Cast:
Karlheinz Böhm (Mark Lewis; Columba Powell as young Mark Lewis), Moira Shearer (Vivian), Anna Massey (Helen Stephens), Maxine Audley (Mrs. Stephens), Brenda Bruce (Dora), Miles Malleson (elderly gentleman customer), Esmond Knight (Arthur Baden), Martin Miller (Dr. Rosan), Michael Goodliffe (Don Jarvis), Jack Watson (Chief Insp. Gregg), Shirley Anne Field (Pauline Shields), and Pamela Green (Milly, the model) Produced and Directed by Michael Powell (#400 - The Thief of Bagdad, #1367 - A Matter of Life and Death, #2062 - A Canterbury Tale)
Review:
"I make a film that nobody wants to see and then, thirty years later, everybody has either seen it or wants to see it."
It's easy to say the critics of a certain time were just stupid with some films, particularly in horror. This is especially strange to think about when you have 1960 to look at with prominent directors dipping their toes in horror. You might remember Powell as part of the duo The Archers, where he wrote, produced, and directed a handful of classic British films together with Emeric Pressburger before he struck out on his own after they split in 1957. The movie was written by Leo Marks, who actually had served at the Special Operations Executive in World War II for cryptography (having enjoyed Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold-Bug" at a young age along with breaking his father's price code for books) before becoming a writer in plays and films, with this being his most noted. The screenplay apparently came from his perception that all cryptographers are "basically voyeurs". You might see a few similarities with this and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: both involve mild-mannered leads with parent problems that we follow for the film, both could be claimed as "the early slasher", and both have an interesting way of basically making one be the voyeur themselves (interestingly, the poster for this film in saying to "See it from the beginning" matches loosely with the demand of no late admission for Psycho). But Peeping Tom, released a few months before the other film...and critics treated it like it murdered their parents. Seriously, what kind of movie is controversial enough to have one guy wish they would "shovel it up and flush it swiftly down the nearest sewer"? Even a subsequent 1979 release campaign spearheaded by Corinth Films that saw money provided by Martin Scorsese (an admirer of the film back then) saw a critic call it among the "limper suspense movies". Powell directed just four theatrical films after the failure of this film, but he at least saw the vindication of the film play out before his death in 1990 at the age of 84.
Yes, you do get your killer movie involving the camera capturing death (four in total, which come from a blade located in the tripod), but one obviously looks further when it comes to the deeper elements that come with knowing who the killer right from the get-go. Sure, you don't actually see that much violence beyond the realm of seeing people show fear for what is being shown in front of them, but I'll stake the idea that this is still a pretty unnerving horror film at any rate (others may disagree, but whatever). It has a compelling lead performance precisely because of the manner it goes to actually let one wonder just what could compel someone to be so absorbed in their pho-I mean, their camera, to see the world. I think we can find people with an obsession that seems more useful to them than being outgoing now, if you catch my idea. Hell, Powell cast himself not as the director in the film that our lead character works for, he cast himself as the little-heard but important father of the lead, one who made him a guinea pig for experiments about fear (complete with having his own son play the young kid captured in fear). Consider the way he handles a woman with a cleft palate in photographing (which he does on the side in the seedy places), where he remarks of it as a "first time". Böhm (a regular actor since the late 1940s) was apparently cast by Powell because as the son of famed Austrian composer Karl Böhm, he figured he would understand the role well when it comes to being in the shadow of one's father. Suffice to say, he sure pulled off a worthwhile performance here, inspiring curiosity over this stunted creature, one that we wonder about because of his fetish to stare isn't exactly that much different from our desire to see horror play out on camera. Powell clearly saw himself in this character, and Böhm clearly took it to heart for a sincerely sad triumph. Massey (as opposed to Shearer, who gets offed pretty quickly) actually matches well with Böhm in considerable curiosity because of her attempts at understanding such a strange creature come off convincingly to us, because her interest matches right in with our interest more than just being an ordinary last one out type. With a carefully constricted level of curiosity (101 minutes), there is plenty to recommend for a viewer to watch in the grand display of chilling patience and probing curiosity in obsession and where it could all lead to when left to one's devices. depending on where you define it in the realms of horror, it is a worth a watch at some time in someone's horror curiosities.
Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.
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