Cancel Culture 1972: Hitchcock, Frenzy ...and Barbie

(aka ecarle.)

I post this in the summer of 2023 and the movie "Barbie" is a billion dollar blockbuster.

And I remembered: in 1972 , "Alfred Hitchcock Met Barbie" ...and the outcome was bad for Hitch.

After several failed movies in a row in the 60s(Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz) Hitchcock had a comeback hit with the hard-R rated Frenzy, his first tale about a psycho SINCE Psycho and now gussied up to add rape to murder(strangulations by necktie in this movie where it had been butcher knife stabbings in Psycho.)

Frenzy got great reviews(mainly) and good box office but...since it was a movie about a rapist-strangler who kills women exclusively(the psycho in Psycho killed a man, too)...feminists took umbrage.

And there was an article in 1972 about how the National Organization of Women(NOW) gave Hitchcock one of its "Putting Women in Their Place" awards for Frenzy and further protested by....throwing a naked Barbie doll with a necktie around her neck onto the front entrance of Universal Pictures (either in LA or NYC, I can't remember.)

I recall imaging that story when I first read it as NOW throwing SCORES of naked Barbie dolls with neckties at Universal HQ. But I later re-read it to be just ONE measly Barbie doll.

Still, this was, I believe, an AP wire story that got national attention and I think it may have actually HURT Hitchcock .

For Frenzy, despite all those four-star reviews("Hitchcock at his very best!") and box office, didn't get a single Oscar nomination for 1972. And it was worthy of some nominations at least, in my view: Picture, Director(Hitchcock of course), Adapted Screenplay(by Anthony "Sleuth" Shaffer) cinematography, editing and at least some of the acting(I'd have nominated the psycho, Barry Foster, and his main victim, Barbara Leigh Hunt, for their intense work -- Supporting.)

There were no Oscar nominations for Frenzy. Hitchcock got cancelled! By a Barbie doll!

You see, it could be done even "way back then" before the internet. All you needed was a wire service article that was printed nationwide(I think maybe network TV picked up the story too.)