Frenzy (1972)1972

Frenzy is a 1972 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer was based on the 1966 novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern. The film stars Jon Finch, Alec McCowen and Barry Foster and features Billie Whitelaw, Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Bernard Cribbins and Vivien Merchant. The original music score was composed by Ron Goodwin.

Frenzy (1972)1972

Frenzy was the third and final film that Hitchcock made in Britain after he moved to Hollywood in 1939. The other two were Under Capricorn in 1949 and Stage Fright in 1950. (There were some interior and exterior scenes filmed in London for the 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much.) The last film he made in Britain before his move to the United States was Jamaica Inn (1939). Frenzy was the only Hitchcock film given an R rating during its initial release. Frenzy was screened at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, but it was not entered into the main competition.[4]

In a 29 May 1972 letter to the editor of The Times, novelist La Bern said he found Hitchcock's production and Shaffer's adaptation of his book "appalling", concluding: "Finally, I wish to dissociate myself with Mr Shaffer's grotesque misrepresentation of Scotland Yard offices."[13]

Frenzy received positive reviews from critics. Vincent Canby of the New York Times called it "a passionately entertaining film" with "a marvelously funny script" and a "superb" cast.[16] He put it on his year-end list of the ten best films of 1972.[17] Variety also posted a rave review, declaring: "Ingeniously fresh story-telling ideas, stamped with the same mischievous, audacious and often outrageous mixture of humor and suspense that first made him and later sustained him, make the Universal release one of Hitchcock's major achievements."[18] Roger Ebert gave the film his highest grade of four stars, calling it "a return to old forms by the master of suspense, whose newer forms have pleased movie critics but not his public. This is the kind of thriller Hitchcock was making in the 1940s, filled with macabre details, incongruous humor, and the desperation of a man convicted of a crime he didn't commit."[19] Penelope Gilliatt of The New Yorker wrote of Hitchcock that "we are nearly back in the days of his great English films", adding "He is lucky to have been able to draw on Anthony Shaffer to do Frenzy's sly screenplay, not to speak of a cast of first-rate, well-equated actors pretty much unknown outside England, so that audiences have no preconceptions about who are the stars and therefore unkillable."[20] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film "Alfred Hitchcock's best picture in years", with "all the marks of work by a master at his craft and at his most assured".[21] Time printed a very positive review of the film: "In case there was any doubt, back in the dim days of Marnie and Topaz, Hitchcock is still in fine form. Frenzy is the dazzling proof. It is not at the level of his greatest work, but it is smooth and shrewd and dexterous, a reminder that anyone who makes a suspense film is still an apprentice to this old master."[22] In its 2012 review, The Guardian called Frenzy a "complex and gripping thriller" praising the film as "a rich tapestry of suspense, and a masterpiece".[23]

One of the most graphic and accurate depictions of serial murder in film that I've ever seen.I cannot believe that this was a wide release film, or that *that one* scene is uncut.Whenever I hear somebody say that their sensibilities were offended by a film I'll ask them if they've seen a film from 1972 by Alfred Hitchcock.Woof.

Film historian Arthur Knight, a professor of cinema at University of South California, was hired to write the official synopsis of the film for the studio's publicity brochure and wrote to Hitchcock to say: "In all seriousness, I feel that this is your best work ... since North by Northwest." Knight also invited Hitchcock to attend one of his lectures and, on April 27th 1972, Knight's students were treated to an unofficial premiere of Frenzy.[35]

At the end of 1972, Variety listed the film at #33 in their "Top 50 Grossing Films of the Year" list, with a total box-office return of $4,809,694. Vincent Canby, film critic for The New York Times, included Frenzy in his top 10 films of the year.[45]

There are two types of frenzy in the film: that of the fever-pitch of fear that the residents of London reach, and the killer when he murders his victims. The scenes which depict the murders, are so visceral that I thought about them for days afterwards.

Quartet Records and Universal Pictures Film Music Classics Collection proudly present the world premiere release of both the used and unused scores for Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the film.Frenzy marked the director's triumphant return to London in 1972. With an excellent script by Anthony Shaffer, the film was immediately considered one of Hitchcok's best and has since become a classic.After the parting of ways with Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock changed composers in each of his last four films, choosing from those who were popular at the time. For Frenzy, his first choice was Henry Mancini, who wrote a sumptuous, gothic-hued score featuring an unusual orchestral palette. The main theme uses the dolorous tones and sepulchral pedals of a mighty organ, and the tension-filled score that follows is grim and at times almost brutal. Hitchcock, feeling it was too "dark and cruel," turned it down and hired celebrated British composer Ron Goodwin to compose a lighter, yet still suspenseful, score. For the main title, a panoramic shot over the Thames, Goodwin wrote a majestic melody ornamented with trumpets and timpani, in the best English tradition of pomp and circumstance.Frenzy was the only completely rejected score in Henry Mancini's long career, and also one of the most famous and requested Goodwin scores over the ensuing decades. Neither of them, however, have previously been officially released in any form until today.This collection has been painstakingly produced, restored and mastered by Mike Matessino from stereo and mono elements vaulted at Universal Pictures, with the collaboration of both the Ron Goodwin and Henry Mancini estates.This special edition features an exclusive, in-depth essay by writer and composer Deniz Cordell packaged in a 28-page booklet.Rate this AlbumClick starsto rate.Missing Information?If any information appears to be missing from this page, contact us and let us know!

David O. Selznick signed Hitchcock to a seven-year contract beginning in March 1939, and the Hitchcocks moved to Hollywood. He directed an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1940), starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier. Rebecca won the Oscar for Best Picture, although Hitchcock himself was only nominated as Best Director. Hitchcock's second American film was the thriller Foreign Correspondent (1940), set in Europe, and produced by Walter Wanger. It was nominated for Best Picture that year Suspicion (1941) was the first of four projects on which Cary Grant worked with Hitchcock, and it is one of the rare occasions that Grant was cast in a sinister role. In one scene Hitchcock placed a light inside a glass of milk, perhaps poisoned, that Grant is bringing to his wife, played by Joan Fontaine. The light makes sure that the audience's attention is on the glass. Fontaine won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) was Hitchcock's personal favourite. Charlotte "Charlie" Newton (Teresa Wright) suspects her beloved uncle Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten) of being a serial killer. Hitchcock was again nominated for the Oscar for Best Director for Lifeboat (1944) and Spellbound (1945), but he never won the award. Spellbound (1945), starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, explores psychoanalysis and features a dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí. Notorious (1946) stars Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, both Hitchcock regulars, and features a plot about Nazis, uranium, and South America. After a brief lull of commercial success in the late 1940s, Hitchcock returned to form with Strangers on a Train (1951), based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. In the film, two men casually meet, one of whom speculates on a foolproof method to murder. He suggests that two people, each wishing to do away with someone, should each perform the other's murder. Farley Granger played the innocent victim of the scheme, while boy-next-door" Robert Walker played the villain. I Confess (1953) was set in Quebec with Montgomery Clift as a Catholic priest. It was followed by three colour films starring Grace Kelly: the 3-D film Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955). From 1955 to 1965, Hitchcock was the host of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. With his droll delivery, gallows humour and iconic image, the series made Hitchcock a celebrity. in his films, Hitchcock often used the "mistaken identity" theme, such as in The Wrong Man (1956), and North by Northwest (1959). In Vertigo (1958), James Stewart plays Scottie, a former police investigator suffering from acrophobia. He develops an obsession with a woman he has been hired to shadow (Kim Novak). His obsession leads to tragedy, and this time Hitchcock does not opt for a happy ending. Vertigo is one of his most personal and revealing films, dealing with the Pygmalion-like obsessions of a man who crafts a woman into the woman he desires. Psycho (1960) was Hitchcock's great shock masterpiece, mostly for its haunting performances by Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins and its shower scene, and The Birds (1963) became the unintended forerunner to an onslaught of films about nature-gone-mad, and booth films were phenomenally popular. Film companies began to refer to his films as 'Alfred Hitchcock's': Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972), and Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976). During the making of Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's wife Alma suffered a paralysing stroke which made her unable to walk very well. In 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. A year later, in 1980, he died peacefully in his sleep due to renal failure. Hitchcock was survived by his wife and daughter. After the funeral, his body was cremated. His remains were scattered over the Pacific Ocean. 041b061a72