'Frenzy' trivia and fun facts
+18
This is the only Alfred Hitchcock movie to carry an "18" certificate in the U.K., or receive an "X" rating after the "X" age restriction was moved from sixteen to eighteen in 1971.
Cameo
Alfred Hitchcock originally planned to do his cameo as the body floating in the river. A dummy was even constructed to do the shot. The plans were changed, and a female body, a victim of The Necktie Murderer, was used instead. Hitchcock instead became one of the members of the crowd who are listening to the speaker on the river bank. The dummy of Hitchcock was used in the typically humorous trailer hosted by Hitchock.
Schedule
Alfred Hitchcock's shooting schedule allowed filming to begin at 8 a.m. and finish at 6 p.m. every day while on-location in Covent Garden in London. One day during filming, Hitchcock was in the middle of finishing a take when a union representative showed up to inform him that it was 6:15 p.m., and that they had to stop filming. Hitchcock became furious and threatened to walk off the set, and film this movie back in Hollywood. After that, no more union representatives were allowed on the set.
Dialogue
Several of the cast were unhappy with the lack of authenticity and Britishness of some of the dialogue. Jon Finch used to send notes to Alfred Hitchcock's secretary with suggested improvements. Hitchcock was not always pleased at this: "Jon, I said you could make alterations. I didn't say you could re-write the whole script." However, many of Finch's script amendments were used in the final cut.
Nudes
This was the first Sir Alfred Hitchcock movie to show nude scenes, four in total. The first is the body in the river. Two and three: Barbara Leigh-Hunt (rape of Mrs. Blaney) and Anna Massey (after she's spent the night in the hotel with Blaney). The fourth nude scene is the last blonde victim.
Michael Caine
The role of Robert Rusk was originally offered to Michael Caine. He thought the character was disgusting, and said "I don't want to be associated with the part." After Caine declined the role, he later mentioned in his memoirs how Alfred Hitchcock completely ignored him when they met in a hotel a few years later.
Too Much
A close-up of Mrs Blaney's (Barbara Leigh-Hunt's) salivating tongue after she is strangled was cut by Alfred Hitchcock at the urging of Universal Pictures.