I don't know what it is with Hitchcock movies. As a movie watcher I of course really appreciate his movies and what his talent as a film-maker has done for movies in general. He has made some of the very movies within its genre and also some of the most influential ones. However still some of his movies are ones I just hate watching, even though in style and story they seem like the same ones as basically every other Hitchcock production.
Well, even though I didn't fully hated watching "Frenzy" it also was a movie that made me cringe at times. For this movie Hitchcock returned to England and London again, after successful persuading an Hollywood career. The already aging Hitchcock made his last movies there, of which this one was the first shot movie in Britian since 1956's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" for him.
We basically have all of the usual Hitchcock ingredients present in this movie, such as a story about a man on the run, some suspenseful sequences and some still experimental shots and build up sequences, for which Hitchcock became also so well known and praised in the movie making world. So basically this movie is the same as any other Hitchcock genre movie, then were did it go wrong? Well, perhaps the movie does feel a bit like it got made 2 decades too late, due to its overall style. As a black & white movie, set in the '40's of '50's London this movie would had perhaps worked out as a better one.
But the movie seems also to be lacking with its story. It felt as if the entire script got only finished for two-thirds and it lacked a finalizing treatment. The movie really loses its focus on its main story at times, also because the main character would often just simply disappear out of the movie for a too long time.
Also the casting seems like a problem. Jon Finch just wasn't the best leading man thinkable and he lacked the right charisma for his role to make his character a likable enough one you could also cheer for. Barry Foster was still good though however and he spiced things up a bit. But still basically every actor that appears within this movie didn't really seemed like the most talented ones.
What still slightly raises this movie above average is because it has some original and well executed moments in it. The movie isn't really an average thriller about a serial-killer and a man that gets wrongfully accused of those murders. The movie still has more style and class to it than any other similar genre movie. Still the movie is not without its weak parts and moments. Just not really up to par with Hitchcock's usual and earlier work.
6/10
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