Frenzy (1972)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1972
Running Times: 116 mins
Format: Technicolor     35mm
Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Producer: Alfred Hitchcock (uncredited)
Associate Producer: William Hill
Production Manager: Brian Burgess

SCRIPT
Script: Anthony Shaffer
Novel: Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern

DIRECTION
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Assistant Director: Colin M. Brewer

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Gil Taylor, Leonard J. South (uncredited)
Camera Operator: Paul Wilson

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: John Jympson

MUSIC
Music / Conductor: Ron Goodwin

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Gordon K. McCallum
Sound Mixer: Peter Handford
Sound Editor: Rusty Coppleman

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Make Up: Harry Frampton
Hair: Pat McDermott
Wardrobe Supervisor: Dulcie Midwynter

VISUAL EFFECTS
Special Photographic Effects: Albert Whitlock

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Syd Cain
Art Director: Bob Laing
Set Dresser: Simon Wakefield

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Angela Martelli
Assistant to Alfred Hitchcock: Peggy Robertson

LOCATIONS
Locations: London, England, UK
Studio: Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

CASTING
Casting: Sally Nicholl

CAST
Jon Finch (Richard Blaney)
Barry Foster (Robert Rusk)
Barbara Leigh-Hunt (Brenda Blaney)
Anna Massey (Babs Milligan)
Alec McCowen (Chief Inspector Oxford)
Vivien Merchant (Mrs Oxford)
Billie Whitelaw (Hetty Porter)
Clive Swift (Johnny Porter)
Bernard Cribbins (Felix Forsythe)
Michael Bates (Sergeant Spearman)
Jean Marsh (Monica Barling)
Madge Ryan (Mrs Davison)
Elsie Randolph (Gladys)
Gerald Sim, Noel Johnson (men at bar)
John Boxer (Sir George)
George Tovey (Mr Salt)
Jimmy Gardner (hotel porter)
Joby Blanshard (man in crowd - uncredited)
Geraldine Cowper, Alfred Hitchcock (spectators at opening rally - both uncredited)
June Ellis (barmaid - uncredited)
Drewe Henley (bit part - uncredited)
Robert Keegan (hospital patient - uncredited)
Bunny May (barman - uncredited)
Rita Webb (Mrs Rusk - uncredited)
Jeremy Young (detective - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

London police are powerless to do anything about the brutal serial killer, the Necktie Murderer, terrorising the city. Of more immediate concern to melancholy ex-squadron leader Dick Blaney is the fact that his inexorable social decline is continuing; having lost his commission and his wife, he's now lost his job pulling pints in a Covent Garden pub. He also becomes number one suspect in the hunt for the Necktie Murderer when his ex-wife Brenda is killed the morning after a public row with Blaney in a restaurant. His bitter attitude towards life and bursts of emotional anger immediately alert the police. Blaney goes on the run, planning to leave the country with girlfriend Babs and old Air Force colleague Porter and relocate to Paris. Fate has it in again for Blaney, however, as the real killer lures Babs to her death in his apartment and eventually leads Blaney into a police trap...

Despite a disappointingly weak ending, Frenzy is a sorely under-rated film, one of Hitchcock's best in fact, one which belongs alongside Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960) as one of the best British psycho-thrillers. It's unflinching brutality is genuinely shocking and the rape scene is one of the most distressing ever filmed. Hitchcock's camerawork would put many a lesser hack to shame and the script is frequently genuinely witty. Only the variable performances seriously hamper what is in every other respect another Hitchcock classic.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures
Video Distributor: MCA
Laserdisc Distributor: MCA Home Video (11006)
DVD Distributor: Universal (20661; includes - The Story of Frenzy documentary; production photographs)

Australia
Rating: M

Finland
Rating: K-16

Germany
Rating: 16

Italy
Rating: VM14

Norway
Rating: 16

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: X (cut by 19 sec); 18

USA
Rating: R

1973
Edgar Allan Poe Awards, UK
Edgar: Best Motion Picture (Anthony Shaffer) - nominated

Golden Globes, USA
Best Director: Motion Picture (Alfred Hitchcock) - nominated
Best Motion Picture: Drama - nominated
Best Original Score (Ron Goodwin) - nominated
Best Screenplay (Anthony Shaffer) - nominated

TIMELINE

1972
June
21: USA - theatrical release

July
17: Sweden - theatrical release

August
28: Norway - theatrical release

September
12: West Germany - theatrical release

December
22: Finland - theatrical release

1977
November
23: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1989
July
30: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1991
March
24: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1994
March
6: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

2001
March
6: USA - DVD release (Universal (20661))

POSTER TAGS

From the Master of Shock! A Shocking Masterpiece!

A deadly new twist from the original Hitchcock.

Frenesí - Spanish title
Frenesi - Brazilian title
Perigo na Noite - Portugese title
Vanvett - Swedish title

LINKS

SEE ALSO
High Anxiety (1977)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
The Men Who Made the Movies: Alfred Hitchcock (1973)
Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius (1999)

MAGAZINES

Cinema Rising no.3 (August 1972) pp.19-20 (UK)
review

CinemaTV Today no.9983 (3 June 1972) p.24 (UK)
review

Ecran no.7 (July / August 1972) pp.2-8, 9-12 (France)
interview, review

Fangoria no.203 (June 2001) p.66 (USA)
illustrated DVD review

Film Comment vol.8 no.4 (November / December 1972) pp.54-57 (USA)
article

Filmcritica no.231 (January / February 1973) pp.31-33 (Italy)
article

Filmfacts vol.15 no.6 (1972) pp.117-121 (USA)
credits, reprinted reviews

Film Heritage vol.11 no.3 (Spring 1976) pp.1-10 (USA)
article

Film / Psychology Review vol.4 no.1 (Winter / Spring 1980) pp.59-69 (USA)
article

Film Quarterly vol.38 no.3 (Spring 1985) pp.30-38 (USA)
article

Film Review September 1999 pp.74-81 (UK)
illustrated article

Films and Filming vol.18 no.10 (July 1972) pp.58-59 (UK)
credits, review

Films Illustrated vol.1 no.3 (September 1971) pp.22-23 (UK)
interview

Films Illustrated vol.2 no.13 (July 1972) pp.22-24
review

Film West no.38 (October 1999) pp.36-37 (Ireland)
illustrated article

Hollywood Reporter vol.217 no.36 (27 August 1971) p.8 (USA)
credits

Hollywood Reporter vol.221 no.26 (26 May 1972) p.3 (USA)
review

Is It Uncut? no.3 p.31
illustrated review

Journal of Popular Film vol.2 no.1 (Winter 1973) pp.47-58 (USA)
article

Kine Weekly no.3328 (24 July 1971) p.21 (UK)
review

Monogram no.5 (1974) pp.17-18 (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.39 no.461 (June 1972) p.113 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review

Photon no.27 (1976) pp.8-9 (USA)
review

Positif no.158 (April 1974) pp.46-60 (France)
article

Sight and Sound vol.41 no.3 (Summer 1972) pp.166-167 (UK)
review

Sight and Sound vol.42 no.3 (Summer 1973) pp.134-137 (UK)
article

Sight and Sound vol.5 no.8 (August 1995) p.28-29 (UK)
illustrated article

Sight and Sound vol.7 no.7 (July 1997) p.58 (UK)
illustrated review

Today's Cinema no.9934 (24 August 1971) p.4 (UK)
credits

TV Times 10-16 May 1986 p.34
credits

TV Times 17-23 May 1986 p.40
credits

TV Times 16-22 January 1988 p.33
credits

TV Times 17-23 March 1990 p.18
review

Variety 31 May 1972 p.6
credits, review

Video Review September 1982
review

NEWSPAPERS

Diário de Notícias 13 August 1999 p.55 (Portugal)
review

BOOKS

The BFI Companion to Crime p.137-138
credits, review

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

book into film, fugitives, london, police, prisons, rape, serial killers, strangulation

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008