Ein Mann jagt sich selbst (1970)
65KEin Mann jagt sich selbst: Directed by Basil Dearden. With Roger Moore, Hildegard Neil, Alastair Mackenzie, Hugh Mackenzie. Harold Pelham encounters a duplicate of himself in the aftermath of a car crash. After that moment, his life is upset.
“With its 1970s chic cheese and swagger and Roger Mooreu0026#39;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 hasnu0026#39;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?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDonu0026#39;t be a slave to convention!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo 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, thereu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith Moore drawing on talent from his acting pool that many thought he didnu0026#39;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”
