You won't be disappointed!

Simply A Masterpiece

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

As this Hitchcock thriller opens a politician is standing by the Thames giving a speech about cleaning up the river… moments later a member of the crowd spots the body of a woman in the river; naked apart from the tie round her neck. She is clearly a victim of the 'Necktie Killer' who has been murdering women in the capital. We then cut to Richard Blaney a former RAF Squadron Leader who is down on his luck; fired from his job in a pub he goes to see his friend Robert Rusk, a Covent Garden vegetable seller before seeing his ex-wife, who runs a match-making agency, they have a meal together then he goes off to sleep in a hostel not realising that she has slipped twenty pounds in to his pocket. The next day Rusk visits Mrs Blaney and viciously murders her. Shortly after Blaney goes to see his wife again but leaves when nobody answers the door. As he leaves her assistant returns and discovers the body. Blaney is soon the number one suspect; all the evidence points to him and the only people who seems to believe him are Babs Milligan the barmaid at the pub he worked at and Rusk of course but he obviously can't be trusted and soon directs the police to Blaney.The most famous murder in a Hitchcock film is obviously the 'Psycho' shower scene; this manages to be more disturbing though. The murder of Blaney's ex-wife lacks any music and there are no multiple-cuts; instead it feels very real and is difficult to watch. The fact that we've seen this murder means there is no suspicion about who the killer is but that doesn't reduce the tension; because we know Blaney is innocent there is the worry that he will get arrested and the real killer go free. With such a dark subject matter some light relief is required and this is provided by scenes where we see the police officer investigating the case having to endure his wife's 'fancy' cooking. The film does show its age at times, and not just because of the way the London skyline has changed since it was made… to say some attitudes expressed by characters aren't PC is an understatement and are likely to shock modern viewers; one just has to accept that these are just character views and they were different times. The cast does a solid job; Jon Finch plays Blaney as a not entirely sympathetic manner so we can understand why people are so likely to believe he is the killer; Barry Foster is delightfully disturbing as Rusk; a sharp-suited man who it is equally easy to believe people wouldn't suspect and Anna Massey is solid as Babs. The content means that this film won't be for everybody but if you are a Hitchcock fan or enjoy gritty thrillers I'd certainly recommend this.

"Frenzy" There's all the mood we've seen in hundreds of Hitchcock movies, a murder, a mystery, an investigation, and so on. Not that this is bad, because Hitchcock knows how to create a tense and manipulate the signs like nobody, and this is certainly not his best film of the genre, but it is a mature film, and that has its charm. We have here the story of Richard Ian Blaney (Jon Finch), a former military man who has serious financial and temperament problems, and when he realizes he is the main suspect in a wave of murders taking place in London. The script is based on a book, and there is nothing new or revolutionary about it, with many loose ends and continuation problems, yet it catches the viewer, does not charm, but distracts and amuses. With a beautiful photograph, beautiful soundtrack, and great camera angles, including some beautiful sequential plans and spectacular aerial footage for the time, technically the film is incredible, although some cuts are visible in scenes that give some continuation problem. All on-screen performances are very good, and here we have a Hitchcock already on his way to the end of his career without losing the good level of his work. "Frenesi" has a good comedic relief, great direction and a script that only pleases, with some problems already mentioned, "Frenesi" will not be among the best films of Hitchcock, but still, and a good movie.

A man finds himself on the run from police when his ex-wife is found dead and his ex-wife's employee spots her husband leaving the crime scene. Her husband isn't responsible for the crime and must fight to prove his innocence.For the most part, Frenzy is quite a darkly plotted crime film and is notably more risqué than many of his previous films; we witness a rape and an actresses bare breasts exposed which were not the sort of things that you'd normally see in a Hitchcock film. These things undoubtedly make Frenzy a memorable film, but possibly not entirely for the right reasons....Frenzy is quite slow-paced, but I feel that it may be deliberately slow (it kind of establishes Blaney as something of a lovable rogue which perhaps helps to get the audience on his side). The film does suffer from being a bit soapy at times (many of the scenes involving Blaney, Babs and Forsythe felt a little unnecessary and for me kind of got in the way of moving things along).Another thing that I found slightly disappointing about this film is that it isn't played out as a mystery film and is one that is more about a wrongly accused man fighting to prove his innocence. The way that the story is played out was effective enough to hold my interest (in the sense that I wanted to see how Blaney would finally expose Rusk). But personally, I would have preferred it if the killer's identity had been kept a secret and the audience then had to figure out who the killer was (this to me would have made it far more exciting). However, Hitchcock and screenwriter Anthony Schaffer were working from a novel so I can't really criticise either of them for the story that was presented to me.Frenzy is also probably one of the most tonally inconsistent films that I've seen from Hitchcock; the basic plot is quite dark and yes it contains that one brutal scene, but then he also seems to try some comedic touches to the film; the scene with the Inspector and his wife and her rather odd choices of cuisine or the scene where Rusk is in the potato truck with the corpse. It's possible that Hitchcock was trying to counter-balance a lot of the grim plot mechanics with some light-hearted relief. Although this seems a bit odd when watching the film, the two conflicting tones do serve each other fairly well.Hitchcock's camera work is flawless as always and observant viewers will spot Hitchcock's cameo role in this film (he's actually featured in more than one scene in this film). Frenzy has enough strengths to make it worth watching, but this is not classic Hitchcock in my book.

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.