La seconde mort d'Harold Pelham

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.

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.

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.

Some twenty or so years have passed since I originally saw this film, which, at the time I found to be very though-provoking, so it was with a mixture of interest and skepticism that I ordered it from Lovefilm. Happily, I was not disappointed. This is, without doubt, Moore's finest acting role and he delights with his use of facial expression; to me it shows that there is a lot more to his acting skills than the rather one-dimensional parts he spent most of his career playing e.g. The Saint, Brett Sinclair and Bond. Of course, this is dated, as it was filmed in 1970, however most people - myself included - have a fond affection for this period. Good support from some stalwart actors, including Anton Rogers and Hildegard Neil make this a satisfying experience. In my opinion, this story would merit a re-make by a director such as Christopher Nolan.

NB One of the spookiest things about this film is that the director - Basil Dearden - was tragically killed in a car accident shortly after it was completed, in the exact stretch of road used in the film. This only serves to add to the mystery of this film but may put any superstitious directors off attempting a re-make. My recommendation is to watch this late at night with the lights off... Enjoy!

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