I did mean to start this Blog off straight after New Year, but life does get in the way, and better late than never! Normally an avid film watcher, it has been a slow start to the year with only a handful of films watched . First up was:
Frenzy (1972)
Hitchcock's thriller of the hunt for serial killer amongst the markets of Covent Garden was a sparkling return to form from the master after a run of several stinkers. Although slightly nastier than usual, it's a tremendous flick with plenty of signature touches from Hitch. The camera recoiling from horror from what is happening in the flat of the killer, backwards down a a twisting staircase and out into the street was, for me, the standout shot but the 'wrestling' match with a corpse in the back of a potato wagon is a wonderful moment of black comedy. One of Hitch's most common theme, that of the wrong man being accused and hunted down, is the mainstay of the story as Jon Finch tries to elude the police unaware that is actually his friend, Barry Foster, who is The Necktie Killer. Hitch uses the London backdrop with nolstgiac fondness and captures the now defunct markets at Covent Gardens wonderfully. This was the place of his youth as his father was a greengrocer in these parts and he captures the bygone days before they vanished forever which is an incedental treat of the film. Hitch was to make one more film, Family Plot in '76, but this is his last true hurrah.
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