Freddy

This was taken from the Saturday Telegraph Magazine.

It is accompanied by a photograph of Bernard Cribbens and Barry Foster with Alfred Hitchcock.
In this piece BC remembers appearing in Frenzy, Hitchcock's penultimate film in 1972.


I was asked to go and see Mr Hitchcock in his
office in Piccadilly. We had a very pleasant chat, and he offered me the part of the pub landlord Felix Forsythe in Frenzy. The role was an interesting departure for me as I was best known for playing comedy parts.

I was in my forties, and living in Surrey with my wife Gill (where we are still based!. I had been working in the theatre since I was 14 I started as an assistant stage manager doing a 70-hour week for 15 shillings. I became an actor by accident -the very first role I was offered was a comedy part, as a cheeky errand boy. When you say your line and you suddenly hear a roar of laughter, it is very rewarding and a wonderful thing.

Most of my scenes in Frenzy were with Anna Massey, who played the barmaid - we were quite isolated in my boozer, and didn't have much to do with the rest of the cast. I think perhaps my character was spurned by the barmaid, or maybe just hungover, because he was permanently scratchy. Bloody grumpy, in fact.

I was a great fan of Hitchcock's films - every actor was. He had been working in Hollywood for years, but Frenzy had an entirely British cast. He loved telling jokes. In this photograph [on the left is the actor Barry Foster] I'm making a crack and Hitchcock is thinking of his next line to top me. (Either that or he is thinking. What on earth is he talking about?) He was a great fan of limericks and once brought in a whole book of them to show me.

He was getting towards the end of his life at that time, and was probably not as vibrant and jolly as he had been. He was like a sleeping buddha. He would sit quietly and you would think there was nothing going on there, but his little eyes would be taking everything in.

He worked in a very economical way. He would discuss the shot with his cameraman, his lighting man, his first assistant director and his actors, then he would go and read a book while they set up the shot exactly how he wanted it. Then he'd come back, and it would be 'Cut! Print!' He knew we would all do exactly what he asked.

The world wags on.

ollie

I love frenzy and watch it quite frequently,i think bernard cribbins plays a great part as he says a real departure for him,the landlord is a bit of a barsteward wink and to hear him utter the line "you should be pullin pints instead of pullin her tit's" eek! was a bit of a shock,old perks would turn in his grave.
cheers Ollie.

"Bullseye !!"

DB7

Frenzy always reminds me of They Drive By Night. In both films the 'hero' of the piece is down on his luck in London and discovers the dead body of a former lover. Strangulation the cause of death in both instances. Both go on the run, but whilst Finch seeks out friends and Frenzy loses focus midway thru, in TDBN Emlyn Williams heads out of town to the dusky roadside cafes and the film gathers momentum. Of course haulage stops also come into Frenzy as 'Bob's yer uncle' becomes increasingly desperate. Both close with the innocent man-on-the-run unwittingly seeking refuge with, and uncovering, the real murderer.

Frenzy does have one old Hitchcock touch in that the first scene produces a body in the water with an item of clothing attached; Young and Innocent opens similarly with a murdered female being washed ashore.

Steve Crook

That Hitchcock , he was always stealing stories :)

One of the P&P group, Richard Layne has pointed out the similarities between I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) & The Birds (1963) :-

A spoilt, rich young woman heads for a rural community and meets a young man. While there, she stays at the house of a second woman who she believes may have been in a relationship with the young man, but it transpires was not. Due to the forces of nature, she is forced to remain in the community long enough to fall in love.

Of course, IKWIG is far superior since P&P felt no-need to resort to such attention-grabbing tactics as killer birds !

I then pointed out that IKWIG does indeed have a killer bird - Torquil the Golden Eagle.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

DB7

Maybe Emeric had read The Birds before commencing the script for IKWIG. wink

Hackett

Micheal Caine says in his book "WHATS IT ALL ABOUT" how he had lunch with Hitchcock at Universal Studios to discuss playing the part of Robert Rusk. He didn't want to play Rusk but went just to meet Hitchcock. Cain turned down the part later through his agent because he found the role of the sadistic killer of young women really loathsome. He saw Hitchcock very often around the studio and at Chasen's restaurant but he never spoke to Caine again. As he says 'so much for Cockney solidarity'.

Steve Crook

Maybe Daphne du Maurier wrote The Birds after watching IKWIG :)

The earliest date I can find for The Birds being published is 1952.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

DB7

Damn you with your facts blush


violent

Marky B

I know I've said this before,but I preferred Frenzy to Psycho. In fact,I think Frenzy was one of Hitchcock's most under rated of movies.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

smudge

Frenzy is a cracking movie, even that late in Hitch's career. Some of the more 'sensitive' critics gave it a battering though - it was called 'sordid' more than once.

Myself, as soon as I sit down with it I am hooked - I think the basic tensions still work, even after seeing it so many times. The potato van scene with Foster still gets you up towards the edge of the seat...

Finch, Foster and Cribbins are excellent in it, and we were well and truly robbed with the early death of Barry - he never seemed to look his age.

Another favourite bit is that wonderfull sweeping titles shot and music :)

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

Allen Dace

I recall once hearing Max Bygraves being interviewed on radio and he claimed that Hitchcock had spoken to him about a possible part in 'Frenzy' (!). I wonder which? Surely only Cribbens or McCowen's would be possibilities.

DB7

Bygraves turned down Jon Finch's role.

The_Late_Peter_Cook

Are you sure? I really can't see that casting working (especially as Michael Caine was first choice for the Foster part) and there would be literally hundreds of British actors better suited to the role.

If true that would have made for a very odd viewing experience had he acepted...

ejb

I think that Anna Massey looks incredibly beautiful in this film, without even trying to. Does anyone else agree?

Hackett

There is a lot of use of body doubles for Anna Massets role.