Behold the DORYU 2-16 “pistol camera.”  According to World Famous Design Junkies, it’s a 16mm, Japanese police-issue camera and is not at all a “toy.”  It doesn’t seem capable of firing bullets, either.  Yet.  Or until they roll out the inevitable update of Michael Powell‘s career-killing film, the relentlessly creepy, Peeping Tom.  In it, camera-crazy Carl Boehm stalks and murders women with a knife concealed in one of his tripod’s legs.  Why the camera?  Well, how better to capture his victim’s dying screams?  Yeah, all this from man who gave us such celebratory fare as The Red Shoes, and Stairway to Heaven. 

For your viewing pleasure, YouTube hosts in its entirety the Criterion version of Tom—albeit broken into 12 parts.  You can start with Part I below.  Oh, and interesting bit of movie trivia: Tom also features the first bit of nudity in a British film—from legendary “glamour model,” Pamela Green.