Some Critics Who Thought Frenzy was Better Than Psycho (and That Family Plot Was, Too)
I suppose this is under the heading of "there's always a contrarian," but I've always been intrigued by these little pieces of information.
When Frenzy came out in 1972, it was made with a surge of rave reviews(with such titles as "The Return of Alfred the Great; Return of the Master; Still the Master.") I remember the Newsweek rave best of all: "It seemed so simple: starting with The Birds and sliding down to Topaz, Alfred Hitchcock had given us a series of films of decline, authored by old age. Well, as usual, the Master has fooled us: Frenzy is one of his very best."
Was it? I'm never sure, myself, but I remember the smile I got when I read that review.
A few critics, bringing up the rear, elected to push back. The Washington Post critic wrote "I wish I could agree that Frenzy is a return to form. But it is not. It is somewhat better than his most recent films, but not significantly better."
Still, the reviews were roughly 90% pro Frenzy. Much better reviews than had first greeted Vertigo("A Hitchcock and Bull Story in which the issue isn't so much whodunit as who cares") or Psycho ("Third rate Hitchcock.") But those bad reviews were ON RELEASE.
No, the weird reviews about Frenzy versus Psycho in 1972 were the ones that found it better EVEN AS Psycho had been moved up to classic status.
I remember this one:
"Not only had the films from Marnie through Topaz been a letdown, but Psycho and The Birds would have been senseless studies in sadism without Hitchcock's embellishments. Before Frenzy, the last truly great Hitchcock was North by Northwest...and critics had begun to despair."
Hmm..THAT critic took down The Birds AND Psycho against Frenzy, but truth be told The Birds got knocked a lot in Frenzy reviews("starting with The Birds and sliding down to Topaz").
Still, you had to wonder what that critic was thinking. Let's leave the flawed Birds out of it -- PSYCHO was a "senseless exercise in sadism?" I think time has demonstrated that Psycho has a surprisingly compassionate view towards both the victims AND the killer, and a sense of the backstory in history to horrific murders today.
Meanwhile, Frenzy rather "upped the ante" on sadism by detailing(just once ,but it was enough) the sexual rage of Bob Rusk in a raping-killing mode.
I can't remember the name of the critic who made the "senseless exercise in sadism remark" but here is what another critic, Arthur Knight, wrote of Frenzy in 1972:
"The great thing is that everything works. Frenzy is , for me, Hitchcock's best picture and his most authentically Hitchcockian -- since North by Northwest, and North by Northwest I have always counted among my favorite Hitchcocks."
A third, rather grudging approval of Frenzy came from long-time Hitchocck foe Stanley Kauffman(New Republic) who hated Vertigo and NXNW and Psycho and The Birds, but wrote of Frenzy two things -- "Hitchcock finally has a good script and lo, the DIRECTOR has come back?" and this: "Frenzy is the best-acted Hitchcock since North by Northwest."
(Note how all three of these Frenzy raves harkened back to NXNW as kind of the "stopping point" in time where one again finds a great Hitchcock movie.)
I suppose there's not much point lingering on a mere three reviews that preferred Frenzy to Psycho but I think that Kauffman's gave us clues WHY: The acting(non-movie stars but trained British stage actors) and the script( by Anthony "Sleuth" Shaffer and possessed not only of wit, but of a certain down-and-dirty look at male-female relationships.)
On the acting front, we know that a lot of critics felt that the amateur Tippi Hedren rather wrecked her two Hitchcock films, and that John Gavin was terrible and wooden in Psycho(Vera Miles seems rather to have been ignored for HER acting.) But Frenzy has master thespians like Alec McCowen and Vivien Merhchant as "support leads" and Barry Foster(Rusk) was evidently quite the celebrated stage actor at the time. (Jon Finch had done Macbeth for Polanski, but also a Hammer Dracula movie....)
So I suppose a bit of "pro-British actor snobbery" might raise Frenzy above Psycho. And maybe something about the script seemed "better" than the repetitive little word games Joe Stefano wrote for Psycho("You make respectability sound...disrespectful" "I hate eating in an office, its just too officious.")
==