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Frenzy (1972)
In Alfred Hitchcock's first and only R-rated film (and
the only film that showed nudity) - a typical thriller:
- in the film's opening, a nude female body was floating
face-down in the Thames River - the first seen "Necktie" victim
[Note: It was highly likely that the same actress, Susan
Travers, also appeared in the film's opening, floating face-down in
the Thames River as the first seen "Necktie" victim.]
- in the film's first major scene, a long and intense
necktie rape-strangulation scene, ex-Mrs. Brenda Margaret Blaney
(Barbara Leigh-Hunt) was confronted by charming ladies man Mr.
Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) in her office: "You're the one I wanted
to see....I like you. You're my type of woman"; she suffered
a brutal death (a montage composed of a flurry of brief shots); when
she begged for her life, he tore off her dress and bra (exposing
one breast), screamed at her: "Love me!...Women - they're all
the same", and then revealed that he was the notorious Necktie
Killer - an impotent serial killer; after a lengthy struggle, she
was left dead with her twisted tongue hanging out
The Opening Rape-Strangulation Murder Scene
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- with a brilliantly-executed, incredible staircase
shot (a lengthy backwards tracking shot from Rusk's apartment),
the camera slowly retreated from a closed doorway behind which
another 'necktie' rape/strangulation murder was taking place of
barmaid Barbara Jane ('Babs') Milligan (Anna Massey) - it then
proceeded down the stairs and out into the brightly-lit street
where pedestrians were unaware of the horrors inside; It was completely
predictable that she was being assaulted in the killer's upstairs
apartment (it was unnecessary for Hitchcock to graphically show
a second murder-strangulation, so he left it to the viewer's
"fill-in-the-blanks" imagination).
- in a tense scene, killer Bob Rusk frantically
searched through a stack of burlap potato sacks in the back of a
moving, jostling and swerving truck to find his missing, incriminating
initialed/monogrammed stickpin (clenched in a death grip by the nude
corpse of Babs in a state of rigor mortis) torn from his lapel while
she struggled - Rusk had to snap the corpse's clutching fingers to
retrieve it
The Potato Truck Sequence: Rusk's Incriminating Initialed/Monogrammed
Stickpin
Clenched in Hand of Corpse in Back of Truck
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- at the home of the Chief Inspector Oxford (Alec McCowen)
, his wife Mrs. Oxford (Vivien Merchant) was crunching on a breadstick
as her husband explained the breaking of the
corpse's fingers in the truck while he was attempting to eat her
inedible 'gourmet' meal: ("Obviously he was looking for something....The
corpse was deep in rigor mortis. He had to break the fingers of the
right hand to retrieve what they held... It had to be something that
would incriminate him. Something that he missed when he put the body
on the truck. A monogrammed handkerchief, perhaps")
- in the final scene in Rusk's apartment bedroom, the
framed necktie-murderer Richard "Dick" Blaney (Jon Finch)
had fled after escaping from prison to kill Rusk; he beat a figure
under bedclothes (thinking it was Rusk) with a crowbar, until he
realized that the body belonged to an anonymous nude female (Susan
Travers) (another strangulation victim murdered earlier off-screen,
with contorted features: rolled-back eyes and a curved tongue) when
her arm with bracelets dangled off the side of the bed
- Chief Inspector
Oxford found Blaney at the scene - who was now fully implicated,
but then heard someone else lugging a large trunk up the stairs;
both remained quiet as necktie murderer Bob Rusk was tricked into
being cleverly apprehended after entering (with the damning evidence
in his own bed). Oxford noted to Rusk in a clincher line of dialogue: "Mr.
Rusk, you're not wearing your tie"
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The First Murder Victim
Backwards Tracking Shot After Babs' Murder
Crunching on a Breadstick
Mr. Rusk's Last Victim
Capture of Necktie Killer by Inspector Oxford
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