In his introduction Michael Powell expert Ian Christie declares his intention to put PEEPING TOM in the context of it's time and now, and this he duly does in a scholarly way.
But if it's high on information it remains low on insight, while Christie's constant pointing out of filmic in-jokes is less convincing (and there's no better way to kill a joke than to be drily academic about it!).
Ultimately Chrisite spends far too much time setting up the point he wants to make by simply describing what's happening on-screen, which makes for a very flat and uninsped reading - the information's there for those patient enough to sift through the waffle (and I'm sure his Powell book is very good), but you can't shake the feeling that this is one of those DVD commentary tracks that would have been better as a more focussed essay in an accompanying booklet...

This commentary is a mixes bag. On the on side Curtis is well informed about the movie and talks a lot about the cultural landscape and the movies in Britain in 1959. Powell’s development as a filmmaker to this point are also well done. At one point he refers to the other commentary of the movie from Laura Mulvey. A commentary of a commentary. Funny.

On the other side he talks very academic and a little boring. There is too much information about the inside jokes of the movie. Sometimes he describes only what you can see on screen. The commentary would be better if he has a sidekick like a director. More commentary about the making of the film and the parallels to Psycho would be better.

In toto a little disappointing. Only five points