MovieChat Forums > Frenzy (1972) Discussion > RIP Jon Finch

RIP Jon Finch

posted 11 years ago by ecarle
7 replies | jump to latest

Jon Finch has passed away at age 71.

Jon Finch forever gets the first billing in "Frenzy," so he should be considered the star of that unsung Hitchcock film. I think the film is more about the villain(Barry Foster's Rusk) but Finch held his own in a difficult, non-sympathetic anti-hero role.

I do recall one review(Kevin Thomas in the LA Times) suggesting that of the unknown leads in "Frenzy," Finch was a good bet to become a star, given his "nervy presence." We Hitchcock fans were hoping for it -- we wanted Hitchcock to have "launched a late star."

Didn't happen. But Finch had star quality, great looks(Johnny Deppish, yes?) and verbal-acting chops. Polanski saw it (for MacBeth) and Hitchcock saw it (not even wanting to view "MacBeth" footage first.) Not bad for a guy who had done Hammer horror films.

A recent obituary notes that Finch had to quit the part in "Alien" that went to John Hurt...the famous part in which the creature bursts through Hurt's chest. The obituary also notes that Finch turned down James Bond around the time Roger Moore took over the franchise.

I DID know about the "Alien" thing...and it remains a career tragedy to me, seeing as Finch was chosen first and not fired from the role(he became ill and the article itself seems out to remove the reference to his diabetes as a cause.)

That was an incredibly landmark scene(not too many steps behind the shower scene) when the creature burst out of the man's chest, and it helped John Hurt land some pretty good roles. It could have helped Jon Finch -- far more than the lesser-seen "Frenzy."

But the article quotes Finch as "not wanting big stardom." A film a year gave him the money he needed. Not a bad life, really. Work eight weeks a year, maybe some promotion...enjoy. (Not MY life, I might add. But then I don't look or sound like Jon Finch did.)

I did NOT know about the Bond thing. That would have been great too, and I think he could have done it...though perhaps he was a bit thin for the part. Alas, he would have anchored "the silly Bonds" so maybe just as well he passed.

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Ridley Scott, who lost Jon Finch on "Alien," finally cast him again about 10 years ago in "Kingdom of Heaven," and I was pleased to see Finch at that time. Wispy Orlando Bloom had the lead; Finch did some of the character actor heavy lifting.

They keep working, these actors. Don't have to be stars.

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I think Barry Foster(Rusk) died about ten years ago, at 70. Finch died now at 71, evidently ten or so years Foster's junior.

Richard Blaney thus joins Bob Rusk. And "Frenzy" -- however morbid a film -- remains behind to memorialize two little-known actors with a great deal of charisma and talent, who got to play the leads in a GOOD Hitchcock movie. That's something.

[–] Hancock_the_Superb 11 years ago

Very nice tribute Ecarle. It's a shame Finch didn't do more work as you say, but it didn't seem to bother him any.

"I guess this isn't the right economic climate for an expensive, poorly-trained visionary."

[–] c7c7c7r 11 years ago

And so strange he turned down Bond. I think he would've been great. The year before Frenzy, Finch had a brief role in Sunday, Bloody Sunday.
I know I've gone over this before, but the 'unknown leads' as you say in Frenzy were quite well-known. Barry Foster was in 'Ryan's Daughter', Michael Bates played Montgomery in 'Patton', Bernard Cribbens was in many British and international comedies, Jean Marsh was in a great Twilight Zone episode, Inspector Oxford was in The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner--all these roles before 'Frenzy'. (Bates was also in 'A Clockwork Orange' a year before Frenzy came out. When I saw it when it first came out, I recognized all these actors. Not BIG stars, but pretty well-known.

[–] ecarle 11 years ago

I think this time around, I will take your point with more understanding than I did the first time around.

These leads were largely unknown to ME at the time(as I recall, I only recognized Billie Whitelaw and Bernard Cribbins), but I was pretty young. I can extrapolate that most American audiences were also mystified by them, but clearly, if one knew all the actors from all the films above(as you and no doubt others, did) -- the entire cast was likely easily recognized and remembered. "My apologies." Honest.

I suppose my "new reference" (particularly in light of all the casting attempts detailed in the recent book on "Frenzy") would be that Hitchcock was unable to cast "big star" British names of the time...Michael Caine, Richard Burton, Richard Harris and Glenda Jackson had all earned the level of over-the-title "Hollywood stardom"(and in Jackson's case, a Best Actress Oscar) that would have given "Frenzy" some marquee names had any of them taken "Frenzy" roles.

Hitchcock rather fibbed at the time that he PURPOSELY sought "skilled British stage actors," but the truth of the matter is that given the low ebb of his reputation at that time, AND the unsavory nature of the four leads(a sex killer, two of his victims, and a loser)....Hitchcock could not get "marquee stars" to act for him this time.

I would suspect, btw, that Hitchcock was banking on Glenda Jackson to accept the role of the horribly and sexually murdered Brenda Blaney because Jackson had demonstrated a willingness to enact sexual scenes and nudity in "Women in Love." However, that was a film about consensual sex...

[–] c7c7c7r 11 years ago

no apologies necessary, ecarle.
Glenda Jackson would've been great. I read that book "Frenzy". It has alot of the nuts and bolts of making a movie. Including overtime. It must've been tough on him by then. I can see why he was famously bored by the actual film-making process.

[–] ecarle 11 years ago

no apologies necessary, ecarle.

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Thanks.

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Glenda Jackson would've been great.

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Yes. One can picture her capturing the "officious" side of Brenda.

Jackson, Caine and the others were probably kicking themselves when "Frenzy" became the well-reviewed comeback hit that it was, and it is "nice" to imagine a star-filled "Frenzy" with Burton, Caine, and Jackson. But we have the movie we have, and by now, all those "lesser" names seem perfect in their roles, less, perhaps Jon Finch, who just seemed too young for his character's war experience.

Though cast for his resemblance to Caine, Barry Foster was unknown to me enough at the time that I got the weird feeling I was seeing a REAL psychopath, cast straight out of the asylum. No "star memories" got in the way as they would have with Michael Caine.

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I read that book "Frenzy". It has alot of the nuts and bolts of making a movie. Including overtime. It must've been tough on him by then. I can see why he was famously bored by the actual film-making process.

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What's amazing to me is how much WORK went into that "very small" Hitchcock movie -- which was really a Pinewood soundstage job, plus Covent Garden and a few other London locations. Imagine Hitchcock at work all over the US on "North by Northwest," or all over San Francisco and environs in "Vertigo." Or mounting the berserk carousel scene in "Strangers on a Train" or Mount Rushmore in "North by Northwest." Compared to those, "Frenzy" was a five-finger-exercise.

I was intrigued that the location work for the potato truck scene literally lasted from dusk til dawn and that Hitchcock stayed for most of it --- overweight and ill, in his seventies.

[–] c7c7c7r 11 years ago

He even rode in the helecopter for that great opening shot--I remember seeing a photo of him in it. Those things are tough for an old man to climb in and out of. Way back in '54, it was his idea to use a helecopter for "To Catch a Thief", though I think he was already back in the States when he had others film those shots.

[–] mr360 11 years ago

I only ever saw Jon Finch in Frenzy and again in New Tricks a few years ago.

Oddly enough I only watched Frenzy just after Xmas and searched the main cast on IMDB and was pleased to see Jon was still alive. RIP to a very under-rated actor.