Neck-Tie Strangler has all of London in a Frenzy

I wonder if there is any other name in filmdom that gets the same response from an audience as that of Alfred Hitchcock? "The Master of Suspense" we call him, and the title is deserving. I'm not sure there is any other director that has been as boldly and blatantly stolen from as Hitchcock. It's like he set the prototype for all suspense films, and most directors of this genre think if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

In 1970, Hitchcock released Frenzy, his only R-rated film. There's a serial killer on the loose in London, he kills women with his neck-tie, thus the nickname "The Neck-Tie Strangler". A young man named Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), divorced and working in a pub, gets fired from his job by his jealous boss (Bernard Cribbins). His jealousy stems from the fact that his other employee, Babs Milligan (Anna Ramsey), has rebuffed him for Blaney.

Blaney goes to see his ex-wife, Brenda Blaney (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) and while having dinner together he becomes agitated and hostile, drinking too much. Brenda apparently feels sorry for him and slips him 20 pounds, which he doesn't find until the next day. When he discovers that he has the money, he goes to see her again, presumably to thank her. Unfortunately, a friend of his, Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), has been to see her first.

Blaney gets no answer, and leaves the building. The secretary (Jean Marsh) sees him leaving and finds the body of Brenda Blaney, strangled with a neck-tie in her office. She autmatically assumes that the ex-husband must've done it and tells the police so. Inspector Oxford (Alec McCowen) is in charge of finding Blaney, but in the end, he isn't so sure that Blaney is the man they want.

Hitchcock lets us know right away as to who the killer is, and even knowing that, the suspense is still there. We don't know who he will kill next, and watching Blaney try to elude the police and then attempt to confront the murderer is very suspenseful as well. It's a horrible feeling to know someone is innocent and not be able to do anything about it. Hitchcock, by telling us who is the killer, has made it more personal to us. We don't want the wrong man to go to prison, and Hitchcock has made us feel party to it somehow.

The acting in this film is very good, but once in a while the speech track doesn't seem to fit very well. Jon Finch is fabulous as Blaney, a wrongly accused man who just wants to clear his name. He's a bit of a belligerent bloke, but certainly no murderer. He's just a guy who was clearly in the wrong place and the wrong time, and somebody saw him there. Finch does a fine job of conveying the anger that would certainly come from his predicament. Nearly everyone believes him guilty, even his girlfriend at first. No doubt an exasperating experience for Blaney, and for us as the viewers, because we know he's telling the truth.

Personally, I loved the scenes that involve the Inspector, played by Alec McCowen, particularly the ones where he interacts with his wife, played by Vivien Merchant. The Inspector has his hands quite full with this serial killer business, and at the same time must contend with his wife's bizarre cooking. Watching McCowen try to make a meal of the giant pig's foot that his wife has served him is actually fairly humorous (not to mention kind of gross). The fish soup is rather disgusting looking at well.

As is generally the case in Hitchcock's films, the majority of violence takes place off-screen. Hitchcock never believed in gratuitous violence, simply put it, doesn't replace suspense and he was clever enough to know that. He shows just enough to whet the appetite, and that's it. Hitchcock knew how to make the viewer want to stick around to see how the film ended. I mean, can you imagine turning off Psycho before finding out who the killer was? Of course not. We kept watching because we HAD to know. Even in this case, we already DO know, and we still want to find out how it ends and if the correct justice is served. With Frenzy, Hitchcock has given us a gripping story about murder and a man who's been wrongly accused. If you like Hitchcock, or suspense films in general, Frenzy should be on your list of films to see, or in some cases, see again.