You've Got Your Whole Life Ahead of You!

"Frenzy" was a big comeback hit for Hitchcock. There was some irony that the film was much better reviewed, on the whole than "The Birds" had been in 1963...and that some 1972 critics specifically listed "The Birds" as the FIRST "Hitchcock film of decline"(followed by Marnie, Torn Curtain, and Topaz) that had been "beaten" by "Frenzy."

I single out "The Birds" versus "Frenzy" here because while "The Birds" had set piece after set piece after set piece and represented Hitchcock piling on more sheer movie-making action than he'd ever done before..."Frenzy" is really rather small and tight and uneventful.

But within that smallness,"Frenzy" perhaps worked with more gem-like precision. It has a better script than "The Birds" and better structure. And it has a few set-pieces all its own.

One is called the "Farewell to Babs" sequence, which begins this way:

Close-up on Babs Milligan(Anna Massey): And all the noisy sound of the Covent Garden marketplace recedes to silence and the voice of an unseen man:

"Got a place to stay?"

The camera rack-focusses past Babs to the man saying this, and the stomachs of the audience drop:

the man is Bob Rusk, whom everybody likes for his surface, cheery charm, but whom only WE know is REALLY "the necktie killer," a vicious homicidal maniac given to attempting rape of his female victims before strangling them to achieve true sexual satisfaction.

We are HORRIFIED to see Bob Rusk there, and the innocent Babs his next potential victim.

There is a Hitchcock rhyme, next. The dialogue:

Babs: Oh, its you, Bob.
Rusk: (A bit sadly) Yeah.

Whereas earlier in the film when he came through the door of Brenda Blaney's office at lunchtime to kill HER, the dialogue:

Brenda: Oh, its you, Mr. Robinson
Rusk: (A bit sadly) I'm afraid so.

Hitchcock perfection. Though Brenda calls Rusk "Mr. Robinson"(because he's registered with her matrimonial agency under an assumed name") the call-and-callback response is the same "Oh its you" and Rusk's sad affirmation "I'm afraid so/Yeah" (sad, because HE knows he's here to kill another victim. He just can't help it.)

But back to Babs and Rusk in Covent Garden.

Having asked Babs if she's got a place to stay(she doesn't; she just quit her barmaid job and the free room and board that comes with it), Rusk walks Bab through a good stretch of Covent Garden -- from the outside to inside(a fruit and flowers warehouse) and outside again, to his flat. The single travelling take camerawork is good, the scenery colorful, the acting great, the writing, trenchant.

To wit:

Rusk offers Babs his flat for the night "til you get things settled."

Babs: No strings?
Rusk: Do I look like THAT sort of a bloke?
Babs: (Lightly) ALL blokes are that sort of a bloke.

Rusk just chuckles, but the line has resonance. A woman has to be cautious. Unfortunately, Rusk is just too cheery and harmless seeming to seem dangerous.
(BTW, all blokes ARE that sort of a bloke...they just have to gauge their chances and how long they have to work at it. But most men don't rape and kill. I'm talking courtship, here.)

Next Rusk tries to ascertain what Babs knows about her boyfriend , Richard Blaney, who is on the run for being the Necktie Killer(he isn't; Rusk is.)

Rusk: Leaving your boyfriend a bit in the lurch, aren't you? Can you tell me where he's staying?
Babs: I can't tell you that, Bob.
Rusk: Me and Dick have always been mates, you know that...all right, keep your little secret.

Exactly why Rusk wanted that information will become clear much later: when he turns Blaney into the cops.

As Rusk and Babs walk through the warehouse of colorful fruits and flowers, we notice that THEY are colorful: Babs with her bright orange suit(which will figure -- off her body -- as evidence in later scenes), Rusk with his bright purple tie(reminding us of the murder weapon he wears in plain sight.)

Heading out of the warehouse and towards the stairwell leading to Rusk's upstairs flat, the dialogue becomes harshly, sadly ironic:

Rusk: You know, quitting your job can be a blessing in disguise. It gets you out of a rut. You should travel, see the world. Jaffa. California -- where the fruit comes from. That's what I'd do if I wasn't tied down here.

Almost to the doorway to the stairs to Rusk's flat, Rusk offers Babs his most cutting advice:

Rusk: After all, you've got your whole life ahead of you!

All 15 minutes or so, we horrifyingly realize.

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