Frenzy, 1972
Director
Cast
- Jon Finch
- Barry Foster
- Barbara Leigh-Hunt
- Anna Massey
- Alec McCowan
- Vivian Merchant
- Bernard Cribbins
- Billie Whitelaw
visit the film locations
London: Flights: Heathrow Airport; Gatwick Airport
Covent Garden: tube: Covent Garden (Piccadilly line) The name Covent Garden is a corrupted reference to the old convent garden which once occupied the area.
This was once one of the capital's three great produce markets: Billingsgate for fish, Smithfield for meat and Covent Garden for fruit, veg and flowers. It was a world in itself; one of the few places where the UK 's stringent licensing laws were officially relaxed, allowing porters to down a pint at the civilised hour of six in the morning. In 1973, though, the whole operation moved to a soulless new facility at Nine Elms, south of the Thames near Vauxhall, and the old market buildings were titivated to become terrace cafés and boutiques.
Trivia
Alfred Hitchcock’s last London film had been The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956
Frenzy filming location: the old Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market: now the Covent Garden Piazza, London
There are wonderful London locations in Alfred Hitchcock’s British film since The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956, but first the collision between the blackly humorous script and director Alfred Hitchcock’s virulent misogyny, previously kept in check by production codes, makes for queasy viewing today.
The body of the Necktie Strangler’s first victim drifts into view in the Thames alongside County Hall, while a politician blathers on about pollution to an audience including a rubber-necking, bowler-hatted Hitch
The film has become an invaluable record of its setting, the old Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market. In 1973, the whole operation moved to a soulless new facility at Nine Elms, south of the Thames near Vauxhall, and the old market buildings were titivated to become terrace cafés and boutiques stocked with designer clothes and scented candles.
By 1992, Richard Attenborough was obliged to use the meat market at Smithfield as a stand-in for the Garden in his biopic Chaplin. The real fruit and veg business market was still in full swing in 1972 though, when Alfred Hitchcock used it as the setting for his first London-based film since the 1950 Stage Fright.
The film is an adaptation of Arthur La Bern’s novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square scripted by Anthony Shaffer, the writer of Sleuth and cult horror flick The Wicker Man.
Frenzy filming location: the pub in which Blaney works: The Globe, Bow Street, Covent Garden, London
Many of the locations are still recognisable, however. The Globe, Bow Street, the public house from which Blaney (Jon Finch) is sacked from his job as a barman by landlord Felix Forsythe (Bernard Cribbins – far nastier than he was as Stationmaster Perks in The Railway Children), is serving pints again after being closed for several years (though it’s been substantially renovated since the film was made here in 1972).
By the way, don't confuse this pub with the other Globe, in Borough south of the Thames, which was home to Bridget in Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Frenzy filming location: lubricious talk in the pub: The Nell of Old Drury, Catherine Street, Covent Garden, London
The pub where Blaney overhears the city gents drooling over the wave of sex killings remains unchanged. It’s the Nell of Old Drury, 29 Catherine Street, WC2 opposite the Drury Lane Theatre. The pub has connections – literally – with the Theatre Royal: an underground tunnel joins the two establishments. An interval bell once rang in the pub for theatregoers who’d popped across the road for a quick drink. The Nell in question, of course, is King Charles II’s favourite, Nell Gwynn.
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