Frenzy (1972)
…………………………………………………
Frenzy Movie Review
Frenzy is a 1972 thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jon Finch, Barry Foster and Alec McCowen. It’s a terrific, unexpectedly great movie.
………………………………………………….
“Do I look like a sex murderer to you?
Can you imagine me creeping around London,
strangling all those women with ties?
That’s ridiculous… For a start, I only own two“
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
The film follows a man who is wrongly accused of the crimes he did not commit when in fact his friend killed both women. This is your regular setup for a Hitchcock classic including a man on the run, although admittedly this time he is caught rather soon, and wrongly accused of murder. But that twist that his friend is the one responsible for his crimes is a welcome, interesting one, though it wasn’t made use of all too excitingly.
The main reason why this film works so incredibly well lies in its execution. The film came out in 1972 and it does have some trappings of that era such as nudity and excessive violence as we literally witness an entire murder step by step. That was overwhelming but thankfully, Hitch otherwise made this movie in such a classic 40s and 50s manner with a lot of great build-up, terrific dialogue and old-fashioned suspense. The mix most definitely works as the film ended up being incredibly entertaining, but also quite realistic as there were a lot of murderers similar to Rusk.
Jon Finch gave the weakest performance as the protagonist Blaney in my opinion. He isn’t bad, but he’s just rather subpar when it comes to the other players here. Barry Foster is much better and highly believable as the murderer. The women serve their purpose, but aren’t too important as they are the victims here.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
But the standouts of the entire film are Alec McCowen and Vivien Merchant. This comedic duo is honestly hilarious and they made me laugh quite a bit. He is the detective who tries to solve the case and she is his wife who constantly invents new, daring meals which turn out to be absolutely horrible. Watching his disgusted reactions at the food he gets and throwing it away cracked me up each time. It’s basically one recurring gag, but gloriously replayed throughout and adding a lot of necessary playfulness to an otherwise very dark movie.
The cooking mishaps are definitely some of my favorite sequences in Frenzy which has a lot of memorable scenes such as the first murder and of course the truck scene which makes you root for the murderer rather successfully. Hitchcock used his usual suspense tricks so well here and it’s a shame that the rest of his late movies aren’t as great as this one is.
Frenzy definitely has its flaws such as a somewhat abrupt ending and, as I said above, they really did not make use of the premise with the protagonist’s friend being a murderer all that much which is a shame. But the movie is phenomenally shot with a couple of glorious takes and angles, only further complementing the suspense which is very much felt. The score is also very good as is the dialogue which is realistic and at times highly amusing and funny.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
Yes, the master of suspense certainly staged a one-off comeback with this picture which has a lot of his usual directorial flair so brilliantly executed. It is in my opinion his best “wrongly accused man on the run” film after ‘North by Northwest’ which is high praise indeed. And it’s such a shame that more people do not discover this hidden gem from one of the legends of cinema.
Apart from obligatory 70s violence, Frenzy is otherwise a return to classic Hitchcock’s thrillers for the better as it has amazing cinematography, great build-up and well utilized suspense. It’s one of his best “wrongly accused man on the run” type films which is very realistic in approach and execution while being so well acted across the board. The standouts are Alec McCowen and Vivien Merchant whose hilarious culinary mishaps add a lot of playful humor that serves as a palate cleanser for an otherwise very dark movie. Frenzy surely is one of the director’s better and most underrated gems.
