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Frenzy [DVD] [1972] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
 
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Frenzy [DVD] [1972] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

DVD ~ Jon Finch
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

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Region 1 encoding (requires a North American or multi-region DVD player and NTSC compatible TV. More about DVD formats.)

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Product details

  • Actors: Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Anna Massey, Alec McCowen
  • Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
  • Producers: Alfred Hitchcock, William Hill
  • Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
  • Language English, French
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish
  • Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: R (Restricted) (US MPAA rating. See details.)
  • Studio: Universal Studios
  • DVD Release Date: 6 Mar 2001
  • Run Time: 116 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000055Y13
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 123,178 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

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Customer Reviews

21 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars prime Hitchcock, his last great achievement, 4 April 2008
By H. Serkan SILAHSOR (Ankara, TURKEY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Frenzy [DVD] [1972] (DVD)
Albeit not as glorious as Hitch's classical psychological thrillers like "North by Northwest", "Vertigo", "Psycho", "The Birds", "Dial M For Murder" and "Rear Window"; "Frenzy" has its own charm and beauty and should be regarded as Hitch's last great achievement in the twilight of a brilliant career.

The premise of the film is nothing new: a case of mistaken identity. A man wrongfully accused of serial murders, and he must uncover the truth about the killings and clear his name. In "The 39 Steps", "North by Northwest", "Young and Innocent", "The Wrong Man" and "Saboteur" we saw a similar theme. But, at least one factor makes "Frenzy" so worthwhile: this is Hitchcock's first and only film to be given an 'R' rating by the MPAA during his 51-year career.

In earlier works, Hitch generally preferred to imply violence rather than openly showing it on the screen, leaving enough room for viewer's imagination. But, in "Frenzy" there are flagrant displays of lurid violence, especially the first murder scene, which plays on themes of explicit and prolonged rape, and slow strangulation. Also, the moment in the rear of a potato truck during which the "Necktie Killer" attempts to wrench the evidence off the corpses' hand by breaking her fingers stiffened by rigor mortis. It has good thrilling elements as well as Hitch's patented ghoulish humor. Just like famous shower scene of "Psycho", this is one of the most memorable scenes in Hitch's career.

Yeah, "Frenzy" has unsympathetic characters played by unknown and non-Hollywood-type cast, no beautiful locations, no icy blondes, no romances, no high dramas, no MacGuffins... It is neither atmospheric nor mysterious, yet it has a realistic feeling that works on numerous different levels. Recommended... (3.7/5.0)
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The best of late HITCHCOCK & a key 70s film set in London, 9 April 2005
By Jeff Markham (Walton-on-Thames, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Frenzy [DVD] [1972] (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.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great British Shocker!, 28 Mar 2007
By FAMOUS NAME (UNITED KINGDOM) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: Frenzy [DVD] [1972] (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. But then this is how acting used to be; an art form, rather than the concentrating and the relying on special effects to gather audiences. It was far more improtant to see the actors' ability to interpret their roles in their own way. I believe this movie would still be a great shocker to anyone who hasn't already seen it - even today!

Highly recommended viewing!
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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars These days, ladies abandon their honour far more readily than their clothes...
Frenzy was Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate film, and is by far his most graphically unpleasant. Made in 1972, when the director was finally able to get away with showing the kind... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Matthew Mercy

2.0 out of 5 stars WARNING: Pan-and-scan version of widescreen film
For resons best known to themselves, Universal UK have issued most of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960s/1970s films (The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy) in pan-and-scan 1. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Kenneth F. Mcara

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
Alfred Hitchcocks best film, (along with the 39 steps),and I had been trying to get hold of it for about 5 years, but my local HMV didn't have it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Pa O'reilly

4.0 out of 5 stars I love the quaintness of the film
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... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jacques COULARDEAU

5.0 out of 5 stars beautifully interpreted misunderstandings
This is an excellent view of showing how a simple crime can be hideously misinterpreted leading to a gross miscarriage of justice . Read more
Published 9 months ago by Dr. U. L. Khawaja

4.0 out of 5 stars Mr Rusk, you're not wearing your tie...
Remembered by many as Hitchcock's final great movie (although his next, and last, movie Family Plot is, in my opinion, unfairly maligned), Frenzy can certainly be described as a... Read more
Published 10 months ago by IWFIcon

4.0 out of 5 stars Quick Reviews!
POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

Hitchcock returned to Britain after almost twenty years and made this, one of his last films. Read more
Published 20 months ago by carlosnightman

3.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing violence mixed with odd comedy
The three scenes inlcuded in the Amazon description are the highlights of the film, the potato scene an impressive example of Hitchock creating suspense out of the audience's... Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2007 by Greshon

3.0 out of 5 stars Addictively repulsive
I had absolutely no idea what Frenzy was about, or any of the controversy surrounding it, when I blithely shoved the DVD in the player on a Sunday night. Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2006 by fkoepping77

3.0 out of 5 stars Misogyny Personified
This film is a good indication of Mr. Hitchcock's insight into human nature and psychology. It has been described as a view into the criminal motivation that can grow from a... Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2006 by Viola Nelson

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