Peeping Tom (1960)

An essential horror film - so controversial at the time of its release that it destroyed the career of one of the most respected filmmakers in the world.


Directed by: Michael Powell
Cinematography by: Otto Heller


After a nearly twenty year partnership Powell and Pressburger amicably separated in 1957, understandably wanting to pursue individual careers. Three years later Powell released this horror film, Peeping Tom, seen as an early precursor to the “slasher” subgenre - along with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, released the same year.


Peeping Tom dives into the darker side of filmmaking and it’s fetishization of voyeurism. The movie tells the story of a killer cameraman who, when not working on a film set, spends his time shooting pornographic photographs and serially preying on women - filming their deaths.


There were very few films by 1960 that had gone as far as Peeping Tom did in depicting frank sexuality and violence, and the critics absolutely chastised it, labeling the movie "perverse" and "appalling". Powell had been the shining gem of British cinema since the early 40s, and this film was found to be so loathsome at the time of its release that his career was irreparably damaged, his reputation obliterated, buried in mud, essentially blacklisting him within the industry. The ripples of that industry-wide ostracism may be why Michael Powell is not as household of a name as a legendary contemporary of his like Hitchcock.


Oddly enough, it was Martin Scorsese who ostensibly resurrected the film. After seeing a copy in the early 70s, Scorsese was enthralled, and recognizing its artistic merit and importance to the genre, was responsible for Peeping Tom’s re-release later in the decade, which led to the film’s critical reappraisal: it’s now considered to be not only a horror classic, but one of the best films British cinema has to offer.

 
Powell and Scorsese would form a close friendship afterwards, and it was Powell who convinced Scorsese to shoot the award-winning Raging Bull (1980) in black-and-white: itself considered a classic. Interestingly, Powell would also go on to marry Scorsese’s longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker in 1984, before he passed away in 1990.


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