Gilbert Taylor, cinematographer, has died (23 Aug 13)

One of the reasons that "Frenzy" is the greatest of Hitchcock's post "Birds" films is how good and professional it LOOKS.

Hitchcock had cut loose his longtime cinematographer Robert Burks from Torn Curtain and then Burks died a few years later -- Gil Taylor was probably the best of the post-Burks camera guys on a Hitchcock film.

I often point the the photography of the speaker by the river Thames as "Frenzy" opens. The long shot of the British politician, the building behind him, the crowd before him, is rich and polished and expensive looking.

Compare that to the opening scenes of "Family Plot," in which the cinematography (by camera operator Leonard South, promoted) is TV-movieish and murky at times.

The internet magazine Slate has a small article on Taylor's death that singles out(and allows for download play) the "Farewell to Babs" staircase shot in Frenzy as Taylor's greatest acheivement -- certainly done in concert with director Hitchcock and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer in devising it, but actually EXECUTED by Taylor in terms of the tricky movement from one set to another, indoors and out.

It is rumored that Gil Taylor may have been the "on set" director of much of Frenzy, given Hitchcock's naps and his freaking out when Alma Hitchocck had a stroke in London while she was there to help her husband with the film.

I was heartened that in listing Gil Taylor's "classic" movies, the Slate writer listed Frenzy right along with Dr. Strangelove, Star Wars, Hard Day's Night, etc.

Frenzy just might prove to BE a classic someday -- if enough people call it one.