Michael Caine Meets the Actor Who Played the Role Caine Turned Down in Hitchcock's Frenzy

Hitchcock scholars of a certain stripe know that Alfred Hitchcock's first choice to play British sex killer Bob Rusk in Frenzy was ...Michael Caine, who , in 1971 was riding rather high as a young star and whom Hitchcock thus sought for his 1972 release.

In one of his autobios, Caine said that he turned Hitchcock down because "I didn't want to be associated with the part." Caine singled out that Rusk was written was a "particularly sadistic killer of young women."

With Caine out, and after a long interviewing process with generally little-known British actors, Hitchcock settled on Barry Foster to play Rusk. It was easy to see why: as some critics NOT in the know said at the time, "Barry Foster is rather like Michael Caine" -- the Cockney voice, the blondish curly hair, even the ruddy face.

In an interview, Caine mentioned that Barry Foster "played my brother once , on a TV drama.

I could find no evidence of that TV drama, but I DID stumble -- accidentally -- onto an entire MOVIE in which Michael Caine has the lead, Barry Foster has a key supporting role -- and the two actors share three scenes. For a "Frenzy" buff, it was rather fascinating.

The film is called "The Whistle Blower.(Not to be confused with the later "The Whistleblower." Ha.) " It is from 1986 (though some listings have it as 1987.)

It was British -- I don't know if it played theaters for long, or went straight to BBC.

SPOILERS for The Whistle Blower:

The plot is fairly simple. Michael Caine plays a spy of some sort, whose grown son is a linguist and sort of a spy himself. The son dies and the cause of death(via carbon monoxide in a car) is deemed "an accident or suicide.") To clear his son's name, Caine investigates. And finds murder, of course. And various culprits in the government, of course.

The plot is a bit like a more quiet "Get Carter," as Caine single-mindedly seeks to avenge the death of a loved one in an "accident." And though 15 years older than he was in " Get Carter," Caine DOES get to grit his teeth and threaten a few people along the way.

The film has James Fox as a co-star(his brother Edward Fox took ANOTHER role that Caine turned down -- the killer in Day of the Jackel.) And John Gielgud -- just a few years after his Oscar win for "Arthur" is a significant guest star, too.

Barry Foster gets "and Barry Foster" billing. Perhaps honoring his "Frenzy" role and the connection to Caine. Perhaps honoring his "Van Der Vleck" TV detective show of the time.

Michael Caine and Barry Foster get three scenes together in the film, all significant. But before taking in the scenes, one takes in the two actors, facing each other:

Caine turns out to be a lot taller than Foster, and more strapping. Barry Foster comes off as thin, spindly and shorter than Caine, which tells us something about their stardom difference. And 14 years after Frenzy, Foster's blond hair had turned near white -- giving him a somewhat elderly appearance versus Caine, whose blond hair is duller in 1986, but still youthful enough.

The two men project middle age -- Foster a bit older -- and one realizes that Caine's matinee idol period was rather brief -- though he WAS young and virile in Get Carter and Sleuth, his Frenzy era movies.

What comes through as Michael Caine faces off with Barry Foster in The Whistle Blower is that there was only top stardom available for one of them -- they were too similar -- and Caine got it and by 1986, Foster never would.

Still, they are good together. Their three scenes boil down to:

SCENE ONE: Foster and Caine are old friends. Foster used to be a spy "but you can't really get out." Foster cares about Caine's feelings over the loss of his son, and will do everything he can to get to the bottom of it.

SCENE TWO: (Later). As in all good thrillers, "good friend" Barry Foster is now exasperated by Caine's unwillingness to accept the son's death as a an accident or suicide. Now, Foster will NOT help Caine anymore and starts to set up road blocks for Caine to investigate any further. Caine figures it out: uh oh, Foster not only isn't a friend -- he's part of the solution.

SCENE THREE: A long, important, climactic scene in which Caine and Foster meet in the latter's apartment over drinks -- a LOT of drinks. Two drunk men --Caine not really -- confront each other. Foster admits that he set the son up, but never dreamed he would get killed. Caine manages to kill Foster with the alcohol, somehow. Poison.

What's interesting about "The Whistle Blower" given our knowledge of the Frenzy casting is to see that Caine and Foster EVENTUALLY shared some pretty intense and important movie scenes together. One wonders what the two actors talked about. Did Foster THANK Caine for turning down Bob Rusk?

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