Rent The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)

Roger Moore At His Best - The Man Who Haunted Himself review by GI

Roger Moore's screen work will probably always be focused around the seven James Bond films he made beginning in 1973. But it's in the films he made outside the Bond franchise that really showcase his abilities and potential as a screen actor. This psychological mystery thriller is arguably his best performance highlighting a dramatic range and the ability to diversify which was perhaps stifled by his James Bond persona. Here he plays Pelham, a gentrified London executive, who one afternoon, on his drive home, is overcome in a strange way and crashes his car. Badly injured he momentarily dies on the operating table and is resuscitated where two heartbeats are briefly evident on a heart monitor. After recovering Pelham becomes more disturbed and paranoid that there is a double who is infiltrating his life. A double who seems more confident, sexually active and ambitious than him. His family, colleagues and friends start to think he's having a nervous breakdown. This is a classic retelling of the famous Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde narrative and, with it's hints of the supernatural, this is a compelling thriller made better by Moore's performance as two sides of the same character. It's a film, recently restored, that is worth seeking out as a clever British film of this period.

A Curio of a Britflik featuring a pre-Bond Roger Moore - The Man Who Haunted Himself review by PV

This film is also billed as THE DOUBLE sometimes.

It's a curio, interesting to see Roger Moore exercising his eyebrow acting muscles just 3 years before the classic Bond film LIVE AND LET DIE (the best one ever). His career was on the up. His relaxed persona is all here...

This is Basil Dearden's final film - maybe why some critics called it old-fashioned, more 1948 than 1968. Based on a 1940 short story by British-Canadian author Anthony Armstrong.

There have been other stories, books, films about doubles. This is possibly one of the weakest. It could be called hokum and the creation of a double is never explained. Because it's nonsense! Fun nonsense. One for the fans only BUT I love seeing London as it was back then...

Oddly prophetic this film what with all the speeding cars: "Dearden died age 60 on 23 March 1971 at Hillingdon Hospital, London after being involved in a road accident on the M4 motorway near Heathrow Airport, in which he suffered multiple injuries. An inquest heard that he had a very high amount of alcohol in his blood and that he was decapitated after his car crashed into a road sign and caught fire."

2.5 stars rounded up