British acting legend Roger Moore was so typecast at times as the likes of THE SAINT and James Bond in seven films between 1973 and 1985 that it was easy to forget that he was also a trained actor from RADA, a Hollywood contract player and on occasion could be a very competent actor – and no more than in this wonderful dark psychological and schizophrenic thriller, in which he plays Pelham, a speed freak who whilst driving is involved in a car accident.
In hospital, Pelham dies on the operating table, but in the recovery a doppelganger starts to make his way into the world, compounding Pelham’s own recovery and making him question his own reality…
Moore was incredibly underrated (it is not easy to hold the frame as well as Moore did, but like Clint Eastwood, it is hard to keep things simple when the camera makes everything so complex sometimes) but this is probably his best ever acting performance bar none.
Fellow Bond Sean Connery might have got the variety of parts post-Bond (and an Oscar for THE UNTOUCHABLES), but Moore should be recognised and commended for some great non-Bond work, which included THE WILD GEESE and the 1984 thriller THE NAKED FACE with Anne Archer.