Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 murder mystery Frenzy: my review of the film

Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 murder mystery Frenzy: my review of the film

Director Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 British murder mystery Frenzy takes everything from his best films and puts them all into 1 entertaining fun ride revolving around an unemployed hard-luck bartender named Richard--played by Jon Finch-- who becomes the perfect fall-guy for a series of grisly murders committed with neckties.

As he does in almost all of his movies, Hitchcock reveals to us--the viewers-- early on in the film who the real necktie killer is and dedicates the remaining 3/4 of the film to having the characters solve this mystery. In Richard Blaney, Hitchcock provides us with a perfect suspect for committing the murders and no tangible reason to believe in his innocence other than intuition and faith. Hitchcock likes to play with the viewers and the main character in this fashion. For instance, in his 1942 film Saboteur, the accused protagonist finds a blind man who believes in his innocence. And in his 1938 murder mystery The Lady Vanishes, we have a similar situation, only this time the protagonist is a young woman who insists on the existence of a British agent who disappears on a train when no one but her has seen the agent.

But Frenzy is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies because you could see him making a transition in the style in which he shot movies in up to that point, similar to another great director named Stanley Kubrick who's style changed radically from the 1964 political satire Dr. Strangelove to his 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. I believe that Frenzy, like 2001, marked a new direction for Hitchcock. Frenzy marked the 1st time he chose to show murder including sexual assault in graphic detail. In his past films, these elements would have been suggested by either dialogue or in a contextual scene in which the actual scene itself would have been edited out. Also, this film marked a return, of sorts, to his roots as a British director and working with actors who weren't household names. As 1 of Hitchcock's last films, Frenzy reveals hints that his powers hadn't diminished and were, in fact, becoming even greater. If you haven't seen this film, you should and this is 1 Criterion should definitely add to their collection.