Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Reviews
From Amazon.co.uk
By the time Alfred Hitchcock's second-to-last picture came out in 1972, the censorship restrictions under which he had laboured during his long career had eased up. Now he could give full sway to his lurid fantasies, and that may explain why Frenzy is the director's most violent movie by far--outstripping even Psycho for sheer brutality. Adapted by playwright Anthony Shaffer, the story concerns a series of rape-murders committed by suave fruit-merchant Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), who gets his kicks from throttling women with a necktie. This being a Hitchcock thriller, suspicion naturally falls on the wrong man--ill-tempered publican Richard Blaney (Jon Finch). Enter Inspector Oxford from New Scotland Yard (Alex McCowan), who thrashes out the finer points of the case with his wife (Vivian Merchant), whose tireless enthusiasm for indigestible delicacies like quail with grapes supplies a classic running gag.
Frenzy was the first film Hitchcock had shot entirely in his native Britain since Jamaica Inn (1939), and many contemporary critics used that fact to account for what seemed to them a glorious return to form after a string of Hollywood duds (Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz). Hitchcock specialists are often less wild about it, judging the detective plot mechanical and the oh-so-English tone insufferable. But at least three sequences rank among the most skin-crawling the maestro ever put on celluloid. There is an astonishing moment when the camera backs away from a room in which a murder is occurring, down the stairs, through the front door and then across the street to join the crowd milling indifferently on the pavement. There is also the killer's nerve-wracking attempt to retrieve his tiepin from a corpse stuffed into a sack of potatoes. Finally, there is one act of strangulation so prolonged and gruesome it verges on the pornographic. Was the veteran film-maker a rampant misogynist as feminist observers have frequently charged? Sit through this appalling scene if you dare and decide for yourself. --Peter Matthews
Product Description
Alfred Hitchcock's first British film since 'Stage Fright' (1950) stars Barry Foster as market trader Robert Rusk, a psychopathic killer who strangles women with ties. Suspicion falls, however, on the innocent Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), after Rusk kills Blaney's ex-wife Brenda (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) and his current girlfriend (Anna Massey). Set-pieces include Rusk's desperate attempt to prise an incriminating tie-pin out of one of his victim's hands (now rigid with rigor mortis) and a leisurely tracking shot up a flight of stairs to alight upon a grisly murder in progress.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By FAMOUS NAME
VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
This movie was a winner from the outset - it could not fail; having all the necessary ingredients of a super thriller - coupled with a cast that consisted of some of Britain's finest talent of the time. Indeed, we could never view Barry Foster quite the same afterwards! It also included an impeccable supporting cast that starred Jean Marsh, (who had risen to fame at about the same time with the success of the award-winning TV series 'Upstairs, Downstairs') Jimmy Gardner (of 10 Rillington Place fame - playing an effeminate porter!); Clive Swift, Billie Whitelaw, Anna Massey and Michael Bates. But the leads could not have been more well-chosen. Alec McCowen was simply superb as the handsome, and rather 'gentle' chief inspector, who is married to the subservient wife who uses him as her culinary guinea pig! Played by the marvellous Vivien Merchant, she gives us an entertaining performance, and amuses audiences by taking delight in reminding her wonderful husband (who, to use his own words; 'does not knock her about, or make her do degrading things') that it was 'he', that had put the poor Mr. Blaney behind bars - and not she! This film does have its amusing moments, but I think I am correct in saying that this was the very first movie to ever feature the showing of the full length murder of a victim in 'real time' as it were - something viewers today perhaps might not fully appreciate at just how shocking and disturbing this was at the time! Some of the younger viewers might also find some of the acting just a little dated and over-the-top; i.e. Jean Marsh - too 'prim' perhaps as the spinster secretary, and Mr. Blaney too 'angry a young man' as the young fellow down on his luck.... Read more ›
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By Jeff Markham
Format:DVD
FRENZY is excellent and shocking in equal measure. Elegantly scripted by playwright Anthony Shaffer and with the usual quota of standout sequences - the camera's slow track out on to a Covent Garden street from the flat of the killer, a blackly comic, desperate attempt to retrieve a vital clue by breaking the fingers of a corpse dumped in a lorry-load of potatoes, and the droll understatement of the detective's mealtime conversations with his wife. Supremely enjoyable late Hitchcock.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Hitchcock, one of the most famous British expatriates in the cinema industry, came back for one film in England, in London very exactly and he demonstrated in the early 70s he was able to build a cool thriller, in the traditional English style and rhythm and make it fascinating. The case is of course so quaint, so passé and he enjoys making thinks look the way they looked not in the 70s but in the 60s. He concentrates the film on Covent Garden when it was still a fruit and vegetable market, on their pubs, their dealers, their night life and their busy running hectic at times life. Today all that has disappeared and you can find the London Transport Museum where you used to have banana and orange wholesale dealers. Then he worked hard on finding the particular ways Londoners lived at that time, just after coal was banned around 1962. And of course his killer is well integrated in this extremely regular disorganized precipitation. The fashion is just right, the home furniture and various small equipment are just right, authentic, and yet the sarcastic eye of Alfred Hitchcock cannot forget to show the flaws and the drawbacks of this life that is slowly opening up to continental Europe and the whole world. The gourmet classes for housewives teaching them all kinds of French recipes that are of course deliciously failed by these amateurs while the good old bacon and eggs are getting out of fashion. But then we are in pure Hitchcockian fiction. A serial killer who strangles his victims with his ties and then dispose of them, both the victims and the ties together. An imbroglio that makes a friend of that killer be suspected and then, with a little of effort from the killer, that suspected person becomes the convicted killer who is no killer at all.... Read more ›
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By P. Woods
Format:VHS Tape
Hitchcock's first film to receive an adult Rating is truly one of his best.The Plot is in a typical Hitchcock fashion, it is about a sex criminal known as the "Necktie Murderer" and like most Hitchcock movies the trail is leading to an Innocent man and he must try to prove his innocence by finding the real murderer who is his so called mate, don't worry I didn't give anything away cause it basically tells you at the start.
It is a truly remarkable film and it will be an absolute Joy ride for Every Hitchcock fan.
It is a truly remarkable film and it will be an absolute Joy ride for Every Hitchcock fan.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:VHS Tape
This is one of my absolute favourite Hitchcock movies; the cast is great, and (as always) every scene is a classic. Some people criticize the infamous truck-ride sequence for being too long, but they're obviously not getting it. In order to get a point across, you sometimes HAVE to show it in its entirety. In the "old days" (like here, the 70s) this was often the case. Today's audiences unfortunately seem to have a much shorter attention span, so you almost never find scenes this long in modern films, everything is usually over in a few minutes and it's on to the next scene. This particular "potato" sequence is just right, it's a pure joyride for film fanatics from start to finish and NOT a second too long. Finch is very good as the unsympathetic anti-hero, and because his character is such a bastard the whole thing is more believable. Cribbins is always fun to watch, and Foster is effectively creepy. Also look out for the underused Gerald Sim commenting on the necktie-murders in an early pub scene. One of my favourite parts of the movie, is when "the odd couple" (Massey and Finch) check in at the hotel. Why ?. This bit with that other "odd couple" (the two who run the hotel) is priceless, and the whole thing reminds me of "The 39 Steps". There are just too many brilliant scenes to run through them all here of course, but that only add to the enjoyment of watching this 30 year-old classic again and again. And no 70s fashion jokes, please. So what if fashion has changed since then, so have styles from 1930s movies but we don't necessarily refer to those as dated all the time, do we ?. By the way, just thought I'd add that the grisly rape-scene is cut in this UK video version of "Frenzy".
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 105 reviews
4.2 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
frenzy dvd
grate film recommend it to any one of the right age.
not for the faint heated the quollety ofthe film was briliant
not for the faint heated the quollety ofthe film was briliant
Published 3 months ago by Mr John Calladine
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Lovely.'
Not one of Hitchcocks best known later films but one of my faves,to be sure and a grimly witty outing it is with several excellent performances by all the main actors-Barry Foster... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ken Raus
2.0 out of 5 stars
Shocking, for all the wrong reasons!
This surely has to be a very strong contender for the worst film ever made by the otherwise great Alfred Hitchcock. Read more
Published 4 months ago by David Gray
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strangling suspense
A rigorously constructed thriller in the vein of Dial M for Murder, Frenzy adds a helping of sex and violence which may surprise those raised on Hitchcock's earlier films. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jack Heslop
5.0 out of 5 stars
Me likes
Classic Hitchcock bloody brilliant the atmosphere the music and to see top british talent sadly many have left us now in this fim its amazing and to see covent garden then so cool... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Me likes
5.0 out of 5 stars
compelling cinema
I'm not a fan of the suspense genre but Frenzy exerts such a grip it is almost impossible to stop watching! Read more
Published 9 months ago by schumann_bg
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not one of Hitchcock's best
A serial murderer nicknamed the `necktie killer' is terrorizing women in London, and Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), seen at the wrong place at the wrong time, becomes the chief... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Kona
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely
Frenzy (1972) is a very watchable Hitchcock thriller set in the hustle and bustle of London involving a neck-tie murderer and an innocent guy being framed. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Miami
1.0 out of 5 stars
A true shocker
Alfred Hitchcock's 'Frenzy' may be the worst film I have ever seen (it's certainly high on the list). Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2011 by Rob Steerwood
1.0 out of 5 stars
Frenzy DVD
The cost of the DVD was cheap enough. I have bought DVDs before at bargain prices. I was disappointed with the picture quality and the sound reproduction. Read more
Published on 26 Nov 2010 by Mr. M. Abramov
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
