Frenzy

Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock's finest film.
Review: FRENZY is suspenseful entertainment from beginning to end. Jon Finch delivers an edgy performance in this classic Hitchcock thriller. The Necktie Murderer is on the loose in London but the police are after the wrong man. A must-see for the director's fans.

Rating:
Summary: Droll and dark Hitchcock suspense film
Review: Frenzy was a homecoming of sorts as it was Hitch's first film shot in the UK since he left during the 40's. I would disagree with those who claim that Frenzy can't stand with Hitch's best work; Hitch's droll and dark sense of humor change what could have been a run of the mill thriller into a minor masterpiece. The best bits in Frenzy are every bit as startling and powerful as those in Rear Window, Vertigo and North by Northwest. Although his wife Alma's heart attack couldn't have informed the pre-production stages of the script and film, it certainly had an impact on the atomsphere captured in the film. There is an underlying darkness here only hinted at before (most explicitly in The Birds, Vertigo and Marnie).

The performances are uniformly excellent. The fact that Hitch chose stage actors and lesser known British film actors for this film gives it a bit more grit and reality than his earlier films. Anthony Schaffer's script plays with the routine cliches of suspense films. A number of sequences (including the scene where the murderer is trying to retrieve a bit of incriminating evidence from one of his victims) flirt with sardonic humor. The dialog like most of Hitch's films is outstanding. Here Schaffer, again, turns many of the cliches (some from Hitch's own films) from film dialog into a droll commentary on both the action and the film audience as observers.

The extras included on this DVD are particularly outstanding given the standing this film has with most film buffs. The new interviews with Anna Massey, Jon Finch and others sheds considerable light on Hitch's methods during the making of the film and discounts a number of myths about him (including the idea that he didn't really work much with the actors. While he trusted the actor's instincts he also recognized that a well rehearsed film is akin to a storyboarded film; it's clear that preparation for both aspects were equally important).

Why is this film a "lesser" Hitchcock for most critics? It probably has to do with the more contemporary edge in some of the scenes. Frenzy has more in common with the brutality evident in early Hitchcock classics like Murder than with Rear Window or Shadow of a Doubt (a film that shares a lot of the same themes although Frenzy is a darker, more contemporary take on the same type of story). Frenzy clearly is Hitch's last great film and although it occasionally slips, its best moments are every bit the equal of his best films. On the whole the strengths of Frenzy outweight the weaknesses and make this terrific film a must for Hitch fans. One interesting observation in closing about Frenzy. Everybody points to Hitch's classic films as influencing Brian DePalma. It's clear that DePalma (who had already begun making films prior to 1972)borrowed more from Frenzy than other Hitchcock classics. Even a film like DePalma's Sisters (released the year after Frenzy) owes a great debt to this film.

Rating:
Summary: Not the Best, but Pretty Good
Review: FRENZY was made in the twilight of Hitchcock's career, so don't expect the suspense and quality of PSYCHO or THE BIRDS. This is an average movie that is a cut above horror films today. It's about London being terrorized by the brutal Necktie Murderer, a killer who rapes women then strangles them with his necktie. A loser is blamed when his ex-wife is killed, but it's someone else who's framing him. This was Hitch's first film to feature nudity, which is limited to discreet breast shots (think TITANIC). The dinner scenes between a husband and wife a darkly funny, with some VERY disgusting dishes being served. (Squid, anyone?) There are a few classic Hitchcock touches, like the scene where Brenda's secretary returns. We know that Brenda's dead, and we wait and wait for her scream. The suspense builds somewhat towards the end, but the plot isn't all that original or engaging. Still worth a look though.

Rating:
Summary: Frenzy is a top-notch thriller.
Review: Frenzy was the first Alfred Hitchcock film to earn an R rating (Psycho later got an R rating when released to home video). And it is definitely one of his most suspenseful ventures into the perversity of man. In it, London is being terrorized by a criminal known only as the Necktie Murderer, who goes around, luring in women, then raping them and strangling them with his necktie. Pretty soon, an innocent man is accused of the crimes because if the overwhelming circumstancial evidence and must elude the police and find the real killer in order to clear his name.

Rating:
Summary: Hitch's most brutal shocker really messes with your mind!
Review: FRENZY, Hitchcock's penultimate film, was a critical and commercial success on its 1972 release, but has never become legendary the way PSYCHO, VERTIGO, or THE BIRDS have. This is partially because Hitchcock uses no glamorous movie stars here - the performers are all London stage veterans, not Hollywood personalities - and partially because this is a very unpleasant and disturbing work that leaves the viewer feeling rather stained and dirty afterwards. In FRENZY, Hitchcock culminates a lifetime of obsession with the figure of the unjustly accused man AND the rape-murder of a blonde woman. The film is the story of Dick Blaney (J. Finch), who is imprisoned as London's "Necktie Murderer" after both his ex-wife and his girlfriend are found dead. Blaney knows that the real murderer is his "friend," grocer Bob Rusk, and he breaks out of prison to catch and kill Rusk. He is prevented from doing so only by Inspector Oxford of Scotland Yard, who, unbeknownst to Blaney, has been on the trail of the real killer for some time. FRENZY disturbs because the "wrongly accused man," is a far from sympathetic character. Blaney is crude, violent and selfish, and is certainly capable of murder (hence his former profession as a soldier), and indeed, we see him sink to the level of Bob Rusk at the end of the film. On the other hand, the actual killer, like PSYCHO'S Norman Bates, seems like a calm, generous man who "loves flowers and fruit," and "has things to give," but who is actually a volcano of rage and hate. These complex characterizations leave the viewer in an uneasy frame of mind, as we are forced to identify with characters who are morally ambiguous, to say the least! The film's treatment of women is also horrifying. The rape-murder of Brenda Blaney (B. Leigh-Hunt) is the single longest scene in the film, and is indeed drawn out to a near-excruciating length. The camera dwells on the sight of Brenda's violation and strangling with an unbearable explicitness. Brenda wears a pale green sheath similar to Melanie's dress in THE BIRDS, and it seems that Hitchcock symbolically extinguished the figure of the chilly blonde who preoccupied him for so long. Also, FRENZY makes a constant connection between women, food, sex and pollution that is in fact quite repugnant. Despite all of this, FRENZY fascinates because it is so well-made, so elegantly directed, and so humourous. Our emotions are quite spectacularly manipulated by this film - you will find yourself cringing in revulsion one moment and laughing out loud the next, and this strange dichotomy makes for a - to say the least - unique viewing experience. A violent, funny and quite profound film that rewards repeated viewings, if you have the guts for it.

Rating:
Summary: "Minor" masterpiece by the great Hitchcock
Review: Gritty and very un-Hollywood, this movie explores many of Hitchcock's favorite themes, but with a new look and a new edge to them. The most effective shot is when Rusk guides the girlfriend up to his room, "Have I told you you're my type of woman," he says as he closes the door. The camera very slowly pulls back, down the stairs, across the street, where the sights and sounds of life go on as normal, and where the camera lingers, filling the viewer with the hope and expectation that she'll escape and emerge from the building. Of course, it doesn't happen -- we know what is really happening, after his disturbing murder/rape of Blaney's ex-wife. Technically brilliant.

Rating:
Summary: Very well done thriller!
Review: Hitch is obviously enjoying the black humour on us at our expense here...this is a very well done film with an excellent pace and super camera work. Hitch is very fine here...much better than Topaz!!!

Rating:
Summary: Almost.
Review: Hitch made a few movies that almost cut it, but didn't. Frenzy
is one of them. A good plot, admittedly, but mishandled and
overplayed enough to be grating at times.

Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock in full gear here
Review: Hitchcock entered the seventies with his last great film, a delicious thriller with a down on his luck ex-RAF pilot with a hot temper who is suspected of a rash of rape/strangulations in London. In typical Hitchcock fashion, a load of circumstancial evidence is heaped on an innocent man, and matters aren't helped any when his ex-wife and girlfriend turn up as the latest victims. With all the plot twists, black humor, and creative camerawork, Hitchcock must have enjoyed this immensely. Highly recommended, but avoid the butchered TV version.

Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock's Final Masterpiece
Review: Hitchcock had been in a bit of an artistic slump when, after some thirty years, he returned to England for this, his next to last film--and the result was his final masterpiece.

Scripted with ghoulish humor by Anthony Schaffer, FRENZY opens with a ceremony on the banks of the Thames in which Londoners inagurate legislation to rid the river of pollutants... only to have the corpse of a naked woman wash ashore in the midst of their celebrations. She has been strangled with a tie--the latest victim of a serial killer who savagely rapes and then murders his victims by twisting his necktie around their throats. With the city in a panic and Scotland Yard desperate to catch the killer, suspicion falls on a down-on-his-luck bartender named Richard Blaney. Trouble is, he isn't the killer.

In a sense, FRENZY has a strangely Dickensian flavor. It is a film that by and large seems to happen in public places: pubs, parks, offices, hotels, and most particularly Covent Garden with its constant hustle and bustle that serves to conceal horrors that occur inches away from the safety of the crowds. Indeed, the city seems almost a "master character" in the film, constantly pressing in upon the humans that inhabit it. Fans of the British comedy series "Keeping Up Appearances" will recognize Clive Swift in a minor role, but for the most part the cast consists of unknowns--but while they lack name recognition they certainly do not lack for talent, playing with a realism that seems completely unstudied. Leading man Jon Finch (Richard Blaney) is perfectly cast as the attractive but disreputable suspect on the run, and he is equaled by his chum Barry Foster (Robert Rusk.) A special mention must also be made of the two female leads, Anna Massey and Barbara Leigh-Hunt--not to mention the host of supporting characters who bring the entire panorama of the great city to life.

In his earlier films, Hitchcock generally preferred to work by inference, implying danger and violence rather than openly showing it on the screen. PSYCHO broke the mold, and with FRENZY Hitchcock presents a sequence that many believe equals the notorious "shower scene:" a horrific rape and slow strangulation that leaves the viewer simply stunned. But having given us this horror, Hitchcock ups it with a scene in which we see no violence at all: just a camera shot that glides away from an apartment door, down the stairs, through the hall, and out into the busy street... as we shudder with the knowledge that the woman who just entered that apartment door is now being horrifically raped and murdered.

Hitchcock made one more film, a comic wink with twists of suspense starring Karen Black, Bruce Dern, and Barbara Harris called FAMILY PLOT--and it is an enjoyable film in its own right. But it is FRENZY that is the final jewel in the Hitchcock crown, a film to rank among his best. The DVD presentation includes a number of extras--including numerous interviews with the cast--that Hitchcock fans will find fascinating. All in all, FRENZY is fearsome, wickedly funny, and strongly recommended... but not for the faint of heart!

--GFT (Amazon.com Review)--