Frenzy (1972) Serial Killer Thriller Noir

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (The 39 Steps, Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho).

Music by Ron Goodwin, Cinematography by Gilbert Taylor (Repulsion, Flash Gordon), with an uncredited Leonard J. South.

Written by Anthony Shaffer and Arthur La Bern and based on La Bern's novel "Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square" 

The film stars Jon Finch (Macbeth) as ex RAF pilot Richard Ian "Dick" Blaney a recently fired bartender, Alec McCowen (The Cruel Sea, A Night To Remember) as Chief Inspector Timothy Oxford, Barry Foster (Ryan's Daughter) as fruit merchant Robert "Bob" Rusk, Billie Whitelaw as Hetty Porter, Anna Massey as Dick Blaney's barmaid girlfriend Barbara Jane "Babs" Milligan, Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Dick Blaney's ex wife Brenda Margaret Blaney, Bernard Cribbins (Fawlty Towers) as Felix Forsythe as Dick and Babs boss.

Jon Finch as Richard Ian "Dick" Blaney 

 Barry Foster as fruit merchant Robert "Bob" Rusk

Anna Massey as Dick's barmaid girlfriend Barbara Jane "Babs" Milligan

Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Jon's ex wife Brenda Margaret Blaney

Alec McCowen as Chief Inspector Timothy Oxford

Bernard Cribbins as Felix Forsythe

Also in the cast, Vivien Merchant as Mrs. Oxford, Michael Bates as Sergeant Spearman, Jean Marsh as Monica Barling Brenda's spinsterish secretary, Clive Swift as Johnny Porter a friend of Dick's, Madge Ryan as Mrs. Davison, Elsie Randolph as Gladys, John Boxer as Sir George, Jimmy Gardner as Hotel Porter, Gerald Sim as Solicitor in Pub, Noel Johnson as Doctor in Pub, Rita Webb as Mrs. Rusk (uncredited), Michael Sheard as Jim, Rusk's friend in pub (uncredited), Richard Stapley as Truck Driver (uncredited), Susan Travers as Rusk's final victim (uncredited).

Story

London is plagued by a serial killer. M.O.?, he strangles women with his necktie and dumps their nude bodies wherever it's convenient around the city. The latest floats up to a small ceremony by County Hall, South Bank, along the Thames to announce ironically, an environmental clean up of the river. Here is where Hitchcock makes his signature cameo as part of the crowd.

The signature cameo

The politician interrupted from his speech enquires loudly "if the woman victim is wearing an Eaton tie?"  A touch of Hitchcockian Humor. 

The latest "Necktie Killer" victim

We cut to Dick Blaney who finishes up his personal wardrobe (i.e knotting his necktie, a nice segue, lol) and heads downstairs to work at The Globe pub, Bow Street, Covent Garden. The job must come with room and board, but not free drinks.

At The Globe Dick is playing hide the sausage with barmaid Babs. The boss Felix Forsythe is definitely steamed about it. Jealous. When Dick reaches the bar he grabs a glass and fills it with a shot of booze from the optic. Felix sees this and accuses Dick of stealing drinks. With Babs as a witness, he gets in a row with Felix.

snitchin' booze from the optic

Felix Forsythe: A thief or a boozer, it's all the same to me. I don't need either one as a barman, Quite a part from the fact that half the time he's pulling your tits instead of pulling pints.

Babs Milligan: No look here...

Felix Forsythe: He can't keep his hands off you! The customers are always talkin' about it.

Babs Milligan: And what about you? Always "fingering" me.

Dick says he was going to pay but Felix is actually more pissed off because of Dick making it with  Babs, who he apparently fancied for himself. You know the basic story Felix fires Dick but Dick tells him he quit, and tells Felix that he'll come back for his belongings later.

Dick heads out into Covent Garden Market on Henrietta Street, and there runs into his old pal Robert "Bob" Rusk at his produce stand. 

Dick tells him his troubles and Bob offers him some cash if he needs it. Dick tells him no, but in parting Bob gives him a tip on a sure thing in an upcoming horse race. 

Dick heads over to Oxford Street and visits his ex wife Brenda at her Blaney Bureau a "Friendship and Marriage" agency. Here we get some Hitchcockian humor that acts a bit like a suspense relief valve. 

Coming out of Brenda's office, we see a Mrs. Davison, an overbearing woman, and her perfect mate Neville Salt, a meek man. They come out of door and down the stairs and eventually out of earshot. 

Neville Salt: [about his fiancée's deceased spouse] Oh, a neat man was he, then?

Mrs. Davison: He liked a tidy place. So do I, come to that. [hits his shoulder with a glove]

Mrs. Davison: Dandruff. We'll have to get you something for that.

Inside Brenda's outer office is Monica Barling, Brenda's dowdy secretary. Her hair is torqued back into a braid, She looks to be wound a little too tight.  

Brenda is a blonde with a permanent do that looks sort of helmet shaped and Marion Crane-ish. She's not a great beauty but not bad looking either.

She's smartly dressed and successful. By the way Dick reacts to her she immediately senses somethings wrong. 

Brenda Blaney: We are bitter today. What's the matter?

Richard Blaney: Oh, I'm sorry. I had a bad day, that's all. I lost my job.

Brenda Blaney: How?

Richard Blaney: Well, I got fired, that's how. What do you think, I mislaid it?

They argue a bit not missing a beat, kind of for old times sakes, since they were good enough at it to get divorced. Brenda invites Dick to dinner. Dick accepts. They have a nice dinner. 

He walks her home, He leaves her at the door and ends up spending the night in a doss house with the rest of the stewbums. 

He doesn't find out until it's almost stolen by a wino in the next bunk that Brenda slipped some money into his jacket's breast pocket. 

The next day Bob Rusk makes his appearance in Brenda's office when her secretary left for lunch. Bob is one of ger "failed" cases. He requires special "needs."

We never find out what exactly were Bob's special "needs" but here is a good example of leaving it up to the audiences imaginations. Whatever you personally are going to conjure up in your head is gonna be better than anything Hitchcock could show on the screen. He walks right in on Brenda. 

Bob: You're my kind of woman.

Bob getting his rocks off...

Brenda's reaction when she realizes that Bob is the Necktie Strangler.

Bob rapes Brenda and then strangles her with his tie. Good ol' Bob is the Necktie Strangler "a lunatic with stains on his pants," and it goes Noirsville when poor Dick gets blamed for it. 

This sequence is almost on par with the Psycho shower scene. It's brutally realistic.

Noirsville 

After Psycho (which is probably my favorite Hitchcock), Alfred Hitchcock made The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, worked on Kaleidoscope (unfinished) and Topaz which I honestly don't even remember seeing. None of the ones that I've seen between Psycho and Frenzy are anything I'd go out of my way to watch anytime soon, but I've caught The Birds again recently playing on TCM. I think it was Rod Taylor day or week. A heads up, they never show his early Neo Noir Darker Than Amber, it's the best of the two Travis McGee films made so far, check it out, needs a restoration. 

So with Frenzy we go back to what Hitchcock does best murder and suspense, with a sprinkling of haute cuisine site gags and dashes of picaresque humor, sort of a suspense pressure relief valve to let the audience get a breather before the next twist. He's back in the UK and using lots of great on location sequences. The cinematography by Gilbert Taylor is excellent. 

The acting by basically unknown actors (to us here in the U.S., anyway) is flawless, the only cast member I really recognized from something else is Bernard Cribbins from Fawlty Towers. 

If I had to list my favorite Hitchcock films that I could watch over and over they would be The 39 Steps, Saboteur, Foreign Correspondent, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellbound, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho, Frenzy, and Family Plot.

Bravo Hitch a 10/10. There is a hilarious trailer for the film here: 

Frenzy (1972) - Original Theatrical Trailer

"Strangulations, rapes, close shaves, pursuit, the arrest of an innocent, amusing character bits--none of these things is especially meaningful except in Hitchcock, for whom method is meaning, and whose perfection of method involves an evident passion. Other directors make movies about passion. Hitchcock makes his with passion, which is why watching "Frenzy" is like riding a roller coaster in total darkness. You can never be quite sure when you're going to start a terrifying new descent or take a sudden turn to the left or right. The agony is exquisite." (Vincent Canby - July 2, 1972, NY Times)