Frenzy (1945) User Reviews

Its all in the ending

[dbborroughs · 5/10 · 15 July 2006]

A sculptor's wife goes missing and the weird occurrences in and around the studio end up requiring a medium to be brought in to reveal what had happened.

Lets not beat around the bush the end of this movie is really creepy. There is something about it that is more than a bit unnerving, even if you're only paying half attention to the movie. It creeped me out.

The problem is that getting to the end is a chore. Based on a play this movie is very talky and stage bound. If you were to do away with a few cinematic flourishes, such as some of the camera angles or the opening pan over the Paris skyline, you'd have yourself what amounts to a filmed stage play. While not the "nail the camera" to the floor sort of film you'd expect from by play comparison, the movie can be rather static; the upshot of it is that it made me want to doze off.

Still there is the ending. which certainly livened things up.

While there are many people who love this film and think its a lost classic (a person I trust strongly suggested I see it), I'm less enamored of it. Certainly worth seeing if you run across it on TV, its probably also worth renting if you run across it at your video shop. I think its an okay time killer, you may think other wise.

5 out of 10.

Who's playing the organ?

[AAdaSC · 6/10 · 18 November 2016]

Joan Seton (Lucille Watson) poses for artist Derrick De Marney (Charles) in his sculptor's apartment that he rents. There's something weird about the place. It previously belonged to freaky sculptor Beresford Egan (Anton) and there is a presence that lingers on that seems to consume De Marney. Through friend doctor Frederick Valk, they unravel a mystery from the past with a little help from beyond the grave and discover what fate befell De Marney's former lover Joan Greenwood (Christine). Greenwood was also Egan's wife.

You'll probably guess how things will pan out in this film but it's always fun to watch things unravel with these types of films. The end séance sequence will keep you watching and brings the film to a good ending. The acting is occasionally over the top from De Mornay and the housekeeper Lily Kann (Maria) is pretty annoying but the film is worth a watch. So, who's been playing the organ?

Ending must have been a surprise in the 40s!

[mofessor-587-590725 · 5/10 · 26 August 2013]

Spoiler Alert!! This is a strange little movie, that I really couldn't recommend to everyone. It is very slow moving, even for 1940s' British cinema. Sinister Cinema states that this is "Highly Recommended" and this is the first of their highly recommended films that I didn't feel the same way about. It is indeed creepy in some places, but you have to wade through a lot of tedious moments to get to those creepy scenes.

But ... most importantly ... If you have seen Roger Corman's "Bucket Of Blood", there will be no real surprise as to what has happened to the sculptor's wife. I knew what happened, as soon as she disappeared. The cinematographer went to great lengths to keep the viewer from remembering something that was in the sculptor's studio. I felt that it was really cheating the viewer, because there was little chance of figuring out what happened, if one rarely got to see the entire room.

I am a movie collector and picked up this title under the name of "Frenzy", from Sinister Cinema, by way of Amazon. I paid $8.99 for the title and would be a lot happier, now, with the film, if I had paid less than half of that. There is really no reason for me to keep it and I will trade it away.

terrifying ending strong enough to give nightmares for 40 years

[murti · 22 September 2003]

I saw this movie when only ten or so and even allowing that I was obviously very impressionable the atmosphere and final horrific revelation are powerful enough to have stayed with me for over forty years. The discovery of what has happened to the disappeared wife of the insane sculptor is stil one of the most terrifying things I have ever experienced in the cinema. It still astonishes me that this macabre little masterpiece is still so relativley unknown and getting to see it is well worth anyone's time. Highly recommended if you like your dreams with a twist of venom.

Finally Stayed Awake

[howardmorley · 6/10 · 13 March 2008]

Yes this has a novel ending but it cannot escape the accusation of being a filmed play and so suffers from wordy, static indoor scenes.I have tried several times to watch it to the end but found myself dozing off halfway through (danger of watching after a nice boozy lunch!).Derick de Marnay is credited as associate producer of "Latin Quarter" and plays the leading role of Charles the sculptor.I also have him on video in "Young and Innocent" (1938) directed by Hitchcock and on DVD in "Sleeping Car to Trieste" (1948) in which he was better.

I was intrigued to see Frederick Valk again here playing the doctor.His most notable role was as the German Kommandant in "The Colditz Story" (1955).I found "Latin Quarter" a little too melodramatic for my taste but was genuinely surprised to see that Joan Littlewood could dance ballet so well as it is not something that can be faked by an actor like playing a musical instrument.Overall I rated it 6/10.

No real surprises

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 11 September 2017]

Having read the Roger reviews i was expecting a slam bang ending.Instead eBay i got was à reworking of thé House of Wax.One of the main problems of this film is that as we know Joan Greenwood has been murdered and who did it the only question is how and what happened to her.

Didn't You See That Ending Coming?

[boblipton · 3/10 · 18 November 2019]

Dancer Joan Greenwood injures herself, so she cannot dance. She marries sculptor Beresford Egan, but gradually his work takes on a grotesque form, and she plans with Derrick De Marney to run away. Their plans are almost complete when Miss Greenwood disappears and Egan is taken away mad. Eventually De Marney takes over the studio, meets model Joan Seton, and they fall in love. However, the studio appears to be haunted.

It's a cheap and obvious creepy-crawly, available only in a poor print, under the direction of B director Vernon Sewell. All the talent in this movie have done better work, so I don't feel the necessity of pointing flaws out individually. With the Second World War moving to its conclusion, horror films were beginning to reappear on the screen, some of them very distinguished in retrospect. This is not one of them.

Effective if sometimes static early British gothic.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 7/10 · 24 February 2023]

Paris 1893: A criminologist called Dr Ivan Krasner (played by Frederick Valk) helps a disturbed young sculptor called Charles Garrie (played by Derrick de Marney) who cannot get over the disappearance of his girlfriend, a former ballet dancer called Christine (played by Joan Greenwood), who is also presumed dead. She had been married to a sinister and rather unhinged fellow sculptor called Anton Minetti (played by Beresford Egan), but had planned to elope with Charles since she had become suspicious that he had discovered their affair. Minetti was taken into an asylum having gone mad and a body of a woman was discovered, but Charles insisted that it was not Christine. However, the police were not convinced and Minetti subsequently died. Charles has taken his old studio where a series of supposedly supernatural happenings have occurred, including an organ playing by itself and an oil lamp flickering on and off at the same time each night. Charles's model and new girlfriend, Lucille (played by Joan Seton), is deeply concerned about him since he hasn't been sleeping or eating properly on top of his obsession about the missing Christine. Dr Krasner decides to hold a séance, with Lucille acting as the medium, and through her the spirit of Christine materialises and reveals her gruesome fate at the hands of her mad husband...

Rarely seen nowadays, this British thriller looks artificial but the feeling for 1890's Paris is well conveyed. The plot moves along rather statically at times, but the performances are good all round. Frederick Valk stands out as the open minded criminologist who is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and help the young sculptor haunted by grisly events even when his willingness to explore psychic phenomena is met with deep scepticism by his colleagues. He plays the role with assurance and authority while Derrick de Marney conveys a genuine sense of feeling as the heartbroken man driven to get to the truth behind the disappearance of his former lover. Joan Greenwood is quite good in the part of Christine and Beresford Egan is perfectly cast as the demented Minetti. The climax is genuinely chilling and would have seemed even more so to the cinema audiences of 1945. This is actually a remake of writer-director Vernon Sewell's first film, The Medium (1934), which was based upon a French Grand Guignol play called L'Angloise. He would go on to film it again twice with the excellent second features Ghost Ship (1952), with the action shifted to a haunted steam yacht, and House Of Mystery (1960) where the story concerned a young couple out house hunting who discover the sinister secret of their dream home from the resident spirit herself. In fairness, these two films are probably more effective in their treatment of the story since the advances in filmmaking techniques in subsequent years made that possible. Nevertheless, this is still worth taking the trouble to see if you get the chance for the historical value of seeing an early example of British gothic cinema. It is also interesting to see how Sewell varied the various plot devices from the play each time he remade it to suit the different eras in which they were being made and for their horrific effect.

A mad sculptor,jealous of his wife murders her! Wh...

[claireandstan · 8/10 · 11 March 2000]

A mad sculptor,jealous of his wife murders her! What does he do with the body! Strange things occur in the house where he lives. Flickering lights! Wind blowing in the house not outside! Is he being haunted! What becomes of him. Powerful ending.

Latin Quarter

[iris-jolley · 27 July 2007]

I have read everyone's reviews on the Latin Quarter. I was about 12 when I saw it and I didn't realise what a fantastic 'creepy' it was. I can remember the orgy scene and I think I can remember the end, but I am not going to mention it here because it will spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it. Valentine Dyall in those days was quite a well known actor and he had a lovely speaking voice. My mum adored him. I would really love to see this again now I am 60!! Can anyone tell me where I can get a DVD of it? I would be really grateful if someone out there reading this and knows where I can get a copy would get in touch with me. I have had a look at Alfred Hitchcocks's Frenzy and it is not the same at all.