Frenzy

Rating:
Summary: An unrealized masterpiece
Review: "Frenzy", made in 1972, marks the 54th and and second to the last film of the great Alfred Hitchcock's career. Made in an era where films were becoming increasingly violent, explicit in voyeuristic camera angles and views, language, and story themes containing sexual innuendo, Frenzy fit in perfectly and had equal or lesser effect to Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece "Psycho." This film stars a totally unknown British cast with extraordinarily uncanny acting ability. Headed by Jon Finch, "Frenzy" moves at a much quicker pace than other Hitchcock films. I think that it was due to the subject matter and material which the film was based upon. This film features one of Hitchcock's favorite themes which places in innocent man on the run from the law because of someone else's wrongful doings. Earlier Hitchcock films that contain this theme that are highly recommended are, "Saboteur" and "North By Northwest." Jon Finch plays as Richard Blaney who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and is accused of being the notorious necktie murderer who has been stocking and raping women and leaving their bodies to be discovered in very odd and public places, always out in the open. Finch's costars are Barry Foster, Anna Massey, Alec McCowen, and Vivien Merchant. McCowen and Merchant are fabulous together as a police inspector and his wife in some of Hitchcock's distinctive humor and themes connected to food. McCowen, coming home from a long day at work to the most inedible foods on the face of the earth. Barry Foster also creates some memorable scenes with his brilliant and hardy British acting style. The DVD contains a documentary containing interviews with, Finch, Massey, Foster, and the screenplay writer Anthony Schaffer. Along with the amusing and classic trailer to the film in which Hitchcock is seen floating on the Thames River in London. Hitchcock's best with some more of his technical genius. A real winner!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Hitchcock film only for those with strong stomachs
Review: "Frenzy," Hitchcock's penultimate film, is not a movie for viewers who are easily shocked. This film, which I thought was fairly weak until I saw it again and was amazed, is definitely Hitch's last great film, but it is not an easy viewing experience. The story of an "innocent" man accidentally accused of committing a gruesome series of "necktie murders," the film combines a number of classic Hitchcockian themes - the framing of an innocent man, urban alienation and frustration,the incompetence of the police, arid love lives, and sexual ambivalence. In a manner similar to "Vertigo," the murderer's identity is revealed halfway through the movie, and we watch in mounting anxiety as the relentless police bureacuracy fasten themselves on the wrong man, while still more murders take place. Warning: One of the crucial (and greatest) scenes in the film is the rape-murder of one of the major female characters which takes place early in the film. This scene is played out in excruciating detail, and seems to last forever. It is particularly affecting because the acts are not glamorized - contrary to what some critics believe, this sequence depicts rape as a disgusting and violent crime, and strangling as an excruciatingly slow and painful act. Indeed, this film is often so gruesome that, were it not for a number of running gags about food, the whole thing would be well-nigh intolerable. If you want a good shiver, "Frenzy" is for you.

Rating:
Summary: FRENZY!!!!!!
Review: "FRENZY" IS Hitchcock's most mature and violent film.It's not Hitch's best like other of his films like PSYCHO or THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH or SABOTEUR.But FRENZY still is not bad.Its just typical Hitchcock.In London a murderer known as the necktie murderer(Barry Foster),terrorizes London.The rapist killer frames a friend (Jon Finch)and police trie to find the framed man.The killer murders more victims framing Finch.

Rating:
Summary: An unrealized masterpiece
Review: "Frenzy", made in 1972, marks the 54th and and second to the last film of the great Alfred Hitchcock's career. Made in an era where films were becoming increasingly violent, explicit in voyeuristic camera angles and views, language, and story themes containing sexual innuendo, Frenzy fit in perfectly and had equal or lesser effect to Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece "Psycho." This film stars a totally unknown British cast with extraordinarily uncanny acting ability. Headed by Jon Finch, "Frenzy" moves at a much quicker pace than other Hitchcock films. I think that it was due to the subject matter and material which the film was based upon. This film features one of Hitchcock's favorite themes which places in innocent man on the run from the law because of someone else's wrongful doings. Earlier Hitchcock films that contain this theme that are highly recommended are, "Saboteur" and "North By Northwest." Jon Finch plays as Richard Blaney who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and is accused of being the notorious necktie murderer who has been stocking and raping women and leaving their bodies to be discovered in very odd and public places, always out in the open. Finch's costars are Barry Foster, Anna Massey, Alec McCowen, and Vivien Merchant. McCowen and Merchant are fabulous together as a police inspector and his wife in some of Hitchcock's distinctive humor and themes connected to food. McCowen, coming home from a long day at work to the most inedible foods on the face of the earth. Barry Foster also creates some memorable scenes with his brilliant and hardy British acting style. The DVD contains a documentary containing interviews with, Finch, Massey, Foster, and the screenplay writer Anthony Schaffer. Along with the amusing and classic trailer to the film in which Hitchcock is seen floating on the Thames River in London. Hitchcock's best with some more of his technical genius. A real winner!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Hitchcock film only for those with strong stomachs
Review: "Frenzy," Hitchcock's penultimate film, is not a movie for viewers who are easily shocked. This film, which I thought was fairly weak until I saw it again and was amazed, is definitely Hitch's last great film, but it is not an easy viewing experience. The story of an "innocent" man accidentally accused of committing a gruesome series of "necktie murders," the film combines a number of classic Hitchcockian themes - the framing of an innocent man, urban alienation and frustration,the incompetence of the police, arid love lives, and sexual ambivalence. In a manner similar to "Vertigo," the murderer's identity is revealed halfway through the movie, and we watch in mounting anxiety as the relentless police bureacuracy fasten themselves on the wrong man, while still more murders take place. Warning: One of the crucial (and greatest) scenes in the film is the rape-murder of one of the major female characters which takes place early in the film. This scene is played out in excruciating detail, and seems to last forever. It is particularly affecting because the acts are not glamorized - contrary to what some critics believe, this sequence depicts rape as a disgusting and violent crime, and strangling as an excruciatingly slow and painful act. Indeed, this film is often so gruesome that, were it not for a number of running gags about food, the whole thing would be well-nigh intolerable. If you want a good shiver, "Frenzy" is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Rusk?
Review: A very underappreciated, but satisfying Hitchcock thriller. Although he uses his old formula of 'innocent man wrongly accused', the film is mordibly funny and a joy to watch. There are certain moments when you know the real star is the director, the master puppeteer who can tell a story so well, who can do almost no wrong. Age and health may have withered his body, but Alfred's genius undeniable. The highlights; Blaney exploding in the club at his ex-wife, the rape and murder of Balney's wife, the murder of Balney's girlfriend, and of coarse, "Mr. Rusk?"...

Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock's second to last film.
Review: After "the Birds," Hitchcock reportedly fell into an artistic "slump," releasing three subsequent films that were cooly received by critics. Folks began to wonder if Hitch still had the "stuff" to make a decent thriller. "Frenzy" answered that question with a resounding "yes." Filmed entirely in the UK, "Frenzy" is about a guy who is framed for a series of "necktie" murders that are making headlines in London. I won't reveal major plot details, but this film has all the elements of a Hitchcock movie: the blonde in peril, mistaken identity, and the usual buildup of suspense. And the ending is among the best and most clever I have seen. This was Hitchcock's second-to-last film. While it doesn't match up to "Vertigo," "Rear Window" or "Psycho," it still is a solid piece of work that should not go unnoticed.

Rating:
Summary: A Stunning Return to Form
Review: After several years of lackluster thrillers, director Alfred Hitchcock returned to England for the first time since "Stage Fright" (1950) and delivered his final masterpiece. Scripted by Anthony Shaffer, "Frenzy" (1972) gets better with each viewing. From its opening shot of the Thames to its sarcophagus-lid conclusion, the film never falters as Hitchcock mixes brutal violence with gourmand black humor and a plethora of striking camera angles. The all-British cast and Ron Goodwin's score are equally superb. One of Hitchcock's all-time best.

Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock's final hurrah.
Review: After the commercial and technical triumph of The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock directed the disappointing Marnie and Torn Curtain, then the solid, but un-Hitchcock-like Topaz. Hitch needed a hit and got it when he returned to his native England for the first time since 1940 for Frenzy.

Frenzy has elements that are jarringly modern when compared to Hitchcock's previous films. There is a fair amount of nudity and graphic sexuality in the film. The hero isn't the purely sympathetic Cary Grant or James Stewart, but instead Jon Finch as an alcholic, chain-smoking anti-hero ex-RAF pilot who can't hold down a job and seems angry at the entire world. In addition, there is a rape and murder scene that is even more shocking and disturbing than the shower scene in Psycho. Hitchcock seemed to be determined to come roaring into the 1970's.

However, using his favorite theme -- the innocent man accused of a crime he didn't commit -- Frenzy does mark a welcome return of the old Hitchcock style. Psycho, The Birds, Marnie and Frenzy were missing the famous Hitchcock humor, but Frenzy has it in spades. Most hilarious are the attempts at gourmet cooking by the police inspector's wife (Vivien Merchant), much to the dismay of the inspector (a wonderful Alec McCowen). And as he does in his best films, Hitchcock warps our perception and makes us root for the wrong person (when Barry Foster's necktie killer has to retrieve a tie pin stuck between one of his victim's fingers, we find ourselves rooting for him a la Norman Bates in Psycho).

Hitchcock only made one more film after this -- the disappointing Family Plot. However, in Frenzy we have one last prime example of The Master's brilliance.

Rating:
Summary: The Return of the Master
Review: Alfred Hitchcock goes back to his native England for the first time in decades for a gritty, clever, murder mystery. Unlike the typical Hitchcock film, the characters are regular blokes, blue-collar workers, who aren't attractive or glamorous like Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Instead, we are treated to some great performances from the best character actors England has to offer. Although Topaz doesn't have the typical Hitchcock polish, as far as background and settings are concerned, there are plenty of things for fans to enjoy. The plot surrounds an innocent man (Jon Finch) suspected of being a serial killer murdering London women with a necktie. While he's on the run, with the help of his girlfriend (Barbara Leigh-Hunt), the evidence seems to point more and more against him, trying the loyalty of his closest friends. Unlike the mistaken identity characters in previous Hitchcock movies, Finch's character is not so sympathetic, we aren't drawn to him, nor do we necessarily like him. And this is one of the reasons Frenzy is an interesting film. The new freedom filmmakers had in the early seventies allowed the director to use cruder language and brief nudity. If you're used to the gentle double entendre banter of Hitchcock's film work from the 1950s, Frenzy may be a little shocking. I much prefer the more "classy" Hitchcock touch myself, but once you get past the naturalistic style, you'll enjoy the film and relish the performances.