While the middle to late 1960’s weren’t too good for Alfred Hitchcock’s film output, his fantastic 1972 thriller, FRENZY saw the director return to fine form with a chilling blend of murder, “wrong man” plot, police procedural (of sorts) and black comedy. Between the solid casting of mostly imperfect-looking British actors, actual London locations blended perfectly with studio sets, a bit of nudity and one very unsettling (and lengthy) assault/murder scene that’s shocking but necessary to drive the plot, this is one of those films where you can feel the director’s complete confidence in himself, his cast and crew.

Right from the opening notes of Ron Goodwin’s somewhat regal (and intentionally pompous, I’ve always thought) main theme, the film doesn’t skip a beat before delivering its first corpse, a nude woman who washes up during a politician’s waterside speech about cleaning up the Thames River. Keep an eyeball peeled for Hitch’s requisite cameo and get your smile in, as things are going to get darker in Merry Olde London soon enough…
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