The Man Who Haunted Himself 4K (1970)

Studio Canal are releasing Basil Dearden’s final film as director (The Persuaders! two episode combo MISSION: MONTE CARLO doesn’t count) in a new 4K restoration on UHD, Blu-ray and Digital. Apparently it was star Roger Moore’s personal favourite of his films and it’s not difficult to see why.

Driving home from work on the M4 one day Harold Pelham (Moore) crashes his car and ends up in surgery where, for a moment, his heartbeat fails to register on monitoring equipment. Then there are two, then there’s one again. Discharged from hospital Pelham goes about his normal life but soon something odd starts to happen. 

People claim they have seen him in places he’s never been, including Julie (Olga Georges-Picot), who also claims she has entered into a relationship with Pelham. As the strange incidents mount up Pelham seeks the aid of a psychiatrist (Freddie Jones all hair, shades and bow tie). Is Harold mad or is there really someone impersonating him? Or is what’s actually happening even stranger than that?

Previously filmed for the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series as The Case of Mr Pelham, the screenplay here does a reasonable job of opening up the story to feature length. The staging of the opening accident is excellent, with a low slung camera attached to the side of the car being something that might have quite possibly influenced a young George Miller. Most noteworthy of all is Roger Moore who really gets to demonstrate a range that many jokers of the period claimed he didn’t have. Pelham isn’t the most likeable of characters but as his world crumbles we start to feel real sympathy for him.

Studio Canal’s 4K looks excellent. Don’t worry too much about the picture noise on the menu screen - this settles down nicely for the main feature. New to this disc is an 12 minute interview with well-known actor Kevork Malikyan (who has brought his copy of the screenplay with him) who plays Pelham’s butler Luigi. Other extras include a ‘Masters of Horror’ segment in which directors Joe Dante and Stuart Gordon discuss the film (18 minutes), an audio commentary ported over from the 2024 Imprint release from genre experts Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons that’s up to their usual high standard and in which they point out a number of significant visual touches as well as discussing the source story / novel, an interview with Moore’s PA and friend Gareth Owen (16 minutes), a 2024 making of that features Freddie Jones (33 minutes), storyboards (including the opening car crash sequence) and 36 minutes of Michael J Lewis score for those who don’t own the now long out of print promo soundtrack CD. Collectors will want to know that the disc doesn't contain the 2005 commentary track with Roger Moore and Brian Forbes, so you may want to hang onto your Network or Kino Blu-ray for that. The disc also comes with four art cards.

THE MAN WHO HAUNTED HIMSELF is out from Studio Canal in a new 4K restoration on UHD, Blu-ray and Digital on Monday 27th April 2026