A man is going around England murdering women by strangling them with neckties. One man, Richard Blaney, is the lead suspect and his case isn't helped when both his ex-wife and current girlfriend turn up as victims of the killer. But it isn't Blaney... so how can he convince them of his innocence?
I'm not a scholar of Hitchcock, nor have a seen a large number of his films. "Rear Window", "Vertigo", "Psycho" and "Lamb to the Slaughter" are the ones I've seen, I think (which now that I write it out seems pretty decent). I'd love to see "The Birds". But anyway, this one was right up there as one of the best -- a really good mystery and thriller. While the audience knows the killer from the start, we get the enjoyment of figuring out how to prove another man is not the killer. Which is a little bit backwards.
I was somewhat surprised by the fake nudes. If you're paying attention, you will notice that the nude women in this film are not the same as the characters they are meant to be portraying. Less obvious is the zoom in on the breasts (which could, in theory, belong to anyone). More obvious is the woman playing Babs walking to the shower... she doesn't even have the same body structure or hair length. It's just completely strange.
I'm also unclear what the purpose of the wife's dinners scenes (for the inspector) were supposed to be. Humor? Just a way for the inspector to talk to someone outside the police world? Granted, the wife's intuition came into play in a very minor way, and I did find these scenarios somewhat humorous -- at least enough to distract from the more serious nature of the film as a whole.
I want someone to count how many times Rusk says the word "lovely" during the first big attack scene. It just gets creepier and creepier. Which I'm sure was the intention, but I was unsure how much he was sane or mad (and I think this is largely where the title comes into play. If this isn't a frenzy, I don't know what is).
A solid effort from Hitchcock. Not nearly as famous as "The Birds", "Psycho" or "Vertigo" but still a good film just the same. If you're a Hitchcock fan, or like horror and mystery stories with less gore and blood an far more mystery and suspense, this is one you'll thoroughly enjoy.
I'm not a scholar of Hitchcock, nor have a seen a large number of his films. "Rear Window", "Vertigo", "Psycho" and "Lamb to the Slaughter" are the ones I've seen, I think (which now that I write it out seems pretty decent). I'd love to see "The Birds". But anyway, this one was right up there as one of the best -- a really good mystery and thriller. While the audience knows the killer from the start, we get the enjoyment of figuring out how to prove another man is not the killer. Which is a little bit backwards.
I was somewhat surprised by the fake nudes. If you're paying attention, you will notice that the nude women in this film are not the same as the characters they are meant to be portraying. Less obvious is the zoom in on the breasts (which could, in theory, belong to anyone). More obvious is the woman playing Babs walking to the shower... she doesn't even have the same body structure or hair length. It's just completely strange.
I'm also unclear what the purpose of the wife's dinners scenes (for the inspector) were supposed to be. Humor? Just a way for the inspector to talk to someone outside the police world? Granted, the wife's intuition came into play in a very minor way, and I did find these scenarios somewhat humorous -- at least enough to distract from the more serious nature of the film as a whole.
I want someone to count how many times Rusk says the word "lovely" during the first big attack scene. It just gets creepier and creepier. Which I'm sure was the intention, but I was unsure how much he was sane or mad (and I think this is largely where the title comes into play. If this isn't a frenzy, I don't know what is).
A solid effort from Hitchcock. Not nearly as famous as "The Birds", "Psycho" or "Vertigo" but still a good film just the same. If you're a Hitchcock fan, or like horror and mystery stories with less gore and blood an far more mystery and suspense, this is one you'll thoroughly enjoy.