Episode description

Frenzy is a 1972 British horror / thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (aged, at time of production, 71). 

It is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. 

The screenplay, centred on a serial killer in contemporary London and the ex-RAF serviceman he implicates, was written by Anthony Shaffer, based on the 1966 novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern, who, in a letter to the Editor of The Times, said he found Hitchcock's production and Shaffer's adaptation of his book “appalling”. 

The film stars Jon Finch, Alec McCowen, and Barry Foster and features Billie Whitelaw, Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Bernard Cribbins and Vivien Merchant.

Produced the year before, the curse of 1971 continued unabated as, along with poor Peter Cushing wife’s demise, Hitchcock's wife and long-time collaborator Alma had a stroke during production. As a result, some sequences were shot without Hitchcock on the set, so he could tend to his wife.

Michael Caine was Hitchcock's first choice for the role of Rusk, the main antagonist, but Caine thought the character was disgusting and said "I don't want to be associated with the part." Foster was cast after Hitchcock saw him in Twisted Nerve (which featured Frenzy co-star Billie Whitelaw).

Helen Mirren, who later in life played Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in Hitchcock, met with the director to discuss the role of Babs Milligan. Eventually she rejected the role, and years later said she regretted doing so.

Henry Mancini who was originally hired as the film's composer, is quoted as saying,"If the same film was made ten years ago it would've had twice the amount of music in it", After an enigmatic, behind-the-scenes melodrama, where Hitch was reported to have yelled "If I had wanted Bernard Herrmann, I would have hired him!" the composer was fired and replaced by Ron Goodwin.

The tag line for this movie was "Hitchcock's Last Masterpiece!" This line would be prophetic, since this is now considered to be the last masterwork Alfred Hitchcock produced in his canon.

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