MovieChat Forums > Frenzy (1972) Discussion > Experiments in Sight and Sound in Frenzy

Experiments in Sight and Sound in Frenzy

posted a year ago by roger1 (2394)
7 replies | jump to latest

(Formerly ecarle.)

I have a theory about Hitchcock's final three films.

After flopping with big stars Paul Newman and Julie Andrews in Torn Curtain(1966), Alfred Hitchcock could never attract really major stars to star in his films ever again. Yves Montand(appropriate) and Sean Connery(not) turned down the French male lead in Topaz. Michael Caine turned down the killer in Frenzy, and Richards Harris and Burton turned down Blaney. Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and Burt Reynolds were offered roles in Family Plot and all said no.

In some ways, this hurt Hitch(at the box office mainly) but in other ways, his final three "starless movies" allowed him to shift his attention to all sorts of experimentation with sight and sound and just the sheer "idea-making" of visual storytelling.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2394) a year ago

Consider Frenzy and these two scenes:

"THE BLANK WALL": We have just seen psycho Bob Rusk(Barry Foster) rape and strangle to death marriage bureau owner Brenda Blaney. Rusk has left Brenda dead and dishevelled in her inner office guest chair. Hitchcock cuts to the inner alleyway outside the first floor of Brenda's office building; her body is upstairs.

In an intricate camera move, we see:

ONE:Rusk depart the office street door, walk down the alley and disappear into the crowd on the street at the end of the alley.

TWO: "Wrong man" Richard Blaney(Jon Finch) enter the alley from yet a DIFFERENT direction. The camera and cuts follow Blaney up the stairs to Brenda's office -- she is his ex-wife and he wants to return money she slipped him -- but the outer door is locked and no one answers, so Blaney goes down to the alley below.

THREE: Brenda's secretary, Monica Barling(Jean Marsh) enters the alley, returning from lunch and SEES Blaney coming out of her office building and walking past her. Uh oh, we realize: The secretary is an eyewitness to Blaney "leaving the scene of the crime."

Now comes the shot: The secretary enters the office building and Hitchcock holds the camera on the wall next to the outside door. For a long time. For a long, LONG time: just the shot of that wall(which, as a fortunate bit of location scouting , has three arrows on it, all pointing right.)

The audience's IMAGINATION comes into play. We can picture the secretary taking the same journey up to the office that Blaney just took, but SHE has a key. SHE gets into the outer office and then SHE gets into Brenda's inner office, where the body is.

But WE are still looking at a blank wall.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2394) a year ago

Then Hitchcock adds a "suspense kicker" suddenly we hear footsteps and two women enter the alley , just passing by.

Then comes the offscreen, BLOODCURDLING SCREAM of the unseen secretary, unseen discovering Brenda's corpse.

The two women stop, look up...and continuing walking down the alley. Not going to get involved. This puts a "Hitchcockian coda of humor" upon what has been a grim scene(the rape murder) followed by all kinds of intricacy(Rusk leaves, Blaney arrives, secretary sees Blaney.."the wrong man" is minted.)

Its all very good stuff, and its only ONE of the reasons that Frenzy was so well reviewed on release -- ONLY Hitchcock could conceive of such a scene for scene's sake(yes, screenwriter Anthony Shaffer may have helped, or even created this, but Hitchcock approved and shot it.)

And then about a half hour later, Hitchcock repeats the motif in a NEW way, the "Farewell to Babs" scene:

Richard Blaney may have a dead ex-wife named Brenda, but he has a live current girlfriend named Babs. Babs is a barmaid and has just angrily quit her job, cussing out the pub owner in the process and walkign out of the pub and into the busy Covent Garden street.

Close up on Babs outside the pub. She looks concerned. What has she done? She's now jobless and homeless.

Suddenly ALL THE SOUND CUTS OFF ...the busy noises of Covent Garden recede, the frame behind her is blurry and...

we HEAR disembodied words in a male voice: "Got a place to stay?"

In a very 1972 bit of business, the CAMERA ZOOMS into focus behind Babs and there is the speaker: Bob Rusk.

And the suspense is immediate. WE know that Bob Rusk -- such a cheery, friendly, helpful guy in early scenes of Frenzy -- is the Necktie Strangler, a brutal rapist-killer.

And now he's got Babs...almost in his clutches.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2394) a year ago

The scene continues as a complex one shot "walk and talk"(shades of Scorsese and DePalma to come) of Rusk and Babs walking through the streets of Covent Garden, into a fruit and vegetable warehouse, all the way THROUGH the warehouse, and then out onto another Covent Garden street -- the street where Bob Rusks lives...upstairs.

Before they reach the flat, Rusk has his great line: "You should travel, see the world...after all, you've got your whole life ahead of you." Such a sadist, given what he knows about what is going to happen next.

Babs walks up the curving staircase to Rusk's flat on the second floor. He is behind her smiling at first, but grim as he knows she's not looking.

They reach his flat, he unlocks his door for her(he has offered her his place to stay for the night while he is "out of town.")

As Babs enters the room, Rusk intones a line he had used with an earlier female victim. "You may not know it, Babs, but you're my type of woman."

They enter. Door closes. Again, our IMAGINATION fills in what's happening upstairs, behind closed doors, as the camera retreats DOWNSTAIRS, twisting around and finally emerging backwards out into the busy noisy Covent Garden marketplace.

No one will hear Babs scream.

in some ways, the "Blank Wall Scene" and the "Farewell to Babs scene" are a matched pair: Hitchcock withholds visual information and forces us to IMAGINE what's going on(the discovery of a body, a murder.)

But the scenes are telling different stories, and Babs' story is very very sad. And truly shocking. Babs had the "heroine" part that Ruth Roman had in Strangers on a Train and Vera Miles had in Psycho. In those movies, ANOTHER woman was the "victim" (Miriam In Strangers on a Train, Marion in Psycho.) The heroine wasn't supposed to get killed TOO. Hitchcocks killing of Babs was a brutal shock on TOP of the brutal shock of the earlier rape murder that Hitchcock forced us to watch in great detail(and once was enough.)

CONT

[–] roger1 (2394) a year ago

The "Farewell to Babs" scene also matches up in a rather artful, rhyming way to the earlier graphic rape murder of Brenda.

Brenda was murdered by Rusk in broad daylight, in her work office, at lunchtime. (Rusk cannily times the rape AND the strangling to pull them off BEFORE the secretary gets back from lunch.) Unlike as with Janet Leigh getting killed in that shower in Psycho -- at nighttime, in the middle of nowhere, with nobody else around except the killer and her accomplice), THIS one happens with all of Covent Garden down below Brenda's office, unaware of the horrrible murder taking place right in the middle the crowd, in the middle of the day.

And Hitchcock RETURNS us to this idea when we go DOWN WITH THE CROWD and he allows us to realize that Babs is "up there" suffering the same fate that Brenda did. It is not only suspenseful, it is oppressively sad. Powerful. Hitchcock didn't make "slight thrillers."

--

I think that all of the flash and style and narrative poetry of the " Blank Wall scene" and "The Farewell to Babs" scene is why Frenzy got great reviews and praise for Htichcock's style. And yet, when I watch Rusk walk Babs through the marketplace(she in her bright orange dressuit which will soon be a MacGuffin of evidence; he in a bright purple shirt and tie that draw attention to the "Necktie Strangler's" weapon) I think..."is Frenzy REALLY one of the great Hitchcocks?" Its just some people walking and a camera move. Heck, Psycho had TWO major staircase scenes.

And then I think: Yes, it is great. It is great in the way that an old man in the twilight of his career would capably pull off -- with a unity of narrative, visuals, and sound.

These are the things that made HITCHCOCK the star of Frenzy. And Topaz. And Family Plot.

[–] christomacin (4537) 10 months ago

Nice write up. Good analysis.

[–] roger1 (2394) 10 months ago

Thank you for reading!

[–] seagal72 (1833) 10 months ago

Yeah, great write up, on (what is) my favourite Hitchcock movie