Frenzy

FRENZY (18)

D: Alfred Hitchcock

Universal (Alfred Hitchcock)

UK 🇬🇧 1972

116 mins

Thriller

W: Anthony Schaffer [based on the novel "Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square" by Arthur LaBern]

DP: Gilbert Taylor

Ed: John Jympson

Mus: Ron Goodwin

PD: Syd Cain

Jon Finch (Richard Blaney), Barry Foster (Bob Rusk), Alec McCowen (Chief Insp. Oxford), Vivien Merchant (Mrs. Oxford), Anna Massey (Barbara Milligan), Billie Whitelaw (Hettie Porter)

Frenzy is the last great thriller from "The Master of Suspense" Alfred Hitchcock.

Set in London, a disillusioned ex-RAF officer is suspected of being the brutal "necktie murderer" and races against time to clear his name.

It doesn't rank alongside the director's greatest works and suffers from some cliches and predictable moments, but it would have been half the film if it wasn't for the great director's visceral style.

It didn't get much love from the critics at the time and is certainly one of Hitchcock's more underrated films, and all quite unfairly. Similarities are certainly shared with 1960's Peeping Tom, which I consider a classic of the genre.

7/10