Category Archives: Barbara Leigh-Hunt

#28 Favorite Film, #7 Favorite Horror Films, 1972 Films, Alec McCowen, Alfred Hitchcock, Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Barry Foster, Billie Whitelaw, Clive Swift, Horror, Jean Marsh, Jon Finch, Michael Bates, Thriller, Top 10 Horror Films, Top 100 Films, Top 20 Horror Films, Top 250 Films, Top 40 Horror Films, Top 50 Films, Vivien Merchant

Frenzy-1972

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Frenzy-1972

Director Alfred Hitchcock

Starring Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Anna Massey

Top 250 Films #28

Top 40 Horror Films #7  

Scott’s Review #244

Frenzy_movieposter

Reviewed May 17, 2015

Grade: A

Frenzy (1972) is a later-day Alfred Hitchcock film that returns the masterful director to his roots in London, England, his country of origin, and the place where his early films were made.

As with numerous other Hitchcock stories, the protagonist is falsely accused of murder and struggles mightily to prove his innocence before time runs out and he meets his doom.

The film is distinctly British, featuring an entirely British cast, and includes a humorous side story about the primary investigator’s wife. This terrible cook prepares exotic yet unappetizing meals for her husband.

This comic relief perfectly balances the heavy drama encompassing the main murder story, as Frenzy is one of Hitchcock’s most violent and graphic films.

Made in 1972, he was able to include much more explicit content. A neck-tie murderer, who also rapes his female victims, is on the loose in London.

In the opening sequence, we see a dead woman floating in the Thames River during broad daylight, nude, except for a neck-tie that she has been strangled with. A crowd of spectators races to see what all the fuss is about.

We then meet the central character of the film, down-on-his-luck bartender Richard Blaney, who is fired from his job as a bartender by his hateful boss.

Blaney has a loyal girlfriend in Babs, a barmaid at the same local watering hole. Babs is sexy, yet plain. He also has a successful ex-wife, Brenda, who runs a dating company. Blaney regularly sponges off Brenda for money and dinners. Also in the picture is successful fruit-market trader Bob Rusk, who is a friend of Blaney’s.

All four of these central characters play a significant role in the main plot.

As events begin to unfold, the film is not a whodunit as traditionally it could have been. Instead, the audience quickly learns who the murderer is and their motivations, which is an interesting twist in itself.

Despite this knowledge, the film is quite compelling as a classic Hitchcock horror-thriller.

It is interesting for Hitchcock fans to compare this film with many of his earlier works. Released in 1972, at a time in film history when such sensors were more lax, it is the first Hitchcock film to feature nudity.

It is also the film of Hitchcock’s that features the most brutal rape/murder scene of all, surpassing the shower scene from Psycho, in my opinion.

The victim’s ordeal is prolonged, as she begins praying, thinking she will only be raped, at first unaware that her attacker is also the neck-tie murderer, and her life is running short. This leads to a sad, gruesome outcome for her.

One of the most interesting murder scenes takes place off-camera and is an ingenious idea by Hitchcock. The neck-tie murderer lures a victim to his apartment complex under the guise of being a friend of hers.

They walk upstairs to his unit and go inside, all the while the camera remains outside the apartment, so the viewer only imagines the horrors unfolding inside.

The camera then slowly goes back down the stairs and out onto the street, and looks up at the murderer’s window. The fact that the victim is one of the main characters makes one’s imagination run wild about what is transpiring inside the apartment, and the viewer is filled with grief.

This is a brilliant choice by Hitchcock and so effective to the story.

Another great scene is the potato truck sequence.

As the neck-tie murderer has dumped his victim, like garbage, into a potato sack, he is panicked to realize that she has taken his pin from his jacket and presumably clenched it in her fist as a clue, despite her demise.

What will he do now?

The extended scene features the murderer inside the potato truck attempting to unclench his pin from her hand and escape the moving truck without being caught.

It is my favorite scene in Frenzy.

Frenzy (1972) is a return to triumph for Hitchcock, after the complex Topaz (1969) and Torn Curtain (1966), both underappreciated political thrillers made a few years earlier.

He returns to the horror genre like gangbusters, throwing in some good, sophisticated British humor for good measure.

What a treat this film is.

2004 Films, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Camilla Rutherford, Drama, Eileen Atkins, Gabriel Byrne, Jim Broadbent, Julian Fellowes, Period Drama, Reese Witherspoon, Rhys Ifans, Romantic Drama

Vanity Fair-2004

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Vanity Fair-2004

Director Mira Nair

Starring Reese Witherspoon, James Purefoy

Scott’s Review #772

Reviewed June 12, 2018

Grade: B

An adaptation of the classic 1848 novel written by William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (2004) softens the traditionally unlikable and roguish character of Becky Thatcher quite a bit.

This proves not to be the smartest move as the character, now more of a heroine is watered down and forever changed, as is this film adaptation.

Reese Witherspoon (Becky) drew harsh criticism for her starring turn, but I do not think she is so bad, and the costumes and set designs are wonderful and quite the highlight of the resulting period piece.

In 1802 England, we meet Becky Sharp, a young woman who has just graduated from a School for Girls and been sent to work as a governess. Because her father, a talented painter, is impoverished, Becky is cast aside as lower class and deemed undesirable to anybody upper class- the men she is most interested in.

Despite her reputation as a tart, Becky aspires to marry rich and frequently gets into trouble with her shenanigans and smart tongue while romance blooms with the handsome Rawdon Crawley (Purefoy).

The story is supposed to encompass Becky’s life from approximately age eighteen through her mid-thirties (though Witherspoon never appears to age) and displays her trials and tribulations, her loves and losses through the years.

We follow her from rural England to London and Belgium, eventually residing in Germany, reduced to working in a casino, where the film concludes.

The film is a treat as the various countries as they appeared in the nineteenth century, and the wars and battles occurring during this period are featured making for an interesting history lesson.

The main appeal should be Becky Thatcher since the film revolves around her, and numerous criticisms were thrown around accusing the film of casting Reese Witherspoon in the important and demanding role based on her star power at the time.

In 2004 Witherspoon was experiencing enormous film success after 2001’s Legally Blonde and 2002’s Sweet Home Alabama- admittedly fluff films- but securing her box office power nonetheless. These films undoubtedly led to her being cast in the pivotal role, but I thought the star was perfectly adequate and gave Becky appropriate humor and zest.

Based on Witherspoon’s “girl next door” persona and the fact that she just looks like a good character- perplexing the decision to cast her if filmmakers wanted to be true to the character.

Witherspoon was delicious in 1999’s Election as villainous Tracy Flick, a role of a lifetime. But that is the exception and not the standard.

But I digress- the bottom line is that while she is a capable actress, she does not give the gritty performance that many were expecting to be true to the character in the novel.

The rest of Vanity Fair is just mediocre as far as the story goes.

While the antics of Becky are both humorous and dramatic, her rooting value in the romance department does not come across in the 2004 film offers- not enough chemistry exists between the leads to warrant much support.

Opinions abound that other incarnations of Vanity Fair are far more superior and compelling than this film is, but I have yet to see any.

Compliments must be reaped on the costume department and the art direction- both are superior. Such threats are the lavish and colorful costumes and gowns that mark the time. From the classic style hats and highfalutin dresses featured in ball after ball, this aspect is nearly enough to recommend a watch over the dull story and immeasurably the highlight of the entire film.

Vanity Fair (2004) is considered a messy travesty to those well-read enough to have turned the pages of the classic novel. Since I have not yet read the book, perhaps I enjoyed the film slightly more than I should have, but alas, I did not find the casting of Witherspoon as Becky nor the overall product to be drivel as many did.

I recommend the film for the gorgeous visual treats if nothing else.