Frenzy (1972)

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The only thing that this movie has in common with Hitchcock's past work is his misogyny--never before displayed so relentlessly, so sleazily, and with such absence of redeeming features. Come the screen liberties of the seventies, dirty old men of the cinema could really let it rip, and finally even Hitch got to do a giant close-up of a tit. Bless! The Master of Suspense finally got his suspenders down--and oh, my eyes, my eyes!The screenplay is tragicomically bad, a cringe-fest from start to finish, both technically (if you need to teach Clunky Exposition 101, look no further) and, supremely, in content. In the first five minutes two men tell us the murder of women has a "silver lining"--they are getting raped first. Oh joy. The characterization of women, with somewhat of an exception of Babs (who'll nevertheless get raped, murdered, and humiliated post mortem), is invariably awful--they are either monsters or treated as such, even when there's no clue why that should be so (Blaney's ex-wife being a case in point. Her sins, apparently, are that she divorced Blaney AND became a successful businesswoman.) The secretary, played by Jean Marsh, is also grossly insulted by Blaney ("she should be paired up with a 700 pound Japanese wrestler to iron out her creases" WTF?), out of the blue, she did nothing to him. Even the cameo couple we see in the beginning in Blaney's wife's matrimonial office gives us the woman as the monstrous shrew and the man as her hapless prey. The inspector's pretentious wannabe gourmet-cook wife isn't a monster but a standing joke, so forced and badly played it's torture to watch their scenes.I feel bad for the many fine actors in this who were probably chuffed to work with Hitchcock, just to find themselves neck deep in a garbage truck. Definitely a top contender if not the winner in a Worst Movie By A Great Director competition.

In FRENZY, Hitchcock returns to his beloved London, and throughout the film one gets the impression that he was really enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of his city. The wonderful Cockney accents keep coming up, the typical wisecracks, all conjure up a wonderful plot, based on one of the Master's favorite themes: the wrongly accused man who has been framed, and fights outrageous (mis)fortune.Direction is inspired, acting is generally of the highest order, although a stronger actor than Finch might have elevated FRENZY to masterpiece status. In contrast, Foster is superb as the tie murderer, clearly intelligent enough to frame Finch and to lure his victims, and yet bearing some signs of split personality, both loving and despising women. The rape scene with Barbra Leigh-Hunt is disturbing even today, especially because of they way he changes from a crescendo of lust to one of hatred once he is done. Alec McCowen as the chief inspector, and Vivien Merchant, as his wife, steal the show with some truly delicious cullinary discussions, with McCowen wishing he could just eat fish and chips, while Merchant keeps coming up with pig's trotter and other supposed French delights. The drink she makes for a visiting police inspector is one of the film's comic highlights, in all its British understatement. In fact, the McCowen-Merchant relationship is the only durable one in the film - all the others break down tragically and otherwise, but always with darkly comic touches.Photography is very economical but extremely well done, and script is great, with an ending that is textbook stuff in its simplicity and objectivity: "You are not wearing your tie, Mr Rusk". FRENZY is reminiscent of other films in Hitch's early British period, notably THE 39 STEPS and YOUNG AND INNOCENT, but imbued with the cynicism of the 1970s. Hitch was on top form here.Strongly recommended. 8/10

Thriller ?! This is not thriller, not even by standards of it's own time. From the very beginning everything is perfectly clear. No mystery, no dilemmas or twists, murderer is known from the beginning, movie is linear and at the very edge of boring. Story that could have been told as single episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents is needlessly stretched to 2 hours of dull movie. There are some interesting moments, like, for example, dinners that wife makes to inspector or breaking fingers to stiff corpse, but, besides few asses and breasts here and there, it is everything that more or less hold attention in this movie. From Hitchcock I expected a whole lot more than this.

Frenzy is one of the better Hitchcock movies out there (I've seen most of them), largely due to stunning cinematography, well-written dialogue, and a suspenseful story. Some sections of the movie may seem a bit slow to modern viewers, but many of these scenes are saved by the dialogue and acting. The movie hasn't aged terrifically, but that shouldn't come as much of a surprise considering how old it is. Frenzy isn't perfect; parts of it, such as the rape scene and the dinner scenes, are pretty over-the-top, but, overall, the movie's strengths compensate for its shortcomings. Frenzy may not rank among Hitchcock's very best work, but I'd still say it's a must-watch for fans of the genre. 8/10.