I'll begin by saying I'm a Basil Dearden film, and watched this primarily because he directed it. Overall, it is an entertaining film that offers a glimpse of a long-gone world, and of a style of filmmaking that also disappeared with the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I won't summarize the plot since many others already have, but it turns on the initially uncanny and increasingly creepy appearance of Harold Pelham's (Roger Moore, in one of his best performances) Doppelgänger, though like Pelham himself we don't actually see this double until very late in the film. His strange presence, however, is apparent from the moment early on when Pelham briefly dies on the operating table, only to revive temporarily with two heartbeats.
My two criticisms, beyond the annoyingly busy score, hinge on the confusing moment at the film's opening when the Doppelgänger seems to overtake the original Pelham, leading to the first accident (or does he?), and on the melodramatic ending, which probably could have been strengthened by jump-cutting straight from the crash through the bridge balustrade to Pelham, one of the two, walking back through the door of his home, without us seeing which one, the original or the double, it was.
In general, though, I recommend the film, and despite its flaws, it is quite entertaining and a metaphysical and psychological thriller. If it is ever remade, it'll have to be updated for the 21st century, but if done right and not Hollywoodized, it could work well. (It would be interesting to compare this original and a remake to the 2013 Canadian film The Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which is based on Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's 2004 novel The Double.)
I won't summarize the plot since many others already have, but it turns on the initially uncanny and increasingly creepy appearance of Harold Pelham's (Roger Moore, in one of his best performances) Doppelgänger, though like Pelham himself we don't actually see this double until very late in the film. His strange presence, however, is apparent from the moment early on when Pelham briefly dies on the operating table, only to revive temporarily with two heartbeats.
My two criticisms, beyond the annoyingly busy score, hinge on the confusing moment at the film's opening when the Doppelgänger seems to overtake the original Pelham, leading to the first accident (or does he?), and on the melodramatic ending, which probably could have been strengthened by jump-cutting straight from the crash through the bridge balustrade to Pelham, one of the two, walking back through the door of his home, without us seeing which one, the original or the double, it was.
In general, though, I recommend the film, and despite its flaws, it is quite entertaining and a metaphysical and psychological thriller. If it is ever remade, it'll have to be updated for the 21st century, but if done right and not Hollywoodized, it could work well. (It would be interesting to compare this original and a remake to the 2013 Canadian film The Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which is based on Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's 2004 novel The Double.)