FRENZY (1972)

‘Frenzy’ is special because after a long gap of 20 years the master of shock returned England to shoot this film. “When you do mystery starring Cary Grant or Stewart, everybody in the audience knows from the outset that he can’t be the villain,” said Hitchcock and so he cast rather unknown London theatre actors about whom audiences had no preconceived notions. The plot of the film revolves around a sexually psychopathic killer strangling ladies with necktie around London city. As in many of Hitchcock films the wrong man at the wrong place becomes the prime suspect and same occurred here too and further the film becomes interestingly gripping cat and mouse play.
The touch of Hitchcockian thrill is clearly visible in sequence of the dead body in a sack full of potatoes truck.

This is perhaps the first unusual Hitchcock film, where you can see explicit violence and skin show may be for the first time. To save the film for becoming dark, Hitchcock used some funny scenes too. Especially the trouble facing Inspector Oxford bearing experimental inedible delicacies by her obsessed gourmet wife. Anthony Shaffer who had written the screenplay of ‘Sleuth’, has done appreciable job here too in screen adaptation of a brutal murder mystery novel by Arthur La Barn. The film was instant box-office success of that year.

Ratings-7.5/10