Frenzy (1972)

This terrific comeback for the great director is also on my top 10 (Alfred) Hitchcock list. Barry Foster plays a strangler (who uses his necktie to murder his victims) in this crime thriller which contains several chilling scenes but also features many with some comic relief (especially the scenes with the Scotland Yard inspector and his wife; Alec McCowen and Vivien Merchant). The whole potato truck (“lost my monogrammed tie pin”) scene is as unforgettable as the somewhat comic expression left on one of “his” victim’s (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) face. There is also the memorable scene in which the camera tracks down the stairs out the door and onto the noisy street which keeps anyone from hearing the murder that’s taking place upstairs inside. Jon Finch Billie Whitelaw Anna Massey and Bernard Cribbins are among those who also appear. It was written by Anthony Shaffer (who’d written Sleuth (1972)) from the novel Goodbye Piccadilly Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur Labern. This was the first Hitchcock film to receive an R rating.

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