'Frenzy' is my favorite film by Alfred Hitchcock. First saw it when I was a kid and loved it. None of his other movies resonate with me nearly as much. It's scary, funny and, as is usual from Hitch, has great camera and editing. It's one of the main reasons I love movies today.
This is one of my favorite sequences. In it, Rob Rusk (Barry Foster) returns to his flat having just loaded the body of a woman, who he has raped and strangled, into the back of a potato truck. He discovers his tie-pin is missing (he removed it in order to strangle the woman with his necktie). After a search he remembers (in a very effective quick-cut flashback montage) the woman grabbed it just before she died. He goes back to the truck to retrieve it because it's monogrammed with his initials and would lead police directly to him.
Though a bit dated in some ways, the scene plays beautifully today. It's suspenseful and makes the antagonist an endearing character -- a juggling act not even attempted anymore.
I think this scene would hold up today, but I can't think of many movies from the last few years that have been as graphic without tipping the scale into gore. Bits of 'Shallow Grave', directed by Danny Boyle, come to mind. There's more, probably, but it's a very short list. If you put that particular finger manipulation in a movie next week it would probably be cringe-inducing. Audiences would squirm in their seats and love it. Why rely on gore?
The scene also flows. Even at almost nine minutes it's over before you know it. Most scenes in today's movies are cut between thirty seconds and two or three minutes to avoid taxing the director's ability to keep things from dragging.
Hitch kept it taught and never bored us. He took the audience out of their comfort zone. He was funny without being sick, creepy but not disgusting, inventive while avoiding contrivance so ridiculous it takes us out of the moment. He was entertaining and smart -- qualities that, a lot of the time, are missing in movies today.
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