Frenzy is a dynamite, sharp, and intricate suspense thriller from esteemed director Alfred Hitchcock. In contemporary 1970s London, ex-Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) gets fired from his barman job in the middle of a string of local murders done by the infamous Necktie Murderer. Broke and between jobs, he relies on the kindness of his few loved ones—his dear friend and local store owner Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), ex-wife and matchmaker Brenda Blaney (Barbara Leigh-Hunt), and his lover and fellow barmaid, Babs Milligan (Anna Massey). He becomes the primary suspect upon departing Brenda’s firm shortly before she was found necktie strangled herself. Though most friends believe him, he must clear his name and stop the killer with nothing but his wit and a few 20-pence coins—or jail will be the least of his worries.

Frenzy works because of its intricate plotting and organically theatrical writing. The narrative twists and turns without ever disrupting itself, a skill which Hitchcock perfected long beforehand but is nonetheless delightful to see. Every person on screen has a mouthful to say, delivered with plenty of wit and weight to ground them. Hitchcock goes all out on humor too—watching Chief Inspector Timothy Oxford (Alex McCowen) scrape his wife’s prepared glop around his plate as he explains the case is hilarious—so there are plenty of laughs amidst the Hitchcockian camera work, plot devices, and twists. The only major issue is Frenzy’s lack of subtext. While there are undoubtedly representational moments of serial killers’ psyches and the contradictory roles/views of women—“These days, ladies abandon their honor far more readily than their clothes,” Chief Oxford explains to another cop upon building his beliefs about the case; “A woman’s intuition is worth more than all those laboratories,” Oxford’s wife says after he admits he got the case all wrong later—the film doesn’t delve enough into either topic. If the filmmakers had spent more time intertwining the plot and humor with these themes, Frenzy would be much more complex to view. As it is, though, Frenzy is a robustly crafted thriller, balancing amusement with amazement and terror effectively. For Hitchcock or general thriller fans, Frenzy is a quippy riot.

Screens in restored 4k Thursday, 10/17, 7:30 pm @ Somerville Theatre
Part of the ongoing repertory series: A Bit of Hitch
Double feature w/ Psycho