Work in progress, March 2, 2024
Most critics agree that Frenzy is not a great film that belongs to Hitchcock’s pantheon, but a well-crafted and entertaining feature.
It’s a psychological thriller in the good (and old-fashioned) Hitchcockian tradition, a movie that displays his reliable technical craftsmanship and some memorable touches that are also significant thematically.
| Frenzy | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
The 1972 British thriller is the penultimate feature film of his extensive–half a century–career, which consists of 53 feature movies.
The witty screenplay by noted playwright Anthony Shaffer was based on the 1966 novel “Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square,” by Arthur La Bern.
The film stars Jon Finch, Alec McCowen and Barry Foster and features Billie Whitelaw, Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Bernard Cribbins and Vivien Merchant.
The plot centers on a serial killer in London and the former RAF serviceman and now bar tender that he implicates.
Opening Scene
The film’s opening scene begin with wo long descending helicopter shots.
The first starts high over London and comes down to a tracking shot over he River Thames, ending on a tugboat spouting black smoke, as it from emerges behind and open drawbridge.
The tug provides a currently dirt, shabby contrast to the ceremonial hat being played on the soundtrack.
The underworld suggests by the River is one of Hitchcock’s recurrent motifs.
The second shot also swoops toward the river, and the sequence that follows confirms the undercurrent of the opening imagery.
With lofty rhetoric and self-satisfaction, a politician functionary proclaims that The Thames if officially “clean”: “All the water above this point soon will be clear,,,clear of the waste products of our society.
It’s a press conference, and the politician’s speech is full of cliches, among them promises “to clear the river of the industrial waste that has poisoned our rivers and canal.”
And ten we watch the naked body of a woman strangled.
The tie around the corpse’s neck matches that the tie that the protagonist is about to wear.
In an early scene there is dialogue that mentions two actual London serial murder cases: the Christine murders in the 1940s-1950s, and the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888.
Barry Foster, who plays the murderer, was asked by Hitchcock to study books about Neville Heath, an English serial killer who would often pass himself off as RAF officer.
Frenzy was the third and final film that Hitchcock made in Britain after he moved to Hollywood in 1939.
The other two were Under Capricorn in 1949, and Stage Fright in 1950.
Some interior and exterior scenes were shot in London for the 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much.
The last British film he made before his move to the US was Jamaica Inn (1939), one odhis very weakest.
Frenzy was the only Hitchcock film given an R rating during its initial release.
Frenzy was screened at the 1972 Cannes Film Fest, but not in the main competition.
Few critics consider Frenzy the last great Hitchcock film, a return to form after his two previous works, Topaz and Torn Curtain, two disappointing films.
Names:
Protagonist: Richard Ian (“Dick”) Blaney
Villain: Robert “Bob” Rusk
Cast
Jon Finch as Richard Ian “Dick” Blaney
Alec McCowen as Chief Inspector Timothy Oxford
Barry Foster as Robert “Bob” Rusk
Billie Whitelaw as Hetty Porter
Anna Massey as Barbara Jane “Babs” Milligan
Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Brenda Margaret Blaney
Bernard Cribbins as Felix Forsythe
Vivien Merchant as Mrs. Oxford
Michael Bates as Sergeant Spearman
Jean Marsh as Monica Barling
Clive Swift as Johnny Porter
Madge Ryan as Mrs. Davison
Elsie Randolph as Gladys
John Boxer as Sir George
Jimmy Gardner as Hotel Porter
Gerald Sim as Solicitor in Pub
Noel Johnson as Doctor in Pub
Rita Webb as Mrs. Rusk (uncredited)
Michael Sheard as Jim, Rusk’s friend in pub (uncredited)
Richard Stapley as Truck Driver (uncredited)
Susan Travers as Rusk’s final victim (uncredited)
Credits:
Directed, produced by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Anthony Shaffer, Based on “Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square,” 1966 novel by Arthur La Bern
Cinematography Gilbert Taylor
Leonard J. South
Edited by John Jympson
Music by Ron Goodwin
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date: June 21, 1972
Running time: 116 minutes
Budget $2 million
Box office $12.6 million
