Skip over navigation

Help

Frenzy on DVD (1972)

Frenzy cover art
Play Frenzy trailer
Average rating: 70%
1114414142037
3.5
from 556 members
 
Starring: Jon Finch, Alec McCowen, Barry Foster, Billie Whitelaw, Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh Hunt, Bernard Cribbins, Vivien Merchant
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Studio: UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK
Run time: 110 mins
Certificate: 18
Collections: 100 Top Thrillers
Genres: Thriller
Languages: English
Released: 21/04/2003

Brief synopsis of Frenzy

FRENZY was Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate film--and the first film he'd made in England in 20 years. Based on an Arthur La Bern novel, the film focuses on many of the same motifs that Hitchcock had obsessively examined throughout his life's work: the wrong man theme, doubling (in which one person acts out the repressed violence of another), and the general public's thirst for sex and violence. Hitchcock had made films featuring Jack the Ripper-type killers before, including THE LODGER in 1926, a silent movie about a series of murders in London and a mysterious man who appears to be guilty of the crimes. In FRENZY, Hitchcock goes mod with this blackly comic story about a sex criminal--the Necktie Killer--plaguing post-Carnaby London. An innocent man who is suspected by police as the murderer must fight to nab the real perpetrator and clear his name. Though not as well-known as his other films, FRENZY marked a striking return to form for the famed director. Anthony Shaffer's script is excellent, and Jon Finch brings distinctive qualities to his role as the classic Hitchcock man-accused hero.

Related

Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate film saw him return to his British roots with this thriller about a necktie murderer causing havoc in London. Jon Finch plays the chief suspect but, typically, Hitchcock is more interested in black humour than a simple whodunnit. Lots of typical Hitchcockian touches are on show — a roving, restless camera; dark shots of fleeing footsteps at the edge of our view; a shocking corpse when least expected… Sleuth author Anthony Shaffer wrote the screenplay and there's plenty of other local talent on display, including Alec McCowen, Vivien Merchant and the excellent Billie Whitelaw. While some regard this as inferior fare, it remains an unsettling piece.

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Has-been, unconvincing, cliché-ridden thriller, an old man's sex suspenser, which would have been derided if anyone but Hitchcock had made it. As it is, a few comic and suspenseful touches partly atone for the implausibilities and lapses of taste.

Time Out

Hitchcock's return to Covent Garden, 'wrong man' plotting, the neuroses of sexual immaturity, and black-humoured... Read more on www.timeout.com

See all 3 Critics Reviews »

Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 5 starsstill first class

Mark MacMillan from Scotland , 01/01/2006

Hitch may have been getting on a bit, but that has not stopped him from putting out a movie which can stand alongside his best works. Absolutely superb performances from all involved and Hitchcocks London looks as good on film as it ever did.

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
Report offending content.

Read all reviews

Rated - 3 starsHitchcock - back to his roots

nashville from Kent , 25/05/2004

For his penultimate film Hitchcock returned to his London roots to make this violent sleazy tale of a sexual psychopath on the loose in Covent Garden.

It has the usual Hitchcock theme of an innocent man trying to clear his name in the face of overwhelming circumstantial evidence. There are no big Hollywood stars here, instead we get a solid cast of British actors and a top class script from Anthony Shaffer.

This is one of the most violent pictures Hitch ever directed although strong doses of black humour help to lighten the tone a little. There are some wonderful set pieces - the killer wrestling with a corpse in the back of a potato truck, a fantastic backwards tracking shot from the killer's door down a staircase and into the market streets, a policemen battling with his wife's gourmet cooking.

A disturbing but at times very funny picture, I am sure that directors such as Dario Argento and Brian DePalma would have been influenced by this.

  6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
Report offending content.

Read all reviews

Rated - 4 starsThe old master - past his prime but worth watching

Matthew Whittingham from London , 09/01/2005

Filmed in the early 70's, this late Hitch seems to have dated more than his earlier work. However, the familiar Hitch touches are all here..the wrongly accused man, a series of gruesome murders, and two or three set pieces. It's well acted and decidely grotesque in places. I expected not to enjoy this - it's decidely out of vogue with most critics. But if you're a Hitch fan and up for an old fashioned thriller this is well worth a view.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
Report offending content.

Read all reviews

Rated - 5 starshitch in london

janice scott from newcastle upon tyne.england , 06/06/2005

I love this Hitch film thats set in the east end of london.Pitch black comedy.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Report offending content.

Read all reviews

Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 4 starsGreat, great fun

A customer from Bromley, England , 04/08/2006

Apart from the excellent story, wonderful black humour & star turns you get COVENT GARDEN as it was, a working market. 110 minutes of pleasure.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Report offending content.

Read all highest rated reviews

Rated - 3 stars'Luvleee'

A customer from Cheltenham , 14/04/2005

Good old Hitcock. Enjoyable, and I must confess we found it funny at times, I think it was a comedy really. hahahahha luvleeeee though

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Report offending content.

Read all highest rated reviews