Marky B

Although I have just voted for 39 Steps as the best British Hitchcock film,if I had the chance to vote for a second favourite I would gone for Frenzy.
Now I am going to say something which might cause fisticuffs on this site eek! ,but I believe,now wait for it,I believe,erm,I really do believe,oh heck I am going to be up for heresy for this,I really believe...Psycho is one of the most overrated,boring and unscary movies ever made. Frenzy was far better and far unappreciated.
Psycho fans in the red corner,Frenzy fans in the blue corner...
Let's go...
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

DB7

After the soapy cold-war 'thrillers' of Topaz and Torn Curtain, Frenzy was a return to his roots and the wronged man scenario but there was something a bit too repugnant about Barry Foster’s character. Maybe Foster’s psychopath was a bit too thinly drawn and I’d have expected Shaffer and Hitch to maybe inject a bit of black humour as he did with the two murderers in Rope.

The tracking shot down the stairway and into the London streets whilst the murder is taking place is a touch of genius tho.

Lord Brett

I was mystified as to why Topaz disappeared from view for so long until I turned up a copy from a charity shop last year. It's dreadful !

I can't remember where I read this, but I recall that, soon after Topaz , Hitchcock recoiled in horror from how safe and stale he had become as a director. His reaction was to plan something far more stylistically daring, but his studio (Universal) would not allow him to experiment as he wanted.

At least there resulted a new spark in his final two films, the marvellous Frenzy and the fun Family Plot .

I don't think Psycho is overrated, merely overanalysed and ripped off by every two-bob horror film for forty-odd years.

Now The Exorcist - that's an overrated film!

DB7

The Psycho sequels certainly didn't help the originals reputation. There was also Gus Van Sant's scene-by-scene colour remake - you have you ask why bother remaking it?

Lord Brett

Actually, I quite enjoyed Psycho 2 , largely due to Anthony Perkins' performance.

Have you ever seen John Llewelyn Moxey's City of the Dead (aka Horror Hotel )? It went into production some months before Psycho , and by a remarkable coincidence (and a coincidence is all it could be) the two films share the same plot structure - and nasty surprise a quarter of the way in.

I've tried not to put any spoilers in this post, as even if there is someone out there doesn't know what happens in Psycho , I sure there are a few more people not familiar with City of the Dead .

DB7

I've the DVD, It's better than most of the b&w releases and features an introduction by Christopher Lee.

Marky B

Yes,I thought The Exorcist was vastly overrated and no more scary than an episode of Scooby Doo.
Ta Ta
Marky B sleep

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

Cee

I was at school when we watched Frenzy as part of our English Lit or language (can't remember which) we thought it was cool for us under 18's to watch an "X" rated movie.

All essays aside, writing about the directors techniques and hidden meanings, I found it very hard to walk home that dinner time knowing just how sick men could be - Scarred for life!

The potato wagon scene stayed with me a lot longer than any horror flick.

4737carlin

Photo of the Nell Of Old London pub. While i was in London i tried to find the location of Ambrose Chapel from Man Who Knew To Much but got the wrong one!! oh well

samkydd

Frenzy is excellent, a very under-rated Hitchcock at the time. It was just very British, and Barry Foster was terrific. I didn't like Psycho at all, the title promised much and delivered something quite a bit less, and I've fallen asleep each time it's been on the box (which admittedly doesn't take much these days)!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

smudge

Yes, critics of the time called it a sordid little film. It is, however, strong on plot and suspense, and has some very good central performances. Personally, I have never given FAMILY PLOT the time of day and would much rather mark FRENZY as the perfect coda to Hitch's distinguished career ; contemporary, yet as suspenseful as ever.

I have to agree with the earlier poster, that the potato lorry scene is finger-crackingly effective !

SMUDGE

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

jacobean

Thought the dinner scenes between the inspector and his wife were classic in Frenzy!

Iain1962

Hi there.

Frenzy was actually cut by the BBFC for a while I believe (although I now think it's been restored for DVD), the scene with Barry Foster grapically strangling a woman apparently causing James Ferman some concern.

There are some good bits in even the weakest Hitchcock movie but his later works on a technical level were sometimes just above TV movie level. This is particularly true of Frenzy and especially Family Plot. Frenzy features some really ugly telephoto lens zooms, not quite Jess Franco but still inept, and overall the thing looks very televisual. Family is even closer to the pilot of a TV series. Although it features a really good crane shot near the beginning overall it's very flat and visually uninteresting. Surprsingly Hitchcock used a TV crew on Psycho and got away with - I still think it's a remarkable piece of work and a very important movie.

I read somewhere that Topaz actually had something like 3 alternative endings, all of which were used in various territories. Austrian star Frederick Stafford used to play James Bond clones in Eurospy flicks including a couple of entries in the OSS 117 series which ITV used to show very late night back in the 90s. Again this is a very flat piece of work, even with the presence of Jack Hildyard as a cinematographer.

I was thinking of covering The Lodger for my website. My copy was taken of FilmFOur and is rather a good copy with tinting, etc. The thing that struck me about the film was how modern eveything is for period piece. Anyone caught this recently?

Cheers.

Iain

theuofc

There's a long but fascinating review of "Frenzy" with part one of 13 focusing on setting and Hitch's use of aerial views, maps, The Thames, etc. in the film. But if you have time, read the entire review.

www.fringedigital.com/flicker/frenzy/

Barbara

penfold

It would be nice to see British silent films getting some extra profile, so go for it. Even if it is Hitchcock again, and he does get the lion's share of coverage. However; despite it's melodramatic subject, it does now appear to us as ahead of its time in a couple of ways. Firstly, Hitch was deeply influenced by a sojourn in Germany, and The Lodger does have many elements of German Expressionist filmmaking; as the film noirs of the forties and fifties were similarly influenced, in some ways it seems noirish to our eyes. However, bear in mind that this is far from unusual in British films of the late 20's...Asquith was similarly influenced, so his films combine expressionism as well as russian montage effects too. Also check out E.A.Dupont's Piccadilly, available on DVD from the bfi - a German director working here in '29, essentially making a London-set film noir.
The other pre-echo I get from The Lodger is the number of elements that would reappear throughout Hitch's films over the years....the apparent obsession with blondes, the innocent man persecuted, the fairly bloodless protagonist and the use of visual effects to convey point-of-view, in fact it could be seen as a prototype for his career.
Try and get hold of The Ring (Excellent boxing drama), the silent version of Blackmail (available as an extra on the German DVD label Arthaus, and quite different from the sound version); I don't think The Pleasure Garden is available, The Farmers Wife is, but I don't rate it personally; and I've never seen The Manxman, but that is well respected. That should keep you busy for a while...incidentally, what's your web address of the site??

Bit of a Bay Window, what??