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The Man Who Haunted Himself [1970]


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We Get To See How The Other Roger Moore Can Act
Review date: 2008-10-14 Rating: 10 out of 10

Roger Moore's staid business executive gets taken over by a far racier and daring 'doppleganger' after a serious car accident in which he temporarily 'dies' on the operating table.

He loses his sanity after discovering he has been replaced by an alter ego. In the meantime, we are entertained by the way the story unfolds and how he gets to discover for himself what is going on. Roger Moore rates this as one of his finest acting performances, evidently because he gets to break away from one of his usual action heroes and the character is more three dimensional. Although not shot on a large budget, the production values are classy and the direction is assured. There is a good supporting cast and Hildegarde Neil, who plays Mrs Pelham, has a haunting beauty about her.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this on dvd, having seen it on late night television many years ago. The print is sharp and faultless. The dvd's extras, which aren't listed on Amazon, do the product credit. You get a photo gallery, cast biographies, publicity, a trailer (again, a quality print) and an optional commentary. With a decent dvd player and dvds of this quality, who needs blue-ray?



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Reviews


Top movie
Review date: 2008-04-18 Rating: 10 out of 10

I have watched it several times and enjoy it every time.I would rate it as one of my top ten movies.

The passing years have lent even more mystique to this enticing mystery
Review date: 2007-07-18 Rating: 10 out of 10

If I was being more critical I would give no more than 4 stars for film being slightly nonsensical in plot, and a bit dull in its direction, but this is such a good DVD production-The widescreen format looks beautifully squashed in, and it comes with one of the best extras packages I've bought: A very informative commentary by Moore and Bryan Forbes, who worked on film, and a collector's booklet which is a copy of the original film posters, with that lovely old 1960s typesetting and graphics, wonderful stuff.

This is the best doppleganger film I've seen, though I admit I haven't seen many! With an almost Hitchcockian psychological feel to it, it keeps you interested in the possible explanation for the strange events all the way, and when that is slowly revealed, although it wasn't hard to guess before hand, it feels oddly believable from a logical point of view, or it did to me. The whole film is conservatively directed and produced, to put it kindly, but the quality of Moore's acting, who looks like he really believes in this one, lends it a classy feel, as does the posh London setting. An interesting little film this, and is I fancy, a bit of a minor cult film these days.

More to Roge than meets the eye
Review date: 2007-04-29 Rating: 6 out of 10

The Man Who Haunted Himself isn't a particularly good film, but it is an interesting one and boasts a mostly impressive performance from Roger Moore. While he's not entirely successful, he does get to demonstrate that he had a lot more genuine talent than he's ever given credit for: one beautifully underplayed scene in particular where his uptight businessman who may or may not be having a nervous breakdown and his wife talk around his impotence is probably the best thing he's ever done. And he limits to the eyebrow lift trademark to a single arch usage, though there is a hint at things to come with a prescient joke about industrial espionage ("It's not all James Bond On Her Majesty's Secret Service" quips Moore three years before landing the part).

Previously filmed as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, it's a classic doppelganger story, with Roge's bowler hatted city type having a nervous breakdown at the wheel of his car, crashing and briefly dying on the operating table only to become increasingly rattled that someone appears to be impersonating him in his absence. Not only that, but he seems to be doing a much better job of his life than he is. Is he going mad or is it part of a plot involving the takeover of his company? Or is he really haunting himself? For the first hour and some it works surprisingly well despite looking even more quaintly dated at times than most 70s films. Unfortunately things go downhill, as in so many other films, with the appearance of Freddie Jones in the last third, overacting to a degree unusual even for him as the kind of gurning, prop-fondling manic psychiatrist with an accent that stretches from Dublin to Fife who wears sunglasses in a darkened room (this may just have been down to then head of EMI Films Bryan Forbes, who also cast chronic overactor Aubrey Morris as a quack who wears sunglasses in a darkened room in the troubled Hammer film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb). Over enunciating and underlining every line several times and looking like a minor character from Monty Python's Flying Circus on day release, he tips the film over into unintentional comedy even more than the particularly ill-advised kipper tie that looks like it could feed a family of six that Moore wears in the last few scenes. The film does almost paint itself into a corner with its premise, with an ending that doesn't exactly disappoint but still isn't quite strong enough to entirely satisfy.

In addition to the original trailer and stills and storyboard galleries, the DVD has a pleasant audio commentary with Moore and Bryan Forbes, who as well as greenlighting the film did uncredited dialogue polish on the script. Among the facts thrown up is that in one of those truly horrible coincidences, director Basil Dearden died a few years later in a car crash at the exact spot they filmed the opening crash in the film. Haunting indeed...


Great thriller from 1970!
Review date: 2007-04-05 Rating: 10 out of 10


Classic suspense thriller from 1970 starring Roger Moore.

No time wasted here in getting straight into the action with a speeding car and spectacular crash! Roger Moore plays a handsome well-to-do married man with two children. After a near fatal car crash, what follows is a string of unexplained 'incidents' that leads to the character's confusion and bewilderment. This could be simple amnesia due to brain damage caused by the accident, but it's far more sinister than that! A thrill every minute and suspense around every corner!

There's a great supporting cast here including; Anthony Nicholls (looking much older having aged dreadfully in the couple of years since 'The Champions' of '68) Charles Lloyd Pack, Anton Rodgers (some viewers not old enough to remember will be knocked down at how extremely fit and handsome he was!) Gerald Sim, and Thorley Walters who supplies the humour in his jovial, but boring character role - remarkably like an earlier Nigel Bruce. Great performances, and added to a wonderful music score provided by the theme, gives this a recipe for great entertainment! Fast-paced and exciting film with no time to get bored!

Look out for Roger Moore making an interesting reference to James Bond!!

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Roger Moore
Thorley Walters
Hugh Mackenzie
Alastair Mackenzie
Hildegarde Neil

Creators:
Roger Moore (Primary Contributor)
Hildegarde Neil (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Cinema Club
Manufacturer: Cinema Club
EAN: 5014138300326
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL,
Release date: 2005-04-18
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 89 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1970
Language: English (Original Language)

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