Such unattractive women
Couldn't they find more attractive women to star in this movie? In all of Hitchcock's movies there were always gorgeous leading ladies. Frenzy had anything but.
shareI have a hunch that was the idea.
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MovieChat Forums > Frenzy (1972) Discussion > Such unattractive women
I like when regular looking people are cast prominent roles in movies. In any given town, you'll find more people who look like Rusk's mom than look like Kim Novak. Not that there's anything wrong with Kim.
It just gets old seeing people who look so similar to each other all the time in everything from commercials, to TV shows, to videos, to movies. Let's mix it up occasionally.
No two persons ever watch the same movie.share
SPOILERS for "Frenzy":
With regard to the character of the barmaid Babs Milligan, Hitchcock complained that "the London agents sent me all these bosomy, beautiful blondes." He wanted someone more down-to-earth, and -- let's be frank -- he got her in Anna Massey(who showed up to audition for the part of Monica Barling, Brenda Blaney's secretary.)
Hitchcock was looking to use realistic actors for the realistic "Frenzy", but I expect he was also trying to "de-sexualize" the rape scenes and nudity. Barbara Leigh-Hunt gets that devastating scene of being raped(body-doubled on the nudity), and while attractive, she is not "babe-a-licious." She is a rather prim and near-matronly woman. Hitchcock didn't want these scenes to be titillating.
Compare that to the rape scene in Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" released about six months before "Frenzy." There, the victim is sexy, slutty Susan George and the sexuality OF the rape (which starts semi-consensual) is meant to be more of a turn-on, I expect.
Regardless of how attractive Barbara Leigh-Hunt was or wasn't, hearing Barry Foster snarl "lovely, lovely" was a definite turn off for me. Any sexuality that may have been in the scene drained away at that point. The psychological torture and violent brutality part of rape took over then.
No two persons ever watch the same movie.share
You're damn straight.
Also, what I consider the "goonish" look that Foster as Rusk took on as he proceeded with his rape: Bob Rusk does not have a "normal" sexuality in any way, shape, or form.
And of course -- we are told later by Inspector Oxford -- as Rusk says "Lovely" with increasing intensity, he is failing with the rape itself.
This is very adult material.
Frenzy may be rated R, it is very tame compared to the movies I grew up watching in the 1980's and 1990's.
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I did feel that the lead character seemed to be much better looking than his ex-wife and girlfriend but he was kind of a loser so I guess that could make sense. I didn't think the secretary was too bad, despite her big, ugly glasses. Could have just been a case of tallest midget in the circus though.
share"Probably because there aren't too many good-looking English women."
You are joking, right?
I don't agree. Certainly Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh-Hunt and Billie Whitelaw are unconventional looking women, but I find each of them rather attractive, in their own way.
This is not to even mention Billie Whitelaw's portrayal of the nanny in "The Omen", a part that she made ooze with raw sexuality.
What about the men? I thought the whole cast was unattractive, but the men were worse looking than the women. Blany's mustache grossed me out..it was growing over his lip. Yuck.
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AGREED! She actually was hard to look at....
shareWell I for one thought that Barbara Leigh-Hunt's character had a certain MILF quality about her.
"Everybody in the WORLD, is bent"share
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Most of you guys were spoiled by Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, and Joan Fontaine. Hitchcock had a thing for sexy blondes as do I, but I didn't think these more ordinary looking women were unattractive. I think I would be able to have a good time with each of them as much as I might with Kim Novak and Grace Kelly.
shareAs everyone has already said, greater realism/naturalism is clearly what Hitch was after with this picture. That said, both of the key victims strike me as pretty good looking. Babs (Anna Massey) has an interesting/characterful face rather than a classically beautiful one, but she has a rocking body; Brenda (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) has quite a good face and a good figure.
Neither is model/movie star gorgeous, i.e., someone you can be strongly attracted to without knowing anything at all about them, but in Frenzy we get to know both Brenda and Babs quite well, and we like both of them. We end up finding them attractive and that attractiveness is very ungeneric and particular. And boy do their ends *hurt* when they arrive for that reason. Brenda's dignified manner is stripped away from her, and Babs's feisty, funny street-smarts don't help her at all. Ouch.
Ouch, indeed. I keep seeing comments on "Frenzy" that it was misogynistic, but I think Hitchcock sympathies are very much with these vibrant, nice, real women...and very much against Bob Rusk.
About whom: I never liked Blaney's plan to bludgeon Rusk to death while the man was asleep.
Rusk deserved to KNOW he was gonna die.
That's how much I hate him. Really, the most hateable villain in Hitchcock, Rusk is.
When he's not being a fun, great guy "otherwise."
Note in passing: Some notes found in the "Frenzy" files indicate that when casting the film, Hitchcock gave some thought to trying to cast sisters Vanessa Redgrave as Brenda and Lynn Redgrave as Babs. Mighta been a nice gimmick but...I would not have wanted to see Vanessa Redgrave in "that scene." Hard enough with a near-unknown.