Hitchcock instinctively liked to cast handsome actors in his leads, and I think that "Frenzy" HAS three of them:
Jon Finch (despite the temper) as Blaney
Barry Foster(at times) as Rusk. Recall that a cop says to Rusk, "You're one for the birds(women)"...one way or another, Rusk seems to be known as a ladies man.
Alec McCowen(surprisingly) as Inspector Oxford. This role could have gone to a Terry Thomas-type, or to Michael Bates(who plays McCowen's assistant). But McCowen has something more handsome, almost virile, going on.(Irony: McCowen later "came out" as gay.)
None of the three men were movie stars, but Hitchcock seemed to have hopes that they might become such.
And yet, here's Hitch casting the less-that-conventionally attractive Anna Massey as Babs and the somewhat matronly Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Brenda.
I think Hitchcock was following two different strains here:
Handsome men "in the Hitchcock tradition."
But a refusal to "sexualize" the rape-victim women.
Hitchcock said that, for Babs, the London casting directors "sent me nothing but bosomy blondes." Anna Massey(who had appeared in "Peeping Tom" in 1960, the British "Psycho" except sicker) made more sense to Hitchcock as Blaney's "step down" Cockney girlfriend.
Barbara Leigh-Hunt was an attractive woman, but again I think Hitchcock was promoting the idea of a "non-sexy" woman as the victim of rape.
For comparison, back up six months to 1971's "Straw Dogs," directed by Sam Peckinpah, in which Susan George is a sexy, slutty young wife whose rape is treated as quite the erotic matter(she LIKES the first guy who rapes her, he's her ex-boyfriend. But she wasn't counting on the other guy.)
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Devans00
14 years ago
The main women characters in Frenzy were all attractive. Just not in the (boring) template Hollywood style of attractiveness. So I think the word you're looking for regarding the rapes may be eroticize, not sexualize. After all, both the wife and girlfriend were able to attract a least one sexual partner, Richard Blaney, so we know they were sexual.
I think eroticize is the word to use when something that is not suppose to be sexy or arousing, like a brutal rape, is presented in a stimulating way. Personally, I thought the rapes were more threatening and terrifying than anything else. But I've seen brutal rape presented as just another sex scene in other movies.
No two persons ever watch the same movie.
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ecarle
14 years ago
Hitchcock did a number of "radical" things with "Frenzy." One of them was to cast so many "regular looking people."(British stars turned down the grim material -- sexuallly sick Rusk, broke Blaney, and abused Brenda were not roles that stars WANTED.) The actresses playing Brenda and Babs WERE attractive(particularly Brenda) but, indeed, not "Hollywood glamour girl" or bimbo attractive.
Brenda landed the handsome Richard Blaney when he was at his most heroic(with the RAF) and popular, so obviously she had her charms as a younger blonde(and, we can see, a good head for business and a certain empathy.)
Anna Massey's Babs is not a conventionally attractive woman, but she's warm and caring and attractive enough. The suggestion I got was that Richard Blaney, in "descending" from his war hero and businessman status to working a bartender job, had to "descend" a bit in terms of the type of woman he would attract. Babs is just about right.
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"Eroticize" is a better word, and I think that the exteneded rape scene in "Frenzy" is not one bit erotic. It is cruel and terrifying and expressed in terms of the woman's terror and the perp's madness.
Worse yet, of course(as opposed to the "Straw Dogs" rapists), Bob Rusk follows every rape with the murder of the victim.
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Devans00
14 years ago
I like your analysis ecarle. How the change in Blaney's women over time reflect his change in social status over time. The descent from war hero flyboy to ne'er do well bartender who can't keep a job.
Of course Blaney's weakened community standing made him a perfect fall guy for Rusk.
No two persons ever watch the same movie.
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ecarle
14 years ago
"Frenzy" was interesting subject matter for Hitchcock.
He returned, finally and 12 years after "Psycho," to a study of a homicidal maniac, but blended that plot device with classic plot device NOT used in "Psycho": The wrong man.
But the blending was more socially relevant than usual for Hitchocck.
He indeed seemed to be demonstrating that as Richard Blaney lost his social status...recall, he is staying in a Salvation Army homeless shelter the night before Brenda's murder...it lays the hapless Blaney wide-open to be suspected of the rape-murders. His lack of money...which feeds his terrible temper...makes him a perfect patsy.
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For Rusk's part, it is all very mysterious. Since the movie opens with a body from "Another necktie murder!" we can figure that Rusk has killed several victims already. And yet, he elects to zero in on "Blaney's women": first Brenda, then Babs.
I expect that this is part of Rusk's sadism. He likes to torment his female victims and terrify them. It is probably fun for Rusk to watch Blaney struggle in the frame-up AND lose the women who once(Brenda) and now(Babs) matter to him.
But I also think that Rusk, like several real-life serial killers, WANTS to get caught. Hence his placement of Babs' clothes in Blaney's bag. Yes, he's still framing Blaney BUT...Rusk is TELLING Blaney: "I am the killer. What are you going to do about it?"
It is all very complex and mysterious and Hitchcock doesn't spell anything out.
But still: Rusk's psychopathy and Blaney's poverty seem weirdly linked, with the former exploiting the latter and the audience getting deeply involved in the suspense accordingly.
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