Rating: 
Summary: Peeping Tom: A Lost Classic
Review: Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM was tragically scorned by critics & movie-goers when it was originally released in 1960. This movie came out before Alfred Hitchcock's classic movie PSYCHO yet it did not recieve the acclaim that PSYCHO had. PEEPING TOM is an undiscovered gem that deserves its place among cinema's most outstanding achievements. It's a story of a young camera man who films the reactions of women as he is about to kill them. That way he can achieve s sense of sick, perverted sexual frenzy filming women as they die. Then he meets a girl who falls in love with him. He falls in love with her too, but will she fall into the same fate that has struck all the other women that have crossed his path? Intense, erotic, & suspenseful, PEEPING TOM is truly a gem of a movie. It must be seen & savored by horror & suspense fans & by students of the film genre everywhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Pioneering psychological horror is still effective
Review: Written by Leo Parks, PEEPING TOM remains director Michael Powell's most famous (or infamous, for that matter) film, which was overshadowed at its time of release by Hitchcock's PSYCHO and reviled by critics for being too sensational.
German actor Carl Boehm plays Mark, the psychopathic "Peeping Tom" of the title. Mark is a video photography buff who films his victims in their death throes because he likes seeing the fear in their eyes (The sad result of a traumatic childhood experience in which his scientist father would drop a lizard on him and film his fear as part of his experiments. Nice guy. Director Powell plays his father in the flashback sequence). But then a funny thing happens to Mark: he falls in love with Helen (Moira Shearer)one of his models/intended victims; and tries to keep the object of his affection from making him film her, because Mark automatically equates film and photography with pain and death. (His camera tripod has an extendable blade which he plunges into the throats of his victims).
Boehm gives a performance which is simultaneously naive and frightening.
Years ahead of its time, PEEPING TOM remains one of the most chilling British films ever lensed. While rather tame by today's standards its cult status is assured and there's no denying the influence it had on later films like REPULSION, FADE TO BLACK and HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. This pioneering movie is still of interest to horror fans and movie buffs. Will make you think twice before having your next family photo taken.
Rating: 
Summary: Subversive at the time, mild today
Review: When British director Michael Powell and screenwriter Leo Marks collaborated on the 1960 film "Peeping Tom," the two really thought they had something special. The movie about a mentally unstable young man caught in the clutches of his father's psychological experiments horrified audiences and critics alike. Obscene, depraved, wildly inappropriate--these were only a few of the milder labels attached to the film. The movie played less than a week in cinema houses throughout Britain before disappearing. Powell, come to find out, was so devastated by the response to his movie that he promptly left England for Australia, never to return. In our crazy modern world, what people thought horribly twisted yesterday has an allure beyond reckoning for today's cranks. Thus, "Peeping Tom" has now become a movie lionized by modern filmmakers, students of film history, and critics. The Criterion Collection's release of the movie goes so far as to call Powell's film a "British 'Psycho.'" Well, I wouldn't go that far, but the movie is intriguing considering the date of its release (1960) and the subject matter it fearlessly tackles.Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) spends his days working the cameras at a film studio and his nights moonlighting as pin-up photographer and documentarian. He always carries a camera wherever he goes, photographing seemingly mundane objects as buildings and people. Lewis seems like a harmless sort of chap, but the dark secrets swirling in his mind would give the stoutest soul pause. He is a Peeping Tom, always gazing into windows or using his camera to spy on the intimate details of other people's lives. His illness seems to come from his childhood, when his famous psychologist father used Mark as a test subject in his work on human fears. Father would set up a camera in different rooms of the house, along with a tape recorder, and proceed to torment his son in various ways in order to monitor the boy's reaction. At some point in the proceedings, young Mark equated women with his terror fits, and as a full grown man he has decided to conduct his own amateur experiments. With camera and tripod firmly in tow, Lewis tricks women into situations where he can murder them and record their fear on celluloid. His first victim is a woman of the night, the next a would be actress at the studio. Mark initially gets away with his crimes because he blends easily into the background. He's polite to a fault, quiet in manner and movement, and solitary. He spends most of his time in the huge dark room at his house, endlessly replaying his sordid film footage and anguishing over his painful childhood. Enter Helen Stephens (Anna Massey), an aspiring author and tenant in Lewis's house. Young Stephens notices Mark when she sees him staring into her apartment during her birthday party. Intrigued, Helen follows Lewis up to his apartment, discovers he owns the house and acts as its landlord, and witnesses some of his bizarre behavior. Despite the uneasiness of their first meeting, Mark and Helen become fast friends. In fact, Lewis takes such a shine to Helen that the mere idea of "photographing" her--code for committing another murder--shocks him to the very marrow of his being. Helen really likes this man even though her blind, alcoholic mother despises young Lewis because she has an intuition that he is up to no good. Things begin to turn south for Mark when the police launch an investigation into the murders, Helen's mother confronts him about his activities, and he learns that his little problem will take years of therapy to overcome. Lewis loses his cool as the authorities close in but discovers a peace of sorts during the film's conclusion. Modern audiences will scratch their heads as they try to figure out why "Peeping Tom" was so controversial when it first came out. I think the primary reason this movie shocked British moviegoers and critics concerns how the movie presents such an appalling criminal as a figure worthy of sympathy and outright pity. No one wants to feel for a murderer of young women, but Powell's movie often gives Boehm's character endearing traits. When Helen comes to Mark requesting his aid with the photographs in her soon to be published book, Lewis visibly enthuses that anyone would honor him with such a request. The guy is genuinely happy about Helen's success, and further confounds audience perceptions by buying her a very nice brooch for her birthday. He gives her this gift not as a means for tricking her into a situation where he can victimize her, but because he likes her, respects her, and wants her to be happy. There are a few other reasons why "Peeping Tom" scandalized the British film industry, probably reasons best left unelaborated on here, but the film's refusal to judge Mark Lewis's behavior is probably the biggest reason for the insults heaped on this picture. I liked the film even though it is a relatively bloodless affair. Carl Boehm's performance as the tortured Mark Lewis provides the primary impetus for viewing this film. He captures perfectly the concept of a scared, tormented little boy wrapped in a man's body. Hats off to Criterion as well; they did a grand job with the widescreen picture transfer and the heap of extras included on the disc. There's a stills gallery, a trailer for the film, a lengthy documentary about screenwriter Leo Marks, and a commentary by one of those hoity-toity film historians. Don't go into this movie looking for a gory thriller. What you will find is a colorful, quiet movie about a very disturbed young man looking for a way out of his personal darkness.
Rating:
Summary: Classic and original psychological "slasher" film
Review: "Well, he won't be doing the crossword tonight!" "Do you know what the most frightening thing in the world is ...?" This is somewhat of a landmark film in that it was well made and truly disturbing. Those two things had not really made it to films together before this gem came along. But unfortunately for the director Michael Powell, it also brought about the end of his career as a director. Make a scary movie that is effective and realistic? The nerve! Lets blacklist him and make sure he never does it again! It did however pave the way for fellow director Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho which came out a few months later. Without Peeping Tom to have blazed the trail the same fate to some degree may have befallen Hitchcock. The story is about a reclusive man, Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Böhm), who works as a cameraman for a movie studio during the day, and by night films things with his hand held movie camera. What his tastes for filming have turned to lately have been the looks on women's faces as they are being murdered. A woman in the building he lives in, Vivian (Moira Shearer), takes a fancy to him and starts getting him to go out occasionaly. They hit it off but Vivians mother, a blind woman who is so good at using her other senses that she can tell who is standing outside their window, has her doubts about Vivians new love interest. In one incredible scene there is a confrontation between her and Mark that is terrifying to watch. It almost has the feel of a who-dunnit except that we know exactly who-dunnit from the start. The detectives in the movie are putting together the clues that take them closer to Mark and and the tension that is built around them and between Mark and Vivian and her mother becomes intense as the movie progresses. The ending, although less shocking 40 years after the movie was released, still left me somewhat drained and empty. A certain amount of sympathy is built up for Mark and there are hopes that he can be redeemed. But I won't tell any more of what happens, you will just have to rent or buy the movie. This is part of the Criterion Collection and horror/drama fans and dvd enthusiasts alike will not be dissapointed. Besides the excellent subject matter there is a full commentary by film theorist Laura Mulvey and a doumentary entitled "A Very British Psycho". There is also a still gallery including behind the scenes shots and a theatrical trailer.
Rating:
Summary: a film ahead of its time
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. This movie directed by Michael Powell, (after severing ties with longtime business partner, Emeric Pressburger) was highly controversial and almost cost him his career. The film was taken from theaters after only a week and was rarely distributed. In the film a young filmmaker interested in feelings of terror, films women while killing them with a blade attached to his camera's tripod. The film captures the sadistic nature of people and shows how things are for them. He meets a young woman who is a tennant in his home. (he lives on the 2nd floor [1st floor in England] and has 2 apartments on the 1st floor. [ground floor in England]) She later becomes interesting in him and his life. The film has great acting and the fright of the victims is very convincing. The DVD has a theatcical trailer as a special feature along with a behind the scenes slideshow, a documentary about the film called "A very british psycho" which aired on TV in England, and an audio essay about the film by Laura Mulvey.
Rating:
Summary: Michael Powell crosses over the line with "Peeping Tom"
Review: "Peeping Tom" is a film whose place in cinematic history cannot help but outweigh the critical value of the film itself. When it was released in Great Britain in 1960 it was universally condemned by the critics and pulled from released the first week, effectively ending the career of director Michael Powell ("I Know Where I'm Going," "Black Narcissus," "The Red Shoes"). "Peeping Tom" is about a young man who not only murders women, but who films them as he kills them. What upset the critics was that Powell used the perspective of the camera to turn the viewing audience into voyeurs as well, and that he made the murderer into a sympathetic figure. Reducing "Peeping Tom" to the level of a slasher film misses the point, because this is much more of a psychological portrait of a troubled young man. Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) works as an assistant cameraman at a film studio and has trouble appreciating the difference between the real world and what he sees through the lens of a camera. Mark has another job, taking "views" of half naked women for the owner of the local news agent shope (Bartlett Mullins) to sell discretely to his customers. But Mark's voyeurism is ultimately not about sex, but rather about fear: provoking it and recording it. As Mark slowly opens up to Helen (Anna Massey), the girl who lives downstairs in his building who shows an interest in his work, we learn that his father was a psychologist who filmed his son in a series of disquieting experiments into the nature of fear. The boy is following in daddy's footsteps. Powell and screenwriter Leo Marks had wanted to do a film about the work of Sigmund Freud, but John Huston was working on "Freud" in Hollywood, so Marks suggest a story about a voyeuristic murderer as an alternative psychological thriller. Ultimately, the psychological dimensions of "Peeping Tom" outweigh the thriller elements and are what make this a noteworthy film. "Peeping Tom" came out before "Psycho," and the comparisons are inevitable, although they seem as much the work of different times as of different directors. Part of it is that Powell is working in technicolor, with rich colors which work against the horror elements in the film. But we also have to take into account that Powell is not dealing with suspense as a key part of the equation and that there is nothing in "Peeping Tom" anywhere near the level of the shower scene in "Psycho." The key scene is the opening sequences, where we see Mark approach a prostitute on the street, his camera becomes the point of view for the audience, and we see the terror on this face of his first victim before she dies. Then, during the opening credits, we see Mark watching the film he has just shot. The film's opening sets up the rules for the game in this film and no doubt outraged the London film credits before the director's name appeared (shown over Mark's projector no less). Add to this the fact that Powell and his son played Mark's father and Mark as a child, and that probably outraged them more than the half naked women lounging around in display positions. Powell's leading man was the son of a noted Austrian conductor and Boehm's slight German accent probably afforded the critics the small confort that this twisted individual was not a proper English lad. Since this is a Criterion Collection DVD the presentation of the film is done right, with a commentary track by film theorist Laura Mulvey who combines criticism of the film with the history of the film, cast, and crew. Serious film students will enjoy her insights and her comprehensive critique of the film as a true commentary on "Peeping Tom," and not the gay banter of actors and crew trying to come up with things to say that are so disappointing on so many commentary tracks. There is a theatrical trailer, whose tenor seems quite at odds with the film itself, a gallery of production stills, and a Channel 4 U.K. documentary "A Very British Psycho," which relates the controversy of the film and interviews screenwriter Leo Marks and the critics who bashed the film on its release in 1962. You cannot help but feel that while it was Michael Powell's directing career that was ended up this film, it was Marks who should have suffered more as the writer is at least as disturbing a personality as his fictional creation in the film.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and all the more memorable for it
Review: Michael Powell is one of the great British film directors, his credits including such diverse fare as The Thief of Baghdad, the Red Shoes and the unforgettable Stairway to Heaven. Peeping tom was his first and only foray into horror.Though this film is often compared to Psycho (Powell worked with Hitchcock in the 20's and 30's before Hitch moved to the States), it is different in several respects. First, the film is told entirely from the point of view of the killer. we don't have the luxury of really getting to know our victims the way Hitch lets us know Marion Crane. Secondly, our killer, Mark Lewis (played quietly by Karl Boehm), seems to regard his being caught by police as inevitable, and is in fact preparing to film his apprehenshion as part of his perverse "fear documentary". Thirdly, Powell filmed his masterpiece in sickeningly vivid color, allowing us no distance between the killer and his acts.The film was critically reviled upon its initial release in 1960. Though sad, it's easy to understand. Powell wanted to include the audience in Mark's disturbing voyeurism, essentially implicating them as well. Since film are essentially a socially acceptable form of voyeurism, it's easy to see why critics, who make their living watching movies, might have been insulted. Since critics are to the arts what pigeons are to statuary, they deserve it.Many people might shrink from this movie due to its disturbing nature and lurid subject matter. Too bad. It's very well made and has something pertinent to say about cinema, human psychology, and the world around us. Many people sometimes think that movies about bad people are bad cinema. The only depressing movies are badly made ones. Peeping Tom is a great movie about a bad person.
Rating:
Summary: A true breakthrough
Review: Micahel Powell made more than a movie, he opened the troubled mind of a disturbed man who suffered in his childhood exreme abuses from his father played this role by Michael Powell.
The use of the camera and the script opened the gate to new world of young directors who still are influenced by this film forty four years after.
This film is a cult movie. Powell reminds us that Peeping Tom are us too, the viewers every time we seat in front of the screen.
Psycho would come after, but this was the pioneer expression of a new genre of horror.
And that's why about his relevant place in the brittish cinema.
Do you need another advise for buying this landmark film?
Carl Boehm made an intimate and credible portrait that this difficult and even complex role demanded.
Rating:
Summary: Subversive at the time, mild today
Review: When British director Michael Powell and screenwriter Leo Marks collaborated on the 1960 film "Peeping Tom," the two really thought they had something special. The movie about a mentally unstable young man caught in the clutches of his father's psychological experiments horrified audiences and critics alike. Obscene, depraved, wildly inappropriate--these were only a few of the milder labels attached to the film. The movie played less than a week in cinema houses throughout Britain before disappearing. Powell, come to find out, was so devastated by the response to his movie that he promptly left England for Australia, never to return. In our crazy modern world, what people thought horribly twisted yesterday has an allure beyond reckoning for today's cranks. Thus, "Peeping Tom" has now become a movie lionized by modern filmmakers, students of film history, and critics. The Criterion Collection's release of the movie goes so far as to call Powell's film a "British 'Psycho.'" Well, I wouldn't go that far, but the movie is intriguing considering the date of its release (1960) and the subject matter it fearlessly tackles. Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) spends his days working the cameras at a film studio and his nights moonlighting as pin-up photographer and documentarian. He always carries a camera wherever he goes, photographing seemingly mundane objects as buildings and people. Lewis seems like a harmless sort of chap, but the dark secrets swirling in his mind would give the stoutest soul pause. He is a Peeping Tom, always gazing into windows or using his camera to spy on the intimate details of other people's lives. His illness seems to come from his childhood, when his famous psychologist father used Mark as a test subject in his work on human fears. Father would set up a camera in different rooms of the house, along with a tape recorder, and proceed to torment his son in various ways in order to monitor the boy's reaction. At some point in the proceedings, young Mark equated women with his terror fits, and as a full grown man he has decided to conduct his own amateur experiments. With camera and tripod firmly in tow, Lewis tricks women into situations where he can murder them and record their fear on celluloid. His first victim is a woman of the night, the next a would be actress at the studio. Mark initially gets away with his crimes because he blends easily into the background. He's polite to a fault, quiet in manner and movement, and solitary. He spends most of his time in the huge dark room at his house, endlessly replaying his sordid film footage and anguishing over his painful childhood. Enter Helen Stephens (Anna Massey), an aspiring author and tenant in Lewis's house. Young Stephens notices Mark when she sees him staring into her apartment during her birthday party. Intrigued, Helen follows Lewis up to his apartment, discovers he owns the house and acts as its landlord, and witnesses some of his bizarre behavior. Despite the uneasiness of their first meeting, Mark and Helen become fast friends. In fact, Lewis takes such a shine to Helen that the mere idea of "photographing" her--code for committing another murder--shocks him to the very marrow of his being. Helen really likes this man even though her blind, alcoholic mother despises young Lewis because she has an intuition that he is up to no good. Things begin to turn south for Mark when the police launch an investigation into the murders, Helen's mother confronts him about his activities, and he learns that his little problem will take years of therapy to overcome. Lewis loses his cool as the authorities close in but discovers a peace of sorts during the film's conclusion. Modern audiences will scratch their heads as they try to figure out why "Peeping Tom" was so controversial when it first came out. I think the primary reason this movie shocked British moviegoers and critics concerns how the movie presents such an appalling criminal as a figure worthy of sympathy and outright pity. No one wants to feel for a murderer of young women, but Powell's movie often gives Boehm's character endearing traits. When Helen comes to Mark requesting his aid with the photographs in her soon to be published book, Lewis visibly enthuses that anyone would honor him with such a request. The guy is genuinely happy about Helen's success, and further confounds audience perceptions by buying her a very nice brooch for her birthday. He gives her this gift not as a means for tricking her into a situation where he can victimize her, but because he likes her, respects her, and wants her to be happy. There are a few other reasons why "Peeping Tom" scandalized the British film industry, probably reasons best left unelaborated on here, but the film's refusal to judge Mark Lewis's behavior is probably the biggest reason for the insults heaped on this picture. I liked the film even though it is a relatively bloodless affair. Carl Boehm's performance as the tortured Mark Lewis provides the primary impetus for viewing this film. He captures perfectly the concept of a scared, tormented little boy wrapped in a man's body. Hats off to Criterion as well; they did a grand job with the widescreen picture transfer and the heap of extras included on the disc. There's a stills gallery, a trailer for the film, a lengthy documentary about screenwriter Leo Marks, and a commentary by one of those hoity-toity film historians. Don't go into this movie looking for a gory thriller. What you will find is a colorful, quiet movie about a very disturbed young man looking for a way out of his personal darkness.
Rating:
Summary: Worth a peek
Review: Humorist Matt Groening once defined one of the characteristics of a "true" film buff as "...someone who has opinions about movies they have never seen." After reading about Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom" for years, but never seeing it on the bill at a revival house, nor on TV, cable or video, I was beginning to wonder if Martin Scorcese was halluncinating when he "saw" it! Well, Marty's sanity is no longer in question with the Criterion Collection's DVD release in hand. "Peeping Tom", which famously opened and closed the same week in Great Britain, proves to be quite a prescient work. Actor Karl Boehm brings a disquieting Peter Lorre vibe to his soft-spoken serial killer Mark, a focus puller by day and "documentary" maker (of sorts) by night. Mark's little "indie film" project concerns a subject he is quite intimate with-a string of unsolved murders, all involving sexually alluring young women. You can detect a bit of "Peeping Tom" influence in 1966's "Blow-Up", 1985's controversial "Henry:Portrait of A Serial Killer", and even as recently as the 2002 Bob Crane biopic "Auto Focus". Criterion does a good job with the transfer (I'm assuming..some of us are deliriously happy just to finally get to SEE, much less own, an existing print of this legendary film, period!), and also features an interesting 1997 BBC documentary about the movie. A must-see for film noir fans and cult movie conisseurs.
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