Alfred Hitchcock's next to last film, Frenzy, was not one of his best efforts. He went over a whole lot of ground he'd covered before and better.

Jon Finch truly needed a keeper in Frenzy. He's a former Royal Air Force Pilot who's had a run of bad luck and he's walking around with one enormous chip on his shoulder. He says and does certain things and again has the rotten misfortune of being seen near the sight of one of the homicides of a serial killer. What Finch manages to do his very nicely implicate himself as the serial killer.

Frenzy is a combination of a whole lot of Alfred Hitchcock chase movies like North By Northwest, Saboteur, The 39 Steps all involving wrongly accused men. None of them were ever quite as obtuse though as Jon Finch in Frenzy. Frenzy also draws from Dial M for Murder and To Catch a Thief where a sharp police official prevents a miscarriage of justice.

The sharp police official is Alec McCowen who has some very nice scenes with wife Vivien Merchant who is taking a gourmet cooking class and is using hubby for a guinea pig when he's away from trying to solve the necktie murders. She may be ditzy, but her observations are quite sound.

As it turns out the real murderer is quite close to home for Finch, but in the end he almost blows it for McCowen and Scotland Yard.

The problem is that the real killer is in fact a serial killer who's killed quite a few women before the two that Finch was involved with. A good attorney should definitely have gotten Finch off on reasonable doubt.

Best scene in Frenzy, the real killer trying to get a piece of evidence off the body of his latest victim who he's put in a potato sack and shipped with bags of other potatoes to a produce market. Hitchcock is playing with his audience, he's unmasked the killer, but you're not quite sure whether to hope he's caught or root for him to get away with it.

Not the best of Hitch's later films.

Frenzy may not be among my favourite Hitchcocks like Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, Rebecca, Notorious and North By Northwest, but unlike Jamaica Inn, Under Capricorn and Topaz it's nowhere near among his weakest either. In fact I do consider Frenzy the best of his films post-The Birds. Maybe the ending is a little rushed, but although it is not going to be everybody's cup of tea it is one truly impressive film. It is wonderfully shot, everything about the photography is highly atmospheric and succeeds in making the viewer purposefully unsettled. Hitchcock's direction is similarly wonderful, like with the restless camera, shots of fleeing footsteps and the sight of a body when you least expect there is a lot of his distinctive directorial flavour. Ron Goodwin's score doesn't intrude the atmosphere or story in any way, and there is a compellingly haunting edge that was a nicely surprising contrast to the jauntiness heard in for example the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple film adaptations. The dialogue is intelligent but there is lots of black humour that manages to be hilarious without it detracting too much(the final line is a riot),and while the film is one of Hitchcock's grimmest with everyone and everything unattractive and genuinely terrifying rapes/murders it is still edge of your seat stuff as can be evident in the potato truck sequence. Jon Finch does what he can with the man-at-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time sort of character he has, and the performance is good enough without being one of the all-time greats for a Hitchcock film. The supporting cast are better though, Barry Foster's calculating suavity is really chilling especially, and Alez McCowen, Anna Massey, Vivien Merchant, Bernard Cribbens and Billie Whitelaw are also very good indeed. To conclude, a really good film, not the Master of suspense's very best but of his late-period output it really stands out in a positive way. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Before watching this film, you really need to understand that this film is practically nothing like the classy and sophisticated Hitchcock films of the 40s and 50s. There is no debonair Cary Grant-like actor and the film is ultra-realistic. Because of this, the murders are among the most graphic ever filmed and the rape sequence will undoubtedly be very upsetting to many who view this film. Despite your possible preconceptions, this is NOT a Hitchcock film for the entire family and the film deservedly earned an R rating for nudity and extremely realistic violence. Do not let your kids watch this film (unless you are trying to make them into serial rapists/murderers).

As mentioned above, the film is high on realism--starring actors who the average American would not recognize. I doubt they would even be recognized by most Brits, but considering I live here in sunny Florida, this is only a guess. This is one of the strengths of the film. You could not accept Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart as the accused or especially the murderer, but the ordinary looking guys cast in the film were just fine. Also, I appreciated how the film did a pretty good job of portraying the murderer/rapist. He was NOT seen as angry or insane during much of the film, but seemed pretty normal--and with my experience working with such people (yes, unfortunately, I used to do therapy with people from the prison population),this is an excellent nod to realism. Rarely does evil appear evil to those around the victimizer--this is why these sort of people are so dangerous.

The movie excels not only on realism, but also on suspense. And in some scenes, like the very grisly potato sack in the truck scene, you have both in very large doses. This is definitely NOT a film for the squeamish! Truly a modern film that shows that Hitchcock could change with the times. Too bad this was not his last film--it would have been a great way to end his long and distinguished career.

By the way, if you watch this on DVD, please watch the trailer for the film. Like the one for PSYCHO and several of his other films, it's very sick and funny--with Alfred interposing himself into some of the scenes to make it look like HE might be the necktie murderer!