A peep at Peeping Tom: behind the scenes on Michael Powell's neglected masterpiece

Director Michael Powell on the set of Peeping Tom Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

Powell with Pamela Green, who played Milly, a model Mark photographs above a newsagent Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

Powell positions Green for a shot Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

Powell himself features in the film as Mark's sadistic psychiatrist father; Powell's own son, Columba, played the young Mark Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

Powell looks over the script with, from left to right, Columba, Moira Shearer (who plays an aspirant actor, Vivian) and the film's star, Carl Boehm Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

Shearer on set Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

Shearer poses for the camera Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

Powell inspects a camera angle from an unusual vantage point on the set of the house Mark shares with lodgers including impressionable young Helen (Anna Massey), who falls for the killer, and her sceptical, blind mother (Maxine Audley) Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

'Ello, 'ello … a policeman takes down Boehm's details Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

Powell and Boehm behind the camera Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd

The pair at the film's premiere. Powell lived long enough to see the film championed by Martin Scorsese and the critics reconsider their damning verdicts. Boehm was hit hard, too, by the film's failure, though he continued to work on TV, before moving on to charitable work in Ethiopia in the early 80s Photograph: Canal + Image UK Ltd