Distributor: Universal
Entertainment Certificate: MA15+ |
90 minutes
Writer: Leo Marks | Director: Michael Powell
Cast: Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey, Maxine Audley,
Brenda Bruce, Pamela Green, Shirley Ann Field, Miles Malleson Extras: No
Peeping Tom released in 1959 is often looked at as classic
film-maker Michael Powell’s
journey into darkness.
Filmed in garish colour Peeping Tom tells the seedy tale of
a young film cameraman and
part-time nudie photographer
(Carl Boehm) who is drawn into
murdering women in order to film
the fear on their faces. Pamela
Green who appears very scantily
clad in these scenes was a real
life nude model.
Full of disturbing imagery, especially the scenes of Mark
intently watching the crime scene footage of the first murder the movie
also contains some great footage of the inner workings of a small scale
studio.
Actually pretty much on the edge of what was acceptable in
mainstream cinema of the day Peeping Tom shares a theme similar to
Hitchcock’s Psycho that of the child having their lives altered by a
domineering parent it also pretty much killed off Powell’s career in
the UK although he did later move to Australia and make a couple of
classics in the form of They’re A Weird Mob and Age of Consent.
Incidentally look closely and in one scene there is a blink
and you’ll miss it appearance by Cornelia Frances (she is actually
English born and Powell’s neice).
