The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970) Reviews

• Great mysterious film!

  thecat722001-04-03

  I'm a big Roger Moore fan (the REAL 007) but I only heard about this film recently. I finally got a copy and I think it's a dynamite film. Not because I'm a big Moore fan - if a film sucks, I turn it off. But this movie is far better than all the reviews Ive ever read on it. I don't believe it drags at all - the pacing is great, especially where Moore keeps on discovering more and more people have seen "him" when it really was his double. Seeing hoe much deeper and deeper Moores double intergrates himself into Moore's life - his work, his liesure, his wife and home - is done extremely well. The inevitable confrontation between the two Pelhams is also done very well, and the ending is a kicker. Moore is great as usual and plays both roles with style and class.

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• Crackerjack suspense story

  The Welsh Raging Bull2003-07-13

  Despite the extremely improbable premise, this 1970 film boasts one of Roger Moore's most accomplished performances. The plot, which centres around a staid businessman who "dies" for a few seconds on the operating table following a car crash, recovers and eventually finds out that a doppelganger is intruding in his life, is bizarre, but it is executed with such conviction and believability that the audience is entertained from start to finish. The suspense builds feverishly, as the doppelganger's intrusive actions increase to an alarming level, whilst Moore's performance is one of eye-popping, progressive hysteria. He steals all the scenes he is in, with the supporting cast being merely bystanders (with the possible exception of the ever-dependable Freddie Jones an an eccentric psychiatrist). The feeling of helplessness is excellently conveyed and well-maintained right up until the end. The film's resolution is stark and hard-hitting and because it is one we might not have anticipated, the film's credibility is maintained despite the obvious far-fetched nature of the story. However, two car accidents at pivotal moments in the film is a little bit hard-to-stomach and accept!! Obviously under-rated as a film spectacle by critics, this little gem of a thriller plays with your emotions and keeps you guessing all the way through. I doubt whether Roger Moore has performed a role better than this since.

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• Carried by Moore's good performance(s)

  bob the moo2003-06-29

  Harold Pelham is a steady executive type who drives carefully, wears the same tie everyday and is a thoroughly dependable sort of chap. One day he is driving home when he has a car crash, he is rushed to hospital where his heart stops and he is saved by a medical team. Back at work after recovering he begins to suffer from memory losses – people tell him he played snooker last night but he can't remember etc. He begins to suspect that someone is impersonating him and is starting to live his life – but that's crazy, isn't it? Moore of the period will always be remembered for being Bond more than any other role he played. The downside of this is that he is seen as the weaker Bond the one who become more about innuendo and jokes than anything else. This film though, shows that Moore is a great actor – one who is capable of lifting a film and making it better than it was on paper. The plot here could easily have spun wildly out of control and indeed, at times, it comes very close to being unintentionally funny. However the film keeps it's air of mystery well – even when we are sure that there is a doppelganger on the loose the film still won't let us see more than his back or his hand etc. By doing this it actually makes the scene where the two meet to be quite effective. Of course it's all nonsense but it's well played nonsense. The main reason it works is Moore's increasingly unhinged performance – as the final hour goes by you can actually see him come apart like he was an old woollen sweater! It is difficult not to buy into the film because he is so convincing. His alter ego is also pretty good but it is the descent into desperation that he undergoes that makes this watchable. As a result I didn't really notice the input of the support cast – they were all quite solid but it was easily Moore's film. However, being a man, I did get distracted by Georges-Picot – waltzing around in sexy underwear in several scenes and I also thought Jones' psychiatrist looked like Dr Strangelove! Overall this deserves to have a cult following if it doesn't already, The visual effects are poor and the plot is absurd. Were it not for the brilliant Moore then this film would have been better played for laughs. Happily he carries it and holds the audience in his hand. The only weak point was the ending which, although clever, was a bit of an anticlimax – in fact the final 10 minutes didn't quite match the suspense that had been created in the build up.

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• The Pelham Paranoia.

  Spikeopath2013-11-06

  With its 1970s chic cheese and swagger and Roger Moore's excellent performance, The Man Who Haunted Himself has a considerable cult fan base. Directed by British legend Basil Dearden, plot finds Moore as Harold Pelham, who after being involved in a serious car accident, comes around from the trauma to find that his life is being turned upside down. It seems that somebody is impersonating him, people he knows swear he was in places he hasn't been, that he has been making decisions at work that he knows nothing about, and that he has a sexy mistress that threatens to destroy his marriage. Is he going mad? A victim of a collective practical joke? Or is there really something more sinister going on? Don't be a slave to convention! So yeah! A cult gem waiting to be rediscovered is The Man Who Haunted Himself, it has a plot that positively bristles with intrigue. As the doppleganger motif is tightly wound by Dearden, who smartly sticks to understated scene constructions as opposed to supernatural excess, there's a realistic and human feel to the story. The makers are not going for jolt shocks, but taking a considered approach that has the pertinent mystery elements lurking in the background, waiting for their chance to reveal themselves for the utterly thrilling finale. A finale that is bold and special, obvious but not, and definitely tinged with cunning ambiguity. With Moore drawing on talent from his acting pool that many thought he didn't have (two different characterisations smartly realised here), and Dearden pulling the technical strings (love those off-kilter angles and multi mirrored images), this is a film that has surprises in store all across the board. 8/10

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• Intriguing but over-extended audience teaser, strengthened by Moore's career-best performance.

  barnabyrudge2007-02-11

  Roger Moore rates his performance in The Man Who Haunted Himself as the best of his career. It makes for a rather interesting insight when actors or directors or composers reveal what they consider their finest work. While the film itself in this case may not be the best that the actor has ever appeared in, Moore is probably right about his performance in it. He gets to register hitherto unseen emotions and nuances as the title character, and the script demands more "genuine" acting than he ever had to produce in the days of The Saint, The Persuaders, James Bond, or indeed any of his other movies. A dull and conservative business man named Harold Pelham (Roger Moore) is driving home from work one day when he does something extremely uncharacteristic. Almost as if possessed, he removes his seatbelt and drives terrifyingly fast, ultimately crashing his car. Later, while the unconscious Pelham is on an operating table his heart temporarily stops and it is only thanks to the speedy reactions of the doctors that he is revived. For a moment after his revival, something very strange happens – TWO heartbeats are briefly detected on the heart monitor. The operating doctors simply assume that their equipment is faulty. A while later, the fully healed Pelham returns to his usual routines – family life, work, social life, etc. But soon weird events start to plague him – people claim to have spoken to him the week before even though he has been on holiday; people turn up for lunch at his house when he swears he hasn't invited them; one man even pays up for losing a snooker match against him at the club, when in actual fact Pelham has no memory of playing the game. At work, a business opportunity involving a new electronic device is beset with problems as an alleged "mole" leaks details of the product to a rival company. Pelham begins to suspect that an impostor is trying to sabotage his life. Gradually, the awful truth becomes clear. When he died on the operating table and had to be resuscitated, a doppelganger (or "alter ego") was released…. and now the real Pelham and his sinister double are locked in a life-and-death struggle against each other. The Man Who Haunted Himself is an intriguing "thinking-man's" bloodcurdler. The story (by Anthony Armstrong) had already seen light as a 30-minute short on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. This extended version fleshes things out a bit more, and spends more time philosophising about the definition of identity, with Moore giving a riveting turn both as the bewildered hero and his evil double. In some ways the extra details inadvertently weaken the story, distracting audience attention from the teasing plot by dragging in too many characters and subplots. But it is worth persevering with the film through its periodic lulls, especially so that one can enjoy the absolutely terrific final scene – a thrilling car chase in which the real Pelham and the doppelganger pursue each until one of them plunges to his death over the side of a bridge. The ending is wonderfully unsettling and thought-provoking. On the whole, The Man Who Haunted Himself is a worthwhile audience teaser, a little drawn-out and heavy-handed in parts, but generally an enjoyable excursion into the supernatural for those who like such things.

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