Frenzy

A good return to form for the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Since The Birds in 1963 Hitchcock's movies (Marnie, Torn Curtain and Topaz) had not met with commercial success (though, personally, I think Marnie was great).

Frenzy sees Hitchcock back to doing what he does best - suspenseful murder dramas. Great, intriguing plot with the usual clever direction from Hitchcock. Some of his camera angles and exterior shots are straight from his own book of how imply something and create tension without saying a word, or using manipulative music.

The movie also has some great comedic moments. The Chief Inspector and his wife having dinner were always hilarious.

Much more edgy in terms of nudity and sex than any previous Hitchcock movies. This could be ascribed to censorship restrictions being relaxed. Also tells you what Hitchcock could have done with is movies if all the stupid, puritanical censorship wasn't there all along.

Not as tightly wound as his greats (Rear Window and Psycho especially), so not perfect as far as suspense and enthrallment goes.

Good performance by Jon Finch in the lead role. Good support from Alec McCowen, Barry Foster, Anna Massey and Barbara Leigh-Hunt.

Sadly, this was to be Hitchcock's penultimate movie. His final movie, Family Plot was released four years later, in 1976. He died in 1980.

"Frenzy" was Alfred Hitchcock's next-to-last film. And though it's not a great classic like "Psycho" and "North by Northwest", it's still a very good movie. After making mostly American movies for four decades, Hitchcock returned to his native Britain to make "Frenzy". It's about a series of murders that's devastating London. These murders have two things in common: 1) The victims are all women; and 2) they're all raped and then strangled with a neck-tie. When a marriage counselor is murdered this way, the police suspect the woman's ex-husband is the culprit. But actually the husband is innocent, and is forced to hide out from the cops. "Frenzy" has all the usual Hitchcock elements: thrills, suspense, comedy, and Hitchcock's cameo appearence. The two best scenes in the movie are the hilarious moments when the police inspector (who's heading up the investigation of the neck-tie murders) is served two gourmet dinners by his wife. These scenes are very funny. The comic moments is what gives "Frenzy" a edge over Hitchcock's previous film "Topaz". Plus, it's a more entertaining thriller.

*** (out of four)

Frenzy follows the misadventures of ex-RAF man Jon Finch, who is framed for a particularly nasty series of 'necktie' murders for which his hot-temper and self-pity do not help..

The more one sees this film, the more holes appear or seem to appear. Finch is supposed to be an ex-squadron-leader with a fine record, but is too young to have done anything in WWII. The original novel came out in 1949 or thereabouts, so a little tweaking should have been in order. The first murder / assault shown seems to be done in rather too much detail and is possibly too lurid. In addition, there doesn't seem to be anything to tie him up with the previous murders.

These grumbles aside (and one could pick a few more holes if required), Frenzy held my attention reasonably well, and although at times it doesn't look too Hitchcockian, there are enough bits to make one aware of his presence. He is ably served by his cast of Barry Foster, Clive Swift (a fellow RAF man, but 'under the thumb'), the late Billie Whitelaw as Swift's acid-tongued wife, Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Finch's successful ex-wife, Anna Massey and Bernard Cribbins, to name a few.

The police are represented by Alec McCowen and Michael Bates, together with a series of running jokes on the frightful dishes McCowen's wife (Vivien Merchant) is serving up as a result of a gourmet course she is attending. This was Hitchcock's first British film in about twenty years, and had a mixed reception. The years have been kind to it, though, and it seems to have become more generally accepted, and there is enough action in it to keep one interested.

Hitchcock did one hell of a job! I was planning on watching this movie just for about 30 minutes before going to sleep and was gonna finish watching it the next day, but instead I was so engaged that I couldn't stop watching and stayed awake the whole 2 hours. I loved the irony of the actual rapist having no clues pointing to him and the innocent man having all clues pointing to him. The scene involving the rapist in the back of the truck, rummaging through a sack of potatoes (and that's all I'll reveal) is classic suspense. I also loved how Hitchcock left the rape scenes (excluding the first one) up to the imagination. There is a great shot where one of the victims is being raped and we don't even hear any off-screen yells or screams. The camera simply tracks backwards down a staircase and out the front door, where people walk by minding their own business, ignorant to the evil that's being committed a floor above. Any amateurish director would've went for true shock value and showed all the rape scenes in explicit detail. We don't call Hitchcock the master of suspense for nothing. The scene is still quite haunting. In horror and suspense, what you don't see can be a lot more frightening than what you do see, since the imagination is a powerful thing. The last line of the movie should go down in history. It had me bawling with laughter! Just that one line gave perfect closure to this wonderful film.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

After 30 years in the USA and after the disappointments of "Torn Curtain" (1966) and "Topaz" (1969), Alfred Hitchcock came back to his native Britain for this film -written by Anthony Shaffer from a novel by Arthur La Bern.

"Frenzy" is his penultimate movie, certainly the best one of his last period. The way the Master films is very classic -deliberately old fashioned; at the same time all the charachters are very modern -they belong to a more and more decadent and neurotic London.

Almost from the beginning we know who the criminal is, and Hitchcock enjoys himself in showing how the man tries to escape and how he betrays people. Director's trademarks are also back in force: suspense (a lot!) and humour -more sarcastic and sharper than ever.

For "Frenzy" the Master doesn't get movie stars, instead he chooses local stage actors. In my opinion he does this because, first, he wants the film to be very English. Furthermore, he wants this time more ordinary faces for making the story more shocking (with famous actors in the main roles, the plot -in a certain way- could be identified mostly with them and loose strength, instead Hitchcock avoids that "paradox"...).

Maybe "Frenzy" is not an unforgettable masterpiece like "Psycho", "Vertigo", "Birds" or many other works. But it is a great movie indeed.