorraine (Susan Travers). She is disfigured and this intrigues Mark as he can feel her pain through it.

His other job is on a movie set. It is there that he's taken a liking to Vivian (Moira Shearer), the stand in for the actress in the movie that they're working on. The main actress is Pauline Shields (Shirley Anne Field) and she's not as good as she thinks at her profession. Vivian has dreams of making it big and stays late with Mark, since he's making a movie of his own. It isn't a part that she wants though.

Now that's where I want to leave my recap of this movie and shift over to my analysis. What is interesting about this movie is the character of Mark as well as the title to the film. There's a lot of voyeurism, as you should probably expect. Mark takes pictures of scantily clad women that men ogle over. He also works on a movie set, which if you think about, is us watching a slice of events or someone's life. Mark peeps in the window at Helen's party and this seems to be something that he has done in the past as well. He is also capturing the moment of death with the women that he is killing. His weapon isn't the greatest, but it works better with the full reveal at the end.

It makes a lot of sense though through the back-story we're given by the home movies. Mark's father would record much of his life for research purposes and this includes the wake for his mother along with the burial. On top of this, he would wake his son up in the middle of the night with a bright light at the end of the camera and do things to scare him. The light that shines on his victims makes sense and I wonder if he's using the same camera to capture his victims that was his father's. The duality to Psycho is fitting, just sub in the father and Mark having that 'boy next door' look.

That's not where it ends. Helen is intrigued by Mark and I think part of this is that he's making it a challenge for her. She ends up deciding to write a children's book with Mark as the inspiration. It will capture people with a magic camera. Then going farther, her mother (Maxine Audley) is also blind. She is a shrewd judge of character and in this situation, she's right. I think that's about it with these aspects to the movie.

Next I want to go to the acting. Böhm does really well at playing the lead here. Much like Anthony Perkins, he has that charm about him that is disarming. The time this movie came out, we wouldn't expect a person like this to be a killer like they are. This isn't a spoiler as we learn this extremely early on by the way. Massey is solid as the person that is trying to help Mark and we see flashes that maybe she can. I really like the performance of Audley. She is bitter with the world for losing her sight and is a tough judge of character. Seeing her showdown with Mark was one of the better parts to the movie for me. The rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed as well.

The last thing that I really want to go over would be the effects. I've already said my piece with the weapon that is used in this movie. Again though, I am forgiving when seeing the full set up to everything and then it makes it a bit more interesting. Seeing that Mark was scarred by what his father did to him and the lasting effects that it caused with the needing to film is intriguing for me. We don't really see a lot of blood and it really isn't a movie like that. There is some really good cinematography though, I will give credit there.

Now with that said, I'm glad that I finally got around to seeing this movie. It is really interesting to come out the same year that Psycho did as there are some parallels to the two stories for sure. I really like the concepts explored here with the variations of voyeurism and the 'scientific' look at fear. The acting from the three stars in my eyes is good and really help to drive this, especially from Böhm. There's not a lot in the way of effects, but it doesn't need them. The soundtrack didn't really stand out aside from we get interesting use of screams with things that get revealed. I don't love this movie, but I found it to be good. I will warn you that this is from the United Kingdom and the year 1960. If that is an issue, I'd avoid this. If not though, we get an interesting film that can be paired with Psycho.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10

It's hard to see why the Brits were so shocked over this that it ruined the career of its filmmakers in the 1960s at a time when cheaper, more violent exploitation films were overflowing the market.

Nor is the comparison to PSYCHO a valid one. Hitchcock filled his story with intentional humor so that it became not just a horror film but a black comedy as well with psychological overtones. PEEPING TOM plays it straight all the way through, effectively showing how a tormented childhood turned an innocent boy into a killer who wants to see the fear on his victim's faces.

I watched it with interest but with a certain detachment, never becoming completely involved in the story. For one thing, some of the incidents don't ring true at all. The girl who tries to befriend the anti-hero (Anna Massey) seems clueless to the fact that his stuttering creepiness might be masking a very troubled individual. Her casual attitude toward him becomes unconvincing after he continues to exhibit his odd behavior in various social situations. With credibility lost, the picture is merely an exercise in watching someone self-destruct because of his tormented past.

The acting leaves something to be desired. Carl Boehm with his slight German accent tends to overact when more subtle restraint would have made his role more credible. A more attractive female co-star would have helped (someone like Hitch used in PSYCHO--Janet Leigh), but Anna Massey is a drab, chinless looking little creature with her sad eyes and pursed lips. And the woman who might have made a more attractive co-star, Moira Shearer, is given short shrift with an underwritten role and a brief appearance as a wannabe dancer/actress, although she gets star billing.

Still, as a study of a troubled man, PEEPING TOM does have its compensations--excellent color photography and interesting use of a jazz music background. But none of adds up to a thriller in the same class as PSYCHO. It never fulfills its high potential.