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The Man Who Haunted Himself More at IMDbPro »

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20 reviews in total

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13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Great mysterious film!, 3 April 2001
Author: thecat72 (thecat72@yahoo.com) from NYC

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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15 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Crackerjack suspense story, 13 July 2003
Author: The Welsh Raging Bull (leighton.phillips@sihe.ac.uk) from Port Talbot, South Wales, UK

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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10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
A man haunted by his own James Bond persona, 12 March 2006
Author: FINSLAW from United States

I found this film to be a pleasant surprise, considering the low rating here. I enjoyed the plot (reminded me of the Mirror Image TZ episode) the acting was well done and I was never bored for a moment. This film could definitely be given a remake, maybe ending instead with the uptight Pellham watching his happy family with the liberated Pellham, and deciding it was best for him to start a new life somewhere else. The real ending to this film is okay, if it had ended 5 seconds earlier then it would be a pretty typical climax but that side-ache that the cooler Pellham feels for a moment could be a number of things (including the uptight one taking his body back.) It is fascinating that this was made before Moore's tenure as Bond, yet he mentions James Bond in one scene (the first film he mentions those two words) and it is funny how the cooler Pellham resembles a suburban James Bond. This is given new levels of meaning, since part of Bond's charm is that he is what other guys want to be, and in this film one man gets that wish. The part may be perfect for Moore, just separate the elements of his cool yet uptight secret agent and you have the two characters on screen. Very well done.

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10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Carried by Moore's good performance(s), 29 June 2003
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

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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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Haunting., 15 July 2002

Author: gridoon

A fascinating story - a man haunted by his doppelganger - and Roger Moore's excellent performance(s) make this film worth seeing, even though it overelaborates its point somewhat (the situation becomes clear to us long before Moore figures it out). Still, what we have here is an example of how a good movie can be produced on a relatively low budget, as long as it has a strong script and dependable actors. (***)

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Intriguing but over-extended audience teaser, strengthened by Moore's career-best performance., 11 February 2007

Author: Jonathon Dabell (barnaby.rudge@hotmail.co.uk) from Wakefield, England

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
An incredible film-POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW!, 25 June 2004
Author: warnerclassic from Sunny Sunny Cornwall

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The Man Who Haunted Himself is a classic film that is often only found in the early hours of the morning on a remote channel. If however the sleepy viewer can hold back fatigue, they would discover a wonderful suspense film that is enhanced by a wonderful performance by Roger Moore as Harold Pelham. The story goes like this, Harold Pelham, a very proper gentleman drives home from work. While driving home from work he loses control of his car and crashes. Rushed to hospital, he ‘dies' on the operating table, but the doctors manage to revive him. He recovers and returns to work, but more and more people start commenting on seeing him and talking to him at times he knows he wasn't there. It is then that the awful truth dawns on Harold that he has his own doppelganger who is taking over his life. But Pelham's world isn't big enough for the two of them and he soon sets out to find his double before he goes mad… This is without doubt the finest film that Moore has starred in. I myself first saw it when I was very young and the level of suspense and downright terror at knowing that someone out there has taken your identity was enough to scare me then-and now. Hildegarde Neil, as Pelham's wife is excellent, and a young Anton Rogers appears as Pelham's friend. The film has many scenes that mark it out for being a classic, not least a wonderful and hauntingly psychedelic car chase that ties the film together. Basil Dearden, the director, died shortly after completing filming, dying in a car crash in a place that was in the ‘exact' same location that a major character dies in the film (right at the end) It was an incredible coincidence, and adds shock value to a film that deserves to be seen.

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
A truly hilarious semi-psychedelic thriller, 10 February 2000

Author: barfly99 (patrickleedazzle@hotmail.com) from London, England

A collector's item this one - you very rarely see a film as absurd yet enthralling as this. The plot is fabulously illogical, but it provides an opportunity to see Roger Moore in a role far more interesting than James Bond, as pin-striped executive Harold Pelham. Except that he plays TWO Harold Pelham's - one nice, dull, and sexually inadequate; the other a cavalier and sinister Romeo. This means a lot of Moore chasing round London insisting "I'm Harold Pelham!", and a climactic and weirdly psychedelic car-chase involving nice Pelham and nasty Pelham. If this hasn't yet acquired a cult following, it ought to.

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6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
What WOULD you do if it happened to you?, 10 November 2003

Author: Noel Bailey (uds3@hotmail.com) from Longmont: Colorado US

if ever a cumulative rating for a movie was insane it is THIS one! 5.3? yeah right. It's a 7 - end of story!

Long before Moore's incarnation as 007, this is arguably near the top of Moore's filmography. After Harold Pelham has a near-death experience following an auto accident, he makes what appears to be a stoic recovery. It is only with the passage of time that he begins to notice subtle occurrences that don't seem to dovetail with his own personality. Either he is losing his mind or there is something remarkably rotten in the state of Denmark. Friends and business acqaintances swear they have interacted with him, moments BEFORE he arrives at work...his wife notices a radical change in him and ultimately the inescapable truth presents itself - he has a doppelganger!

Call it far-fetched..its about the only weak point in the flick. Moore is just brilliant as he unravels in the face of his doppelganger's one-upmanship. The final scenes where he confronts his "twin" are riveting and should silence the tidal wave of critics who insist Moore could never act!

A few years ago it was rumored that the film was to be re-made in New Zealand (Peter Jackson?) as DOPPELGANGER, with no less a personage than Travolta in the lead, and he would certainly do the role justice. Since then, heard nothing.

This flick is well worth your effort finding somewhere, even on video.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Basil Dearden meets Roger Corman, 3 May 2007

Author: RanchoTuVu from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

Roger Moore plays a man whose other half (the half with panache) finally wins control over his body, a body that was nearly killed (actually dies on the operating table for a few seconds) in a ferocious (and excitingly filmed) car crash. A conservative and safety conscious partner in a London engineering firm, he's let life slip by a bit too much, not making love with his wife, passing up on the chance to score with God knows how many beautiful young women, the one here being a photographer, and myriad other potentialities. Well the other Moore, (more like Bond) gets a shot at the life force after the accident, and the first one (Mr. Conservative) is increasingly bewildered at reports of sightings of him here and there, when he was somewhere else. Fighting for his family, his work, his reputation, and his sanity, he has most viewers rooting for him to come out on top. The two sides finally have it out in a brilliant conclusion, one in a Bentley (or Rolls) and the other in an Astin (or Lotus), that reaches classic cinematic proportions in this high class Cormanesque near masterpiece.

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