Film Review: Frenzy (18), (U.K. 1972) (Director: Alfred Hitchcock), Saturday 08.09.2012 18:15, The Filmhouse Screen Two, Edinburgh

Of the twenty Hitchcock films that I have seen, this is easily one of my favorites, therefore I took up the opportunity to see it on the 'big screen'. It is not a film that I find to hold particular menace or suspense. It is a very working class London film in the tone and manner of some of its central characters. The central crimes are referred to as the neck-tie murders, though as always the perpetrator becomes rash and sloppy. There is an opportunity for the perpetrator to frame a 'mate' who is being wrongly suspected.

This film, as a Hitchcock film appeals to me because there are; scenes of very restrained British humour, the criminal is an appropriate mix of sleaze and superficial-charm, other characters are slippery, Bernard Cribbins as the pub landlord is quick to get his dander up and the central victim/wrongly accused is the archetypal wrongly judged decent chap, in the wrong place at the wrong time, just trying to get by.

The film in terms of quality of film-making is not a match for the likes of psycho, vertigo, north by northwest or strangers on a train, though it it has a grubby charm that none of his finest films possess. It is hard to take the piece seriously, though is a fun telling of a yarn.

Rating: 08/10.