History Film / Frenzy1972

-->'''Alfred Hitchcock''' (on why he liked the novel): "I was attracted by...the central figure, an Air Force man who is always a loser. Today is the day of the nonhero, isn't it?"

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Since everybody is convinced that he is a murderer, Blaney decides to murder Rusk.

** Brenda has paired off a man and a woman with a shared interest in beekeeping, but as the newly-matched couple leave her office, the woman reveals herself to be an overbearing control freak who plans to shape her new husband into a clone of her deceased first husband, while the man is too timid to raise any objections.

** In the opening scene, a politician's speech is interrupted by the nude body of a woman, strangled with a tie, washing up out of the river. The politician's response is "I say, that's not my club tie, is it?".

* CordonBleughChef: Given the choice between wading through grim murder scenes and tasting his wife's experimental cuisine--pig's feet, fish head soup, etc--Oxford always opts for the former.

* EnemyEatsYourLunch: Frugal or not. Bob strangles a woman to death, then picks up her apple from her desk and eats it.

* FallenHero: A non-villainous example. Richard is an ex-RAF officer veteran of the Suez Crisis who was said to have been decorated and even hailed as one of the "[[RedBaron Chivalrous Knights of the Skies]]," but at the beginning of the film he's been reduced to TheMeanBrit, though still a GoodIsNotNice AntiHero when he realized he was framed for murder and seeks to clear his name.

* FormerRegimePersonnel: Richard is a former Royal Air Force Officer who likely served during the Suez Crisis.

* HenpeckedHusband: When Richard is hiding out with the Porters, Johnny correctly deduces that he couldn't possibly have killed Babs, but his wife Hetty forces him to kick Richard out anyway. Fittingly, Johnny is played by Clive Swift, whose role on ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'' made him the page image for this trope.

* {{Meganekko}}: Jean Marsh, as Brenda's secretary Monica, wears glasses with huge, thick lenses.

* SerialKiller

** His (ex-)boss at the pub, Forsythe, is a nasty piece of work as well.

* RunningGag: The terrible cooking of Inspector Oxford's wife.

Our "hero" Richard Blaney (Creator/JonFinch) is down on his luck; just as he's fired from his job at a London pub, his estranged wife Brenda (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) becomes the latest victim of a necktie-wielding rapist and SerialKiller. Because of a witness's mistake, Blaney is now the prime suspect, with only a few of his friends believing in his innocence. When he's left without his allies and implicated by actual murderer Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), Blaney is left to the mercy of the police, led by Chief Inspector Oxford (Alec [=McCowen=]). Will Oxford discover the evidence catch Rusk and to clear Blaney's name?

The penultimate film directed by Creator/AlfredHitchcock, ''Frenzy'' (1972) was adapted by Anthony Shaffer from Arthur La Bern's novel ''Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square''. Notable as one of the rare films Hitchcock shot in his native Britain after moving to Hollywood in 1939.

Our "hero" Richard Blaney (Creator/JonFinch) is down on his luck; just as he's fired from his job at a London pub, his estranged wife Brenda (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) becomes the latest victim of a necktie-wielding SerialKiller. Because of a witness's mistake, Blaney is now the prime suspect, with only a few of his friends believing in his innocence. When he's left without his allies and implicated by actual murderer Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), Richard is left to the mercy of the police, led by Chief Inspector Oxford (Alec [=McCowen=]). Will Oxford discover the evidence catch Rusk and to clear Richard's name?

Our "hero" Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) is down on his luck; just as he's fired from his job at a London pub, his estranged wife Brenda (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) becomes the latest victim of a necktie-wielding SerialKiller. Because of a witness's mistake, Blaney is now the prime suspect, with only a few of his friends believing in his innocence. When he's left without his allies and implicated by actual murderer Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), Richard is left to the mercy of the police, led by Chief Inspector Oxford (Alec [=McCowen=]). Will Oxford discover the evidence catch Rusk and to clear Richard's name?

* SpiritualSuccessor: [[JustForFun/XMeetsY Can be seen]] as ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' (deviant serial killer) meets ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'' (wrongly accused man on the run) meets ''Film/TheLodger'' (serial killer in London). Bob Rusk also has some similarities to [[Film/StrangersOnATrain Bruno Antony]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: [[JustForFun/XMeetsY Can be seen]] as ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' (deviant serial killer) meets ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'' (wrongly accused man on the run) meets ''Film/TheLodger'' (serial killer in London).

* DropDeadGorgeous: A naked victim of the killer floats in the river in the film's first minutes.

* AsYouKnow: Used word-for-word by Blaney he tells Rusk at the start of the film that he hasn't visited his ex-wife in a while.

* DeadMansChest: The killer hides a body in a sack that he dumps in the back of a lorry full of sacks of potatoes. He then realises that his tie pin is still clutched in the dead woman's hand and has to retrieve it from the back of the moving lorry. In the climax, Oxford and Blaney are interrupted by Rusk dragging a large trunk into his flat, and the implications of what's inside it are clear.

* EiffelTowerEffect: The film gets this out of the way in the opening credits, displayed over an aerial [[TheOner Oner]] of the Thames slowly zooming onto the Tower Bridge. Other than that, it avoids showing the usual landmarks.

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