Hi. I'm Laurent Bouzereau,
producer of this exciting DVD presentation
of Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.
For those of you familiar with the trailer of Frenzy,
Alfred Hitchcock was shown floating on the River Thames.
As you can see, | settled for something a little more simple.
Yet, since | traveled all the way to London
to meet with the screenwriter of Frenzy,
Anthony Shaffer, and the cast members from the film,
I've decided to introduce this exciting documentary from the famous Tower Bridge,
where the movie begins.
So here are some very exciting stories about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.
And for those of you wondering what happened to my tie,
well, some very suspicious fellow borrowed it from me last night.
How do you like my tie?
My God! The tie!
(Screaming)
(Woman) Frenzy was one of those movies where
the Hitchcock touch came back.
Now, do | look like a sex murderer to you?
{Man) This was just a good, rumbustious Hitchcock with a few scary bits in it.
You strangled her like all the others!
He wanted to become more explicitly violent.
There's a texture which you can get by using humour
and giving it to the blackest character in the piece.
(Woman) Hitch made a lovely atmosphere on the set.
You got the whole of your life ahead of you.
It was good fun. Good ironic fun.
- (Spitting) - That man must be
a sexual maniac.
- The beast. - | haven't murdered anyone.
Really, the world has become
darker than ever in Frenzy.
| wonder what the rest of the day has in store.
{Woman Screaming)
(Man) | had just done Sleuth on Broadway,
and we had received a notice
like the Second Coming, which was very gratifying.
And Hitch, you know, always used successful writers.
And | had had that success,
and therefore | was not completely surprised that Hitch got in touch with me.
Mind you, it's such an honour to be invited,
because he was such an incredible legend.
At first, I thought it was a bit of a hoax,
because this happened on New Year's Eve,
Someone, you know, answered the phone for me and said,
"It's Alfred Hitchcock on the line.” | said, "Yeah."
| thought it was one of my mates in New York.
| said, "It's time to come out and have a drink."
(Shaffer) A few minutes later, the actual book arrived,
which was the book from which the film was derived.
A book by a writer called Arthur La Bern
called Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square.
This tended to convince me this was not a hoax, and we took it from there.
And that's how that started.
(Shaffer) Alma was, of course, his wife, and she was a tiny little lady.
And whilst we were here trapping Frenzy,
she had a heart attack.
Not he. He had a pacemaker, you know.
But the one who had the heart attack was Alma.
It slightly affected the work necessary for doing the picture,
but, um, she recovered very quickly,
and, in fact, survived him.
(Man) In this particular shot
is a helicopter coming along the river,
and turning around onto you all listening to the speech.
Albeit, you're not sort of aware of the helicopter at all.
It's purely a camera shot.
(Man) Nobody looks at the helicopter.
You're all looking at the minister, listening to his speech. OK?
(Man) Alright, back around. And, action.
All the water above this point will soon be clear.
Clear of industrial effluent.
Clear of detergents.
Clear of the waste products of our society
with which for so long we have poisoned our rivers and canals.
(Shaffer) He was very strange about those cameo appearances.
They were always very modest, weren't they?
He wouldn't use makeup or make himself look in any way...
fanciful or ridiculous.
He was very shy of doing things like that.
He would be himself, but he wouldn't be anybody else. Do you see what I'm saying?
And he elects to do that on the Embankment.
There are actually two shots of him looking fairly lugubrious under a bowler hat.
- It's another necktie murder. - What are the police doing about it?
Why can't they find him?
- He's a regular Jack the Ripper. - Not on your life. He used to carve 'em up.
Sent a bird's kidney to Scotland Yard once, wrapped in bit of violet writing paper.
That'll do. I'm quite sure the lady doesn't want to hear any more about it.
(Shaffer) We did research into the serial killer.
In 1970, | don't think it was so prevalent a crime,
and these serial killers are what are called “aggressive sexual psychopaths.”
There are a lot of passive sexual psychopaths about.
It's the aggressive ones you have to worry about,
because they simply cannot control that impulse when it comes upon them.
It was a very interesting character because little had been written
about that kind of a character at the time.
He fascinates us. He still does.
(Man) Cheers, Squadron Leader.
- Chin-chin. - Morning.
It may come as something of a surprise to you, Blaney, but in this pub
we sell liquor, we don't give it away.
Still less do we expect our employees to steal it.
- | was going to pay for it. - Oh, yeah, I'm sure you were.
That's the last drink you're getting on this house. Get out.
| told you | was going to pay for it. | always pay for my drinks.
{Man) | think why Hitchcock asked me to play it was,
at that moment, I hadn't had a big film released,
but I'd just finished Macbeth for Roman Polanski,
which was big news at the time.
Hadn't opened. And, of course, | was gonna be cheap, you see.
Now, it was a very cheap film, Frenzy.
They didn't spend a lot of money.
They didn't, for example, provide cars for anybody to go to the set or go to the studio.
You just got your own taxi or you came on a bike or whatever you did.
So, anyway, they asked me- just asked me to do it, see?
They go through a book. You know, you got a casting director.
Casting directors don't do a lot. | mean, there's not much they can do.
But they say, "Well, this so-and-so. How about him?"
And Hitchcock presumably said, "Yeah, | think he looks alright.”
"What's he doing at the moment?”
So suddenly my agent went, "Oh, yeah. Would you like, I'll get Roman Polanski?”
Roman's doing everything down in Shepperton.
He's saying, "I'l do anything. You wanna see the film?"
"I'l show you rough cuts. I'll do this and do that."
Hitchcock didn't want to see a frame.
Nothing. But he said, "I've got to see whether he can act
and what he looks like on film.”
And my agent got a television movie that I'd done - simple thing shot in black and white
in '69, 1 think it was -
and showed it to him.
So he said, "Yeah, he'll do."
So | came to see him around the corner from the Dorchester,
which is where we are now,
and he said, "Jon, nice to see you."
Ba-ba-ba-bom. I was, you know, like half in shock seeing the man anyway.
‘Do you like the script?” | said, "Yes, of course.” You know, as you do.
And, uh, so he said, "I've seen the film that your agent showed me."
"You can act. That's good. Would you like to do it?”
"Yes, | would.” "0K. Let's go and have lunch.”
And that was it. So it was done.
And, |, you know - Of course | couldn't believe it.
| was stunned. Absolutely stunned.
- Don't let him talk to you like that. - | know.
What are you gonna do, luv?
| don't know. Another pub, perhaps.
Are you alright? | mean, you just gave him back the ten quid you borrowed.
| had to. He didn't think | had it. Don't worry. I've got a bit left.
This is Covent Garden, not the garden of love. How 'bout starting work?
Oh, get stuffed.
(Woman) | went up, in fact, for the part of the secretary.
I didn’t go up for Babs.
And we went into this huge -
| went alone - into this huge room in Piccadilly where he was doing the auditions.
And he sat behind this desk. | sat down.
And he started talking about deep refrigeration
and how to make batter.
There was this huge room he said he had in his house which was his fridge,
and he told me how he made batter for batter pudding,
and he kept it in this vast fridge.
So | was completely mesmerised by this. Then he started talking about this barmaid.
| was totally confused by this time,
‘cause he hadn't asked me to read for the secretary or anything.
Anyway, this barmaid had to be quite short,
and | found myself taking my shoes off.
| don't know why, because | wasn't up for the barmaid.
| was up for the secretary.
Anyway, when I got up to go - I'd forgotten I'd taken my shoes off,
so | had to put my shoes on - and he didn't say whether he wanted me or not.
Nothing, and no script was given.
And the next day, my agent rang, and said, "He wants you for the Cockney barmaid, Babs.”
| said, "This is amazing."
So | said, "Yes" to work with Hitchcock, of course. "Count me in.”
- Hello, Dick. - Hello, Bob.
| was just coming over for a quick one.
Why aren't you polishing the sausages and watering the gin,
or whatever it is you do there before opening time?
| have just been given the push.
What for? You weren't pissing in the beer again?
{Man) I'd had a couple of successes in the West End on stage,
and | was doing a play by David Mercer at the Criterion
called After Haggerty,
uh, with Billie Whitelaw.
Someone said, "Oh, Alfred Hitchcock's in tonight.”
"Oh, really. Mm-hmm."
Uh, next morning, my agent said,
‘Mr Hitchcock would like to meet you at 100 Piccadilly.”
So, along | went. He said, I'm making this picture about a murderer.”
I'd like you to take the script away and tell me if you'd like to play it”
So, well, the short story is
he sent for a couple of books about a pretty well-known murderer we bad over here
called Neville Clevely Heath, who masqueraded as a squadron leader.
And | went off on a short holiday
to read and came back and made the picture,
and | always thought, when people asked, "How on earth did you get the part?”
I said, "Well, he came to see the play.”
It was halfway through shooting the picture.
| was talking with his personal assistant, Peggy Robertson,
and she said, "Oh, no, no, no. That isn't how you got the part.”
Um, what happened was that I'd made a film a few years earlier
called Twisted Nerve.
Again with Billie Whitelaw.
And this picture, in almost all the notices,
they referred to it as sort of having
a Hitchcock flavour to it,
and, apparently, seeing me in the part | played in that,
that decided him | would be OK for Bob Rusk in Frenzy.
So, that's how wrong you can be about, uh, where you got where you did.
Here you are. Take one of these back to your girlfriend Babs.
Get her to peel you one. "Beulah, peel me a grape.”
That's what my ol' mum used to say when | was a kid.
- Well, at least you won't starve to death. - {Chuckles}
(Shaffer) Food is continuously used in the movie.
Look at the package of grapes that he is given at the beginning of the picture.
He is completely broke, he cannot back the horse that Rusk has tipped him,
and so he takes it out on the grapes.
Twenty to one!
Twenty to bloody one! Christ!
Damn it to hell!
(Man) Now turn. Go.
- Better go faster than me, Paul. - Now, he's pretty furious.
He's just flung the grapes on the floor previously.
(Finch) He'd say, "Do you want to run the jokes?”
Which is an old English way of saying, "Do you want to rehearse?”
He'd say, "Does Jon want to run the jokes?”
"| think he wants to run - Do you want to run the jokes, Jon?"
I'd say, "I wouldn't mind." It does help, you know, get through,
especially in, maybe, a bit of a wide shot,
you know, where you've got more than two lines of dialogue.
You're new here, aren't you?
I've been here for over a year now.
- What can | do for you, sir? - You can inform Mrs Blaney
that one of her less successful exercises in matrimony has come to see her.
- And who shall | say is calling? - Mr Blaney.
So you do it. They say, "Right?" You say, "Yeah, of course.”
"Alright." Shoot it. Bang. You just do it like that.
But, of course, because it was Hitchcock,
you didn't worry about it that much.
- What's the matter? - Oh, I'm sorry.
I've had a bad day, that's all. | lost my job.
How?
| got fired, that's how. What do you think, | mislaid it?
He hired the actors the same way he hired the stage carpenter -
on the assumption that they knew their job, they knew what to do.
Oh, it's you again, Mr Robinson.
Yes. I'm afraid so.
So rehearsal was minimal.
But on the other hand,
the buildup to the rape and murder scene with Barbara -
You're the one | wanted to see.
(Foster) There | was completely free.
He'd set up the camera for the scene,
and | remember saying, "Well, I'd like to walk around there,
and pull the file out and slam it back,” or do whatever he did.
And he said, "That's fine. 0K."
"Uh, we'll move the camera, accommodate what, uh,
Mr Foster wants to do.”
Absolutely no problem. Absolute freedom 1 felt.
| like you.
You're my type of woman.
(Foster) The rape and murder scene with Barbara Leigh-Hunt
took three days to shoot.
Before we started, we had Hitch's storyboard,
which is an incredibly helpful thing for the actor.
Fortunately, it involved chopping up the action into short
and intense sequences.
Take the money out of my bag, but please leave me alone!
There's a mid-shot of the two of us,
Barbara splayed out on her swivel chair,
(Whimpering) Please.
me on top of her.
We got to get through two or three lines,
mostly hers, of course, protesting.
There's enough money there to buy any woman you want. It's yours.
Take it. Just take it!
There might have been six or seven takes of that.
That was extremely distressing.
Don't tear my dress.
(Foster) The flashes of nudity, of the breasts and so on,
ere done by a professional model.
Lovely!
It's not at all pleasant, doing that stuff.
Women! They're all the same.
My God! The tie!
(Screaming, Gasping}
(Foster) The tie, of course, is pre-tied
and stitched so it can't move.
Help me!
| can do all this...
till the cows come home, just as you'd have to do on stage.
All the work is being done by the actress.
We would just console each other.
"Just another day and a half and we'll be through with this.”
{Panting)
She sticks her tongue out, as Hitch asked her to,
and the effect is genuinely horrendous.
Hitch did experiment with having an extremely close lens
to her mouth, getting through makeup, saliva and blood.
Hitch, | think, was trying to plumb the ultimate in horror there.
And | saw it in, uh, rushes.
1 said to Mr Hitchcock, "I don't think you should use that scene.”
He said, "Why not?”
| said, "Because it's disgusting.”
"Nonsense, dear boy,” was his response,
and he put it in the very first rough assembly of the film.
He had taken it out by the time we got to the second assembly.
(Shaffer) This was all part of setting up
the framing of the wrong man.
This was a key moment in the film,
and for this act of synchronicity,
if ever a man was in the wrong place at the wrong time,
it's Blaney.
We spent quite a long time looking for that location,
because it had to have a number of streets that actually intersected.
The light's a little too dark at the moment.
Going to wait a minute. Would you like to rehearse it again?
Yes, | don't see why not.
- (Man) It's a timing thing. - (Hitchcock) Sure it is.
Can we have the governor's chair here please, while we rehearse this?
- I'll do without it. - Oh, it's there.
{Man On Loudspeaker) Alright, Paul? Alright.
Background action and... action.
You've got to face the camera the whole time,
until the very end, when she goes by the camera,
and you pan ‘round with her, and she goes in this door.
But she's full face the whole time.
She'll look off. She'll be profile when she looks off down the alley.
(Shaffer) Hitch was not afraid to hold that shot
where nothing happened.
Nothing happens at all, but you know what is going to happen
because, obviously, the secretary is going to find
the murdered woman.
(Monica Screaming)
{Monica) | saw him clear as day. It was Blaney, alright.
He came out of the door downstairs and walked down the alley.
The beast.
(Foster) Blaney's wife's secretary, who's played by Jean Marsh -
It was a stroke of genius to make her look so
dowdy and dull and spinsterish
and obviously very repressed.
Because Jean was then, and still is,
an extremely beautiful, vivacious, marvellous woman.
Thank you.
(Massey) At the Coburg Hotel, when Jon Finch and |
went in for an amorous encounter,
the lady at the desk,
the hall porteress was Elsie Randolph, the famous actress.
Would that be with two singles, or the matrimonial-size bed?
The, uh, mat- double bed, please.
Yes. | see.
{Massey) She was in Rich and Strange, which Hitch directed in 1932.
So they were old friends. He surrounded himself by people he liked and remembered.
(Bottles Rattling)
(Finch) The idea of showing a naked woman getting out of bed and then putting on socks
is a wonderful piece of writing/direction combined.
There's no deep significance to it. It just - You know.
The girl gets out of bed. "It's gonna be cold.” Puts on socks. Simple.
{Massey) At my interview, and certainly when I had other meetings with Hitch,
he never said, "Do you mind stripping in the bedroom scene?”
I'd assumed that I'd be doing it, but the double did it
So, when you cut away, and this nude figure just wearing socks,
goes into the bathroom, that's not me.
(Blaney) Barbara, | swear I'm telling the truth,
Now, do | look like a sex murderer to you?
Can you imagine me creeping around London,
strangling all those women with ties?
That's ridiculous. For a start, | only own two.
(Shaffer) | think Truffaut it was who said that Hitchcock
made the same film many, many times,
by which he meant that his formula was that a man, unjustly accused,
runs and thus further incriminates himself.
And Frenzy is one of those pictures.
It's a middle-cut Hitchcock movie in that sense.
We haven't seen you in ages, Dick. How's Brenda? Do you still hear from her?
Well, uh, she's dead, I'm afraid.
Yes.
And you killed her!
(Man) Alright, rehearsal bell.
(Hitchcock) You know her very well.
Something's up.
Uh, on the other hand, Anna,
you don't know her.
(Massey) He was most respectful. Terribly kind.
If you were in trouble, you could ask him anything.
If you didn't understand how to play a scene,
if you wanted a line changed, which sometimes we did -
- May | say this? This has been put here. - Yes.
It's fairly crucial later on. | don't know whether that's meant to be here.
Wait a minute.
A handbag with gloves
have been placed in a strategic position.
We were going to ask you before where you would like them.
She says she's going shopping at the end, doesn't she?
Yes, but a woman like that would leave
her handbag and gloves in the bedroom.
They would be on the dressing table if she went shopping...
- or fishing. - (Man Chuckles)
I used to write notes every single night to his secretary, Peggy.
Oh, yes. Sure.
(Finch) And he was very good. Most of the time he'd say, "Alright. Correct it.”
He wasn't annoyed that I'd pointed out,
maybe, a syntactical error or something like that.
He did say once, "Jon, | said you could make alterations.”
"| didn't say you could rewrite the whole script.”
Which | was trying to do, | must have been.
(Hitchcock) Action.
# (Whistling)
(Foster) Frenzy was shot almost entirely
in Pinewood Studios in sets built in the studios.
Things like the inter- the office
where the famous murder took place.
The interior of the pub and so on.
The rest of it was shot mainly
in Covent Garden itself.
(Foster) Covent Garden was then the fruit and vegetable
and floral market for London.
(Shaffer) It's a very London film, and I know he wanted to make that.
I think he thought - whether he thought rightly or wrongly is another matter -
that people thought that he had rather sold out
and gone to live in Hollywood.
I personally don't think that he would have been the world success he became
had he stayed here in England.
Here is the scene of another horrible murder.
This is the famous London wholesale fruit and vegetable market-
Covent Garden.
Here you may buy the fruits of evil,
and the horrors of vegetables.
I've heard of a leg of lamb,
a leg of chicken, but never a leg of potatoes.
(Shaffer) When we were filming in Covent Garden,
a curious thing took place that a very old man came up to him.
| remember security men running in very quickly
because you know what goes on these days, or even in those days.
It wasn't quite as bad, but nonetheless -
And he said, "| remember your father here in the market.”
(Woman) His father was a very well-off, uh... green grocer.
He had a chain of stores, you know, where he sold fish,
and green grocery and all that, so he grew up with this.
(Shaffer) Hitchcock was delighted, of course.
He said, "Leave him alone,” sat him down,
had a long talk with him about his dad,
gave him a great meal and sent him on his way.
It's a nice touch, but he was finding and feeling his roots as they had been.
(Massey) He had a crack team.
You know, fabulous operator. Fabulous Gil Taylor. Fabulous lighting.
(Finch) He had great fun with the cameramen, especially the camera operator.
He used to say, uh, "One button up so,” or something like that.
He'd be that precise. He'd know.
Whatever lens you put on, he could tell exactly what
the end result was gonna be in the camera.
The sooner that madman'’s behind bars, the better.
Don't you talk about him like that!
Listen! You don't realise how lucky you are to be alive.
Christ Almighty, Babs! If | wasn't shorthanded, I'd take you to Scotland Yard myself.
- As it is, right after closing time - - | won't be here!
- Stuff your job right up your jacksie! - Come back!
Oh, balls!
(Massey) When | come out of the pub, Paul, the camera operator,
said to Hitchcock, "Where do you want to cut this shot?”
Hitch said, "Two inches above her hem,” or | don't know what he said,
but anyway he said something technical.
We did the take, and Hitch was sitting at a really weird angle,
because he had to be away from the camera.
And he said to Paul, "You were an inch out, weren't you, on the cut -
Where you cut on her skirt?”
And Paul said, "How did he know, sitting from that angle?” And he did.
His eye was so acute.
- Got a place to stay? - Oh, it's you, Bob.
(Foster) When she turns around, and there | am behind her, how did he do it?
Well, it's quite simple.
I'm just crouching, uh, just below the camera
like a little urchin.
Anna hits her mark. | come up behind her.
The camera lens can't see me until she moves.
| think, was it Truffaut who said to Hitchcock, after he saw it,
"It's a young man's picture.”
By that he meant it's a film with a lot of experimentation, a lot of risks.
There's that moment when Anna Massey's walking into the street
and all the sound goes away.
That's unusual to do that. You have to have nerve to pull something off like that.
You can stay at my place till you get something sorted out, if you want.
| won't be in your way. I'm going up north for a few days.
- No strings? - Now, do | look like that sort of a bloke?
- All blokes are that sort of a bloke. - {Chuckles}
(Shaffer) When we had done the first murder,
it's a pretty graphic account of a rape and strangulation,
and | didn't see any point in repeating ourselves.
And so | introduced a phrase into the first murder.
You're my type of woman.
| said to Hitch, "Let's not see another murder.”
Why don't we just have the murderer take her up to his apartment,
open the door for her, and say,
"You're my kind of woman” and close the door.
| don't know if you know it, Babs, but you're my type of woman.
We know exactly what is happening behind that closed door,
and there's a wonderful shot that follows that.
It's what Hitch called his "Good-bye to Babs.”
The camera retreats and down a narrow, twisting staircase.
(Foster) Along the hallway and out into the street.
And I think it's a fairly well-known cinema trick.
In the studio,
we had the stairway built.
The U-shaped stairway, and with a railway for the, uh, cradle,
with the operator and the camera
sitting in the cradle so that he's coming down and 'round the "U",
and back down the stairs, along the hallway,
and as the camera clears the lintel of the front door,
which was built in the studio,
an extra dressed like a Covent Garden porter with a huge sack of potatoes
wipes the screen.
Go out to location in Tavistock Street,
have the man walk across and wipe the screen with the potato sack
and track back.
Cue pedestrians, cue the cyclists, cue the cars,
and it seems to be an uninterrupted sequence.
{Bogdanovich) Late in his career, Hitchcock was, you know,
working on all cylinders,
and that he was able to bring
an enormous amount of creativity and excitement
even, basically, at the end of his career.
(Grunting)
(Massey) He suddenly realises
that the tie pin is in my clenched hand.
The audience could not possibly have gathered that
without a flashback sequence
which Hitchcock storyboarded.
Christ all-bloody-mighty!
I knew from the start that | wasn't going to have to go in the potato sack,
other than the close-up on my face, but | was never in the truck.
Uh, they always had a double for that.
(Foster) The potato lorry sequence was another three-day affair,
though very much more lighthearted and bearable
than the three days of rape and murder.
It was something like 114 cuts.
There again, how useful the storyboard was,
because, uh... I'm scrabbling away, and all of a sudden
this bare foot comes and hits me in the jaw.
And, of course, Hitch's drawing was,
uh, you know, quite grotesque,
which immediately told the actor he wants a laugh there.
Amidst all this gruesome business,
the audience will laugh.
That was the model's hand when 1 finally found the tie pin.
Given the right sound effects, you could just...
do that.
If you've got the right sound effects,
you'll think that really is a broken finger.
(Bone Cracks}
It was a very dusty, messy business,
but on the whole most enjoyable
and a most instructive three days.
- (Siren Wailing) - ## (Whistling)
(Siren Wailing)
(Brakes Squealing}
- {Lorry Driver) Who is it? - (Police) Perhaps you can tell us.
You strangled her like all the others!
(Blaney) I'm sorry, Bob, but | had nowhere else to go.
You'd better hole up in my place for a day or two till we get something sorted.
- Are you Richard lan Blaney? - Rusk!
- It's Rusk! - You know what they say, Sarge.
Virtue is its own reward.
- Are you agreed upon your verdict? - We are.
(Shaffer) We, the audience, know what has happened, We know why he's there.
There is a courtroom, there is a judge, and there is the fellow in the box.
You don't need to do more than that
One thing we don't know is what sentence he's going to get.
That's the one piece of information we're given when the door finally opens.
That's all you need.
...lan Blaney, you have been found guilty of a terrible crime.
(Shouting) Rusk, where are you?
One of these days, you bastard!
(Blaney's Voice) Rusk, where are you?
Rusk! One of these days I'm gonna get out and kill you, you bastard!
(Shaffer) The difference between the novel and the movie script
is that we added a lot of comedy noir,
which Hitch was always very fond of.
And in particular, in those scenes of exposition,
where the detective, Alec McCowen,
is brought to realise
that, on the basis of a lot of circumstantial evidence,
he has arrested the wrong man who is currently in jail.
And how does he come to realise that he has made that mistake?
So the way to do it, | thought,
was to do it as comedy.
And the comedy comes, of course, from his wife, played by Vivien Merchant,
who is a gourmet cook.
And she keeps giving him the most repulsive and inedible meals.
- It looks like a pig's foot. - That's what it is.
Quail with grapes.
- What exactly is in this soup? - It's a soupe de poisson, dear.
- | know you'll enjoy it. - It's delicious.
And he is struggling desperately, | think,
with a pig's trotter or knuckle of pork or something like that,
whilst reprising the entire deductive plot.
(Mrs Oxford) What would he want to take the corpse out of the sack for?
Obviously, he was looking for something.
How do we know that?
Well, the corpse was deep in rigor mortis.
He had to break the fingers of the right hand to retrieve what they held.
Even if you're laughing and you don't hear it,
no one can complain later that there's a big hole in the picture.
Because how did the detective suddenly realise that he had made a mistake?
The audience have been actually told word by word.
The only place our man could have escaped from that truck was at that cafe.
| sent Sergeant Spearman to find anyone who could remember Rusk being there.
Well, eat up, dear. You'll want to be finished by the time he arrives.
Tasty, very tasty.
Not a lot of meat on it, mind.
No sense in gorging, dear.
I'll take mine and eat it while I'm beating up my egg whites for the souffle.
- {Doorbell Rings) - (Shaffer) It does seem to me
that we had our cake and ate it, for once, which is always nice.
Rather looks like we put the wrong man away this time.
What do you mean, "we"? You put him away.
(Guard) Get the doctor, quick.
(Man} They've given him all their sleeping pills.
I'm off. Blaney's escaped, and | bet | know where he's gone.
(Shaffer) 1 think what we wanted to do was
extend to the last possible moment
the fact that our hero is in danger -
that he's a loser; that he cannot win this one.
He, uh... hits this creature in the bed, believing it to be Rusk, on the head.
The arm falls out of the bed.
We realise it's not a man at all. It's a woman.
Just another victim of the Necktie Murderer.
In the book, we have a different victim in the last scene.
The secretary of Blaney's wife in the matrimonial agency is the victim,
and in the film we have an anonymous lady
who we never met before.
The last scene of the picture
is one of the few occasions 1 had direction from Hitch.
{Thumping Noise)
(Foster) I drag up this huge trunk
up into my apartment.
I get it through the door,
and waiting in my room is the chief inspector of the police.
And | sort of...
dropped my head or something - something corny.
And Hitch said, "Don't drop your head.”
He says, "That is the last thing a serial murderer
is going to do, as it were, admit defeat.”
So he said, "Just don't - don't drop your head.”
"Drop the trunk, but don't drop your head.”
Mr Rusk.
You're not wearing your tie.
(Bogdanovich) The music in Frenzy is good.
It's one of the best scores he had without Bernard Herrmann.
Henry Mancini, I think, did the original score, and then was let go.
# (Organ Playing. Eerie Melody)
He brought Ron Goodwin in after letting Mancini go,
and 1 think he did a very good job.
# (Triumphal Orchestration)
{Bogdanovich) It's the return to England, too, that Hitch
probably infused that in the composer.
There's a certain kind of nostalgia that Hitch must have felt
that comes across in the score.
Let's go, please. First positions, straight away.
(Finch) He was a revered character.
He's one of the greatest names in, uh,
in 20th-century history, let alone the film industry.
They should turn and look out, and then down.
(Foster) 1 thought it was right up there
in terms of his later work
inasmuch as it had chasing the wrong man,
the amusing villain,
and the discussion of married life,
and its ups and downs.
It's a very brutal film, but it's
{full of things he loves,
like food and London.
It's a very loving portrayal of the Covent Garden Market,
because now that's moved over to Nine Elms in Battersea,
and we knew that Covent Garden wasn't going to be there forever,
and Barry and | remember saying to one another
this will be a very exclusive piece of film.
(Shaffer) By putting him in London with Frenzy,
in touch with his roots, and by telling the story -
when | say an old-fashioned way, | mean a very carefully constructed way -
and | think the public responded to that very strongly.
| know they did,
and he got a big smash hit out of it, which cheered him up a lot
and put him back on his pedestal again,
where he remains to this day.
- This whole business is insane. - The man who's killing these women
is a criminal sexual psychopath.
There are some women who ask for everything they get.
Cross me heart and hope to die.
Cut it.