Peeping Tom (1960)

Peeping Tom (1960)


Plot Summary

In London, lonely photographer Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) works in a film studio and moonlights by taking cheesecake photos for 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 on the effects of 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 soon 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 in the serial killings and a detective is tracking him down.

My first foray into British cinema is one that is a bit of a tragedy in a lot of ways. Director Michael Powell's career was ruined forever by the making of this flick which was ahead of its time and owes some part of its eerie mood to some of Hitchcock's material. The tragedy of this is that Powell was a damn fine director who helmed some very good films which i've seen in the past. (My favorite of which is his co-directing with Emeric Pressburger of the epic The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) ) The subject matter of Peeping Tom was deemed too scandalous and distasteful to the point that it was quickly drummed out of the theatres and in some countries the film wasn't released until 20 years later. Thanks to Martin Scorsese this movie has gained a newfound and deserved respect.

The two great strengths of this film is the directing of Powell who photographed this flick with a confidence of a man who knew what he was doing. The contrast of bright colors with sharp darkness gives it almost a surreal but stylized realism. The great direction helped to illuminate the acting of Carl Boehm who was the other strength of this film. Mark Lewis is not exactly the most likable person, In fact, Boehm gives Lewis a very disturbed yet in some respects magnetizing personality as he falls in love with Helen. Mark is your classic sociopath who is shy, withdrawn and gives off a "something isn't right with this guy" vibe. The scene where he meets Helen for the first time is a great example of this as she comes knocking while he's in his private screening room watching film of him killing a prostitute. He is greeted by Helen and acts very awkward with her, not quite knowing how to portray himself but he tells her he's a budding film maker and she asks to see his screening room and the film he is watching. Well he shows her in and she's amazed at the technicality of it all and he shows her a different film, one that is just as morbid as what he was watching as it's film his father shot of Mark as a boy reacting to fearful situations etc etc. Somehow though Mark and Helen seem to like each other and it begins a budding relationship.

The POV action of Mark's camera when he commits the murders are tame by any standard but it's the mood that they elicit that makes this flick unsettling. Another murder that he commits is with a stand in at the movie studio where he's part of the crew. They stay at the studio past closing time so that he can ostensibly help her film a screen test for the studio head. This sequence in some ways is probably the weakest bit in the film though I see what Powell was getting at. The scene is one that seems to be playful with her flirting with Mark while he prepares things. She even puts on her little tape player and dances all over the stage in order to loosen up. Not unsurprisingly the scene has to do with her being scared and that's when Mark sets the mood to the point that she's screaming at him to put down his camera and the tripod leg with the blade....

Unlike Hollywood movies this doesn't go into the psychological explanations of what makes Mark tick as the script relies on the audience to go along with the story and figures things out on their own. There are lots of great little performances in this movie for instance Helen's mother is a blind woman who sits at the couch drinking her Johnnie Walker Red seemingly a lush but she knows what's going on. In fact, she knows to the point that she confronts Mark in his screening room as she seemingly goes there every night. She knows his secrets and knows that he's the killer. Mark tries to use his tactics against her but can't do it and she tells him to stay away from her daughter. It's a great scene because in some ways she turns the tables on Mark as he can only do these things through compulsion as he's not a cold blooded killer.

The movie is pretty slow for today's audiences but it's an intelligent film that really puts the audience into the mind and point of view of the tragic main character. Mark is this good looking young man who has an ugly, tortured soul due to the ungodly things his father did to him.

This is a Criterion title and I believe on Netflix. At the very least i'm sure you can get it on Amazon.

**** stars