Tongues Sticking Out?? - Frenzy (1972) Discussion

[–] lizziett 16 years ago

It doesn't happen in all cases but it can happen, I don't think it was anything to do with the humour - not even Hitchcock is that warped.

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[–] ecarle 16 years ago

I've read that it happens a lot. Coppola learned the same thing when researching "The Godfather," for Luca Brasi's murder, coincidentally released just a few months before "Frenzy" in 1972.

In Hitchcock's film, those tongues sticking out gave "Frenzy" one of the ultimate "Hitchcock touches": every view of the face of a female corpse (and there are three) was at once horrific, and yet kind of...amusing! It's that little extra something that Hitchcock was famous for.

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[–] HenryCW 16 years ago

This is so well-known that I am surprised that the question was even asked.

Even in the old cartoons, whenever any character was grabbed by the throat, his tongue would always stick out. I remember in one episode, a housewife suspected (correctly) that her cat had swallowed her pet bird. So she grabbed the cat by his throat, and there was the bird - still alive, of course - standing on his tongue.

I recently watched the Star Wars series again. In Return of the Jedi, when Princess Leia strangled Jabba the Hutt with her chain, his tongue was seen sticking out and even turned black as he died.

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[–] socaldawgs 16 years ago

I don't know if this would happen in real life, but it made me laugh when I saw it in the movie.

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[–] BarryFrom 15 years ago

The rape scene was quite graphic and disturbing until we got a shot of the actress sticking her tongue out like she was ain a Chaplin movie. It just ruined the whole scene for me.

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[–] PleasureGarden 15 years ago

That final shot scared the pants off me. Big jolt.

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[–] ecarle 15 years ago

One critic noted that the tongues sticking out gave the impression of the women being "stuffed" like pigs with apples in their mouths.

Perhaps this is why the exceptionally well-reviewed "Frenzy" did not receive a single Oscar nomination.

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[–] mp3cereal 15 years ago

I was thinking that too. Their faces do look pretty ridiculous.

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[–] gollum12 15 years ago

As ridiculous as it looks, it is actually accurate - at least during the actual strangulation act. The tongue thrusts out because of the larynx being squeezed. However, it is uncommon for the tongue to remain protruding once death has occurred.

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[–] WarpedRecord 15 years ago

It seemed very authentic to me, and your post confirms that. But wouldn't the tongues have stuck out during the strangulation as well? It seems like you didn't see their tongue until after they had died.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] WarpedRecord 15 years ago

Great comparison to "Gremlins"! And I'm sure Hitchcock knew that some viewers were find the tongues humorous. Many of his most macabre scenes had touches of humor – which probably made many viewers experience conflicting emotions.

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[–] lunar11 15 years ago

I recall finding the scene rather terrifying. It was strong stuff. But am I right that apparently Barbara Leigh-Hunt refused to play the scene with her tongue sticking out, but she was ordered to do so by Hitchcock.

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[–] sheppard330 14 years ago

maybe it was a phalic reference or after thought..bit sick, i know!!
"I'm not living with you, we just occupy the same cage, that's all!"

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[–] konover 14 years ago

I don't know, but I got the opposite reaction: I thought it was kinda chilling/frightening.

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[–] sheppard330 14 years ago

i wondered that too, lol:re tongues stickin out!!
"I'm not living with you, we just occupy the same cage, that's all!"

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] KP-Nuts 13 years ago

We watched this for the first time last night (we are working through a Hitchcock box set). My wife and I took it as black humour and burst out laughing.

Overall a good movie with a few quirks 7/10.

Better to regret something you did, than something you didn't do!

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[–] PoppyTransfusion 13 years ago

There have been plenty of answers to you by now. I certainly think it's part of the macabre humour of the film. The victim looks stupid and sort of funny as well as gross and horrifying simultaneously.

The world forgetting, by the world forgot
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

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[–] ecarle 13 years ago

I think this might be singled out as a particularly macabre example of "The Hitchcock Touch."

I recall the production photograph of Brenda Blaney(Barbara Leigh-Hunt) dead in her chair with her tongue sticking out was the first photo published of "Frenzy"..anywhere. It was published in "Newsweek" magazine. Next to that photo the magazine put a photo of Hitchcock during his Newsweek interview, with his eyes wide open in animated excitement -- rather matching Brenda.

The Newsweek reviewer wrote, "...one of Hitchcock's very best."

A week later, Time magazine did its own Hitchcock interview and offered the SECOND photo from Frenzy: a grim Bob Rusk at the handles of a wheelbarrow with a potato sack. Newsweek: victim. Time: killer.

Time was less gushy than Newsweek, but the title of the review was "Still the Master," and I recall a line like this: "It is not at the level of his best work, but Frenzy is smooth and shrewd and dextrous, ample reminder that anyone who makes a suspense film is but an apprentice to this Old Master."

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