Entrée

This chapter examines the making of Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). Hitchcock called the writer Anthony Shaffer on New Year's Eve of 1970 to ask him to write the screenplay for Frenzy. Shaffer seems to have got on well with Hitchcock; so well in fact that they planned future collaborations, although the director's failing health would prevent this. The director's first choice for the role of Bob Rusk was Michael Caine, who had a strong resemblance to Neville Heath. However, Caine found the script ‘disgusting’, so Hitchcock settled on Barry Foster. The other actors cast in the film include Jon Finch, Vivian Merchant, and Billie Whitelaw. Meanwhile, the plot recycles a number of Hitchcock themes and motifs, but the events follow Arthur La Bern's novel closely. Some of the digressions in the novel are either left out or cut-down and the bitter misanthropy has been replaced by a slightly less bitter kind of black comedy.