Frenzy (1972)

John Chard

8.0

Aug 30, 2020

Chillingly humorous Hitchcock piece of work. It's always great to take a revisit to Frenzy some years after your last viewing, to re-evaluate it post haste. As a proud Englishman it gives me great pleasure to see the Master back in England capturing the English time frame of London perfectly, for the film works because we really get the vibe of the place and believe in the characters who frequent the area, Hitch delivers this no problem at all. The story stands up as genuine thriller material, some crazy fruit loop is strangling women with neck ties and the police are trailing the wrong…

This is one of those thrillers that is in no way a whodunnit as it becomes evident very early on that the killer is who you think it is going to be. But that is not sloppy film making, it is entirely deliberate, for the mystery here is not who is the killer, but will he get away with it, and what will happen to our hero? It is a well plotted piece, and, oddly, based on a true story. [see Jack The Stripper - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammersmith_nude_murders] Some fine performances from good, steady actors, all giving well rounded characterisations, especially Barry Foster and Billie…

CinemaSerf

7.0

May 28, 2023

This is probably my least favourite Hitchcock story. It is still cleverly constructed, but somehow it has a vulgarity to it that I rather struggled with. The premiss is a serial killer who has been brutally killing women using a neck tie, then dumping their bodies. The police are baffled until "Brenda Blaney" (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) is found raped and killed in her office, and suspicion falls on her ex husband "Dick" (Jon Finch). He flees, is apprehended and judicial process takes it's course. We all know who actually killed "Brenda" so insofar as this is a murder mystery, then that's that. It is…