Information
- BFI identifier40946
- Date1960 (Copyright)
1959-11-02 (Production)
1960-05-16 (Release) - Production countryUnited Kingdom
- Production company
- SynopsisMark Lewis, an assistant cameraman at a film studio, uses his camera equipment to film the deaths of prostitutes he chooses as his victims. When his lodger, Helen, asks to see one of his films, he shows her footage of his childhood when his father, researching the psychology of fear, tormented him and filmed his distress. It becomes clear to Helen's mother that Mark is ill and needs help but, disregarding police surveillance of his movements, he continues with his psychopathic murders... (Synopsis)
- Genre
- Subject
- CreditsDirected by: Michael Powell
©: Michael Powell (Theatre) Ltd
A Michael Powell production: Michael Powell
view all - Cast
Title
Peeping Tom (Original)
EIDR identifier
10.5240/E883-622C-BEA0-06F6-02D5-GCategory
FictionThis work is included in the BFI Filmography.
This work is available to view in the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank.
- Collections
- Film / Video
35mm Colour Positive - CTA - Combined - Viewing
Digital Betacam - Video - Viewing
DVD - Video - Viewing
view all - Scripts / DocumentsScript - Original story: Leo Marks - SCR-13961
Script - Original story: Leo Marks - SCR-13962
Ephemera: publicity - PBM-40946
Peeping Tom - Much criticised at the time of its release, Michael Powell's psychological study of a shy camera technician who makes home movies of the death throes of the women he murders is now widely regarded as a classic. Less a straightforward serial-killer thriller than a Freudian meditation on how and why we watch movies, it is rich in its thematic resonance - and in in-jokes about the film world. A study of 'scoptophilia' - the morbid urge to gaze. Director: Michael Powell; producers: Stuart Levy, Michael Powell, Nat Cohen; script: Leo Marks, based on his own original story; photography: Otto Heller; art direction: Arthur Lawson; editing: Noreen Ackland cast: Karlheinz Böhm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer The film provoked huge critical and public reponse, largely negative. Derek Monsey in the Daily Express wrote 'The director is Michael Powell (of Red Shoes fame) and he has made this film with some distinctive touches of technical brilliance. Why he has made it, however, I do not know. As a thriller it fails to thrill. As a shocker it succeeds only in being nauseating for the sake of nausea. This is a sick film...sick and nasty' - MLP-1-1-70
Script & story development - MLP-1-1-70-1
Medium Pressbook held
view all - Posters / DesignsDesign: production - Sketch, Park scene at night ,man with torch looks on courting couple on the ground - PD-12836
Design: production - red haired woman peering through doorway at figure of man head and shoulders view - PD-16284
Design: production - man in car headlamps beams with woman on ground - PD-16285
Poster: film - Large three sheet Billboard vertical poster with the tag line "Do You Know What the Most Frightening thing in the World is....?" Printed in the UK - PD-544
Poster: film - Single sheet landscape Quad UK Poster. Tag Line "Do you Know What the Most Frightening Thing in the World is....?" Photo montage based on a still created by Norman Gryspeerdt. - PD-14573
view all - StillsPhotograph: production - Landscape - Colour - bfi-00o-5xb
Photograph: production - Landscape - Colour - bfi-00o-5xa
Photograph: production - Landscape - Colour - bfi-00o-5x9
Photograph: production - Landscape - Colour - bfi-00o-5x8
Photograph: production - Landscape - Colour - bfi-00o-5x7
view all - Articles
- Books
- Digital documentsBFI Southbank Programme Notes July 2019
available to view in BFI Reuben Library
- +Peeping Tom
Work - 40946 - 1960 (Copyright)
United Kingdom - Film - Fiction
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