Frenzy (1972)

In Alfred Hitchcock's first and only R-rated film (with some female nudity) in a post-Hays Production Code era - it was a typical but tawdry and bleak psychological-horror crime thriller (with elements of dark humor) about a serial killer who specialized in gruesomely violent murders by using neckties to strangle his female victims, while a "wrongly-convicted" and desperate fugitive was "on the run." English playwright Anthony Shaffer's screenplay was based upon Arthur La Bern's 1966 novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square.

It was Hitchcock's first British film since Stage Fright (1950). Many critics praised the film as a triumphant return to form for Hitchcock, who had suffered a period of some decline with his previous three films Marnie (1964), Torn Curtain (1966), and Topaz (1969). The nasty suspense thriller was also a financial hit - its budget of $2 million resulted in a box-office take of $6.3 million (domestic) and almost $13 million (worldwide). It was Hitchcock's most financially successful film for Universal. However, others criticized the macabre film for being excessively violent, shocking, and repellently misogynistic.

• after the film's opening titles shown under aerial views of London's Thames River and the Tower Bridge with a musical fanfare, a political rally was being held outside London County Hall; government politician and Minister of Health Sir George (John Boxer) was delivering a speech about how the water would soon be clear and pollution-free of "waste products" due to government efforts": ("All the water above this point will soon be clear. Clear of industrial effluent. Clear of detergents. Clear of the waste products of our society, with which for so long we have poisoned our rivers and canals. (Applause) Let us rejoice that pollution will soon be banished from the waters of this river, and that there will soon be no -")
• cries of alarm interrupted the official's speech as the crowd of bystanders watched "another necktie murder" corpse (a strangled nude female body, a "waste product") (Roberta Gibbs) floating ashore face-down in the river - she was the most recent and 4th victim in a string of similar murders
• Hitchcock's cameo first located the director wearing a distinctive bowler hat in the crowd of bystanders by the Thames, where he was notably the only one not applauding the speech of Sir George; a moment later, Hitchcock listened as a gray-white-bearded male crowd member (Joby Blanshard) to the left of him compared the murder to the grisly tactics of Jack the Ripper: ("He used to carve 'em up. He sent a bird's kidney to Scotland Yard once, wrapped in a bit of violet writing paper... or was it a bit of her liver?"); the anxious Minister of Health was pulled away from the murder scene as he darkly commented: "I say, that's not my club tie, is it?"

Hitchcock - The Only One Not Joining in Applause For Sir George's Speech

Hitchcock - Observing the Female Corpse Washing Ashore

• the next sequence was a cut to the film's anti-hero, implicating him as a possible suspect: in the mid-morning, mid-30s ex-RAF serviceman Richard "Dick" Blaney (Jon Finch) was tying his tie in front of his mirror in his bedroom (located above his place of employment); the heavy-drinking, mean, quick-tempered, low-class Blaney worked as a bartender in the Global Public House near Covent Gardens (a district in the West End of London); downstairs, in the saloon bar of the pub, he served himself a brandy before the pub opened; he was promptly fired by his manager Felix Forsythe (Bernard Cribbins), the boss' brother-in-law, who accused him of not paying for the drink and other offenses; pub bar-maid and 20-ish co-worker Barbara Jane ('Babs') Milligan (Anna Massey) entered the bar, witnessed the firing of Blaney, and attempted to defend him; Forsythe also accused Blaney of grabbing at Bab's "tits"; she reminded Forsythe of his own misbehavior: "And what about you? Always fingering me"

Richard Blaney - Global Public House Bartender

Felix Forsythe (Bernard Cribbins) - Pub Manager

Barbara Jane ('Babs') Milligan (Anna Massey) - Pub Barmaid

• the scruffy and down-on-his-luck Blaney decided to resign from his job (and thus lost his residence above the pub) after paying for his drink and other outstanding debts, and rushed off in a huff; he promised to send for his belongings later; his girlfriend "Bab's" followed him outside for a moment and offered her love, assistance, and emotional support before being ordered to return inside to work
• as Richard Blaney walked to the nearby Covent Garden Market, he bought a newspaper with headlines about the latest necktie strangulation murder; he reached out to his good-natured, suave and affable friend from the pub named Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), a charming, well-dressed ladies man employed as a fruit and vegetable produce wholesaler; the side-burned Rusk suggested that he talk to his divorced ex-wife Mrs. Brenda Blaney, and also offered Blaney a loan; he gave him a box of Muscat grapes from his stand
• Rusk borrowed Blaney's newspaper and added that he had a sure-thing 20-1 bet on "Coming Up" in the afternoon's horse race: ("She can't lose. A little birdie told me and my little birdies are reliable"), but Blaney was broke and declined; Rusk reminded him: "Don't forget, Bob's your uncle"; Rusk was distracted when a Sergeant appeared and asked him to inquire if any of his lady-friends had experienced an encounter or "near-miss with a bloke" like the necktie killer, as Blaney quietly went on his way; Rusk revealed his angry misogyny in his answer: "Mind you, half of them haven't got their heads screwed on right, let alone knowin' when they've been screwed off"
• Blaney ventured on to another pub (Nell of Old Drury Pub) to buy a large brandy, where he half-listened to a conversation about the latest murder between two professionals having lunch: a Doctor (Noel Johnson) and a Solicitor (Gerald Sim), and the pub's barmaid Maisie (June Ellis); the Doctor considered the tie-killer a "criminal, sexual psychopath" - an example of "social misfits"; as Maisie brought their order, she asked: "He rapes them first, doesn't he?", the Solicitor answered: "Yes, I believe he does"; the Doctor salaciously joked: "Well, I suppose it's nice to know that every cloud has a silver lining" - and Maisie walked away smiling but disapproving; the Doctor finished his thought - sexual predators were usually likeable adults who suddenly "may revert to a primitive, subhuman level at any moment"; he seemed pleased with the recent crime news: "We haven't had a good juicy series of sex murders since Christie. And they're so good for the tourist trade"

An Overheard Salacious Conversation In a Nearby Pub
Doctor (Noel Johnson)	Solicitor Mr. Usher (Gerald Sim)	Pub's Barmaid Maisie (June Ellis)

• as Blaney walked back toward Covent Garden, he passed Rusk's place where he yelled down from an open upstairs window and introduced his mother from Kent; he bragged that "Coming Up" had won the horse race at 20-1; after leaving, Blaney unleashed his frustrated anger about foolishly not betting on the race by crushing the box of grapes with his hands and stomping on them after dropping them to the street
• by the late afternoon, the slightly drunk Richard decided to stop by and visit his ex-wife Brenda at her matrimonial agency - The Blaney Bureau; as he entered the upper hallway and entrance to the office, two happy clients: a bossy and overbearing Mrs. Davison (Madge Ryan) and her mild-mannered, short-statured meek husband Neville Salt (George Tovey) were being congratulated and wished good-luck by Brenda's prim and uptight secretary Miss Monica Barling (Jean Marsh) for their recent pairing over their shared interest in bee-keeping; however, the couple revealed that they differed considerably in size and temperament as they departed
• Blaney sarcastically introduced himself to Miss Barling as "ex-Squadron Leader Blaney, late of the RAF and Mrs. Blaney's matrimonial bed" - referring to his 10-year marriage to Mrs. Brenda Blaney (Barbara Leigh-Hunt); once he was ushered into Brenda's inner office to speak to his ex-wife, Brenda nervously realized that Miss Barling could hear everything her ex-husband was loudly conversing about; she dismissed Miss Barling since it was already 4:30 pm, to have a more private discussion; after not seeing each other for one year, the ex-married couple spoke about how he had often been verbally abusive to her in their failed marriage: "l didn't say you were violent to me. But you certainly acted the fool and threw the furniture about a bit"; Blaney apologized for being in a bitter and foul mood after having been fired from his job, and for not taking advantage of a betting tip that would have made him rich; Brenda invited him to join her for dinner at 7:30 pm at her expensive fancy Women's Club restaurant
• after dinner, he expressed some resentment for his "filthy luck" and for failing at both his marriage and his life; Richard was feeling sorry for himself, and slightly jealous about her successful career and match-making service for "lonely hearts" after divorcing him two years earlier; he raised his voice and became brash and accusatory: "I'll bet you're making a fortune out of that agency. And why not? lf you can't make love, sell it. The respectable kind, of course. The married kind!"; his tight grip on his brandy glass shattered it in his hand and created both a mess and an embarrassing scene
• afterwards, he found overnight shelter at a Salvation Army hostel shelter, where in the middle of the night amongst the rows of beds, he caught the man in the next bed reaching into his coat pocket to steal his cash; he didn't realize - since he was broke - that his ex-wife Brenda had unexpectedly and secretly gifted him with £ 20 (two 5£ notes and one 10£ note) without telling him
• the next day during Monica's lunch break, the chauvinistic Rusk abruptly entered Brenda's inner office without an appointment; she greeted him as "Mr. Robinson" - using a fake name, under the ominous pretext of again seeking marital advice from her; he specifically mentioned: "You're the one I wanted to see"; since he had already been seen and rejected, Brenda bluntly turned him away due to his strange and creepy sexual issues - referring to his sexual masochism: "I thought I'd already explained to you that we cannot help you....Look, Mr. Robinson, you want women of a specific type. How shall l put it? Certain peculiarities appeal to you, and you need women to submit to them. Here we have, I'm afraid, a very normal clientele. As I say, we can do nothing for you"; he complained about the rejection and asked: "If you can fix up a lot of idiots, why not me? Hmm?"; she regarded him as very "different" from her other clients: "Somehow I don't think our clients would appreciate your conception of a loving relationship"

Rusk ("Mr. Robinson") Ominously Barging into Brenda's Office With the Premise That He Was Seeking Marital Advice

• and then, the misogynistic and villainous Rusk turned menacingly personal, as he approached closer to her and loomed over her in order to corner and confront her with his commonly-used greeting: "I like you. You're my type of woman... l'm serious. I respect a woman like you, and I know how to treat you as well"

Rusk: "I like you. You're my type of woman...I'm serious. I respect a woman like you, and I know how to treat you as well"

• in the film's major murder sequence, a long, vicious, agonizing and intense necktie rape-strangulation scene by the serial killer, she sensed he was dangerous, but was stopped in her attempt to phone the police; he then picked up her half-eaten apple from her "frugal" lunch and bit into it, and was able to coerce her into agreeing to have lunch with him; as she stood up, he pushed her against the wall and forcefully attempted to kiss her; he grabbed her and forced himself upon her, when she suggested going to her place instead; he kept telling her not to worry: ("You've got nothing to worry about here"), and when she faked fainting, he draped her back onto a chair and repeated his words: ("Don't worry. Don't worry. You've got nothing to worry about"); she revived and tried to escape by kicking him away, but he grabbed her leg and forcefully threw her back into her office chair and stole more kisses; she attempted to offer him money, but he insisted: "It's you I want. You're my type. You are. Yes. You are my type of woman"; he even encouraged her to struggle against him
• she suffered a brutal death (a montage composed of a flurry of brief shots); he tore off her dress and bra (exposing one breast of a body-double), and kept repeating: "Lovely, lovely!" as he raped her; during the lengthy sexual assault, she began to recite passages from the 91st Psalm ("Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night...."); when she tried to cover up her exposed breast, he screamed at her: "You bitch! Women - they're all the same. They are. I'll show you", and then revealed that he was the notorious Necktie Killer by taking out his incriminating, initialed tie-pin (and placing it on his jacket lapel) and removing his tie to strangle her; she screamed and begged for her life as he wrapped his tie around her neck: "My God, the tie! Dear Jesus, help me. Help me!"; she was left dead with her twisted tongue hanging out

The Rape-Strangulation Murder Scene of Mrs. Brenda Blaney

• after the murder, Rusk managed to compose himself, and took another bite from Brenda's half-eaten apple; he also robbed her purse of cash, picked his teeth with his tie-pin from his lapel, pocketed the remainder of the apple, and fled from the office
• only moments later, a spruced-up Richard Blaney entered his ex-wife's marriage-agency to thank Brenda for her gift of cash, but found the outer office door closed (it was just moments after her murder inside); as he was leaving the building, Miss Barling noticed him as she was returning from lunch at 2 pm in the alleyway; after a long pause of silence as she went upstairs, she delivered a shrill scream when she discovered her boss' strangled body in the inner office (off-screen)
• with his newfound money, Blaney phoned "Babs" Milligan at the pub during her busy half-day work schedule and invited her to gather his pub's belongings into a suitcase and then he arranged to meet her later at 4 pm
• witness Miss Barling immediately notified Scotland Yard of her suspicions, and was seen in the marriage agency's outer office speaking to Sgt. Spearman (Michael Bates) and the lead investigator Chief Inspector Timothy Oxford (Alec McCowen); she described Blaney in negative terms, already convinced that he was the killer, and in great detail described his tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows; Blaney was immediately considered to be a prime suspect in the violent murder of his ex-wife
• Blaney and "Babs" (with his belongings from the pub) took a taxi together to the luxury Coburg Hotel in Bayswater where he ordered a double bed from the lobby's inquisitive female receptionist Gladys, and were assigned to Room # 322 (the cozy "Cupid Room"); after they registered as Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Wilde, he prepaid the £12 pounds charges, and arranged with the hotel's porter Bertie (Jimmy Gardner) to thoroughly clean, spray and press his smelly pants, raincoat and tweed jacket after a night's stay at the Salvation Army
• by the next morning, the hotel employees who checked in the couple, and the two lovers awoke to newspaper headlines that Mrs. Blaney had been murdered by the "Necktie Killer," and a description of the prime suspect that identified him as wearing a tweed jacket with leather patches; the porter exclaimed to the receptionist: "He's the fellow the police are looking for. Don't you see? He's the necktie murderer, and we've got him upstairs at this very minute!...sometimes just thinkin' about the lusts of men makes me want to heave"; he reported them to the police
• two uniformed policemen arrived soon after and were led to Room # 322, but "Babs" and Blaney had also read the day's news headlines and had already evaded the authorities as fugitives, by escaping through the window and back iron stairway; they were sitting on a bench in nearby Hyde Park, where Blaney argued persuasively to a mostly-supportive "Babs" that he was innocent: "Is it likely I would murder a woman I'd been married to for ten years?"; but then she caught him in an admitted lie that the £20 pounds cash he found in his pocket wasn't a debt, but a gift from Brenda to him; "Babs" also questioned him about the cleaning of his clothes - something murderers often did after a sex crime; when he gratefully hugged her for believing him, she reacted: "I must be soft in the head lettin' a suspected strangler put his arms around me"; however, he refused her advice to immediately turn himself in to the police
• by chance after their conversation in the park, they were recognized by Blaney's old RAF buddy Johnny Porter (Clive Swift), who called him "Dicko"; he invited them to his closeby high-rise apartment suite to be introduced to his wife Hetty (Billie Whitelaw); Johnny offered the two refuge there, but Hetty objected to his blind faith and trust in his friend's innocence: "You're a bloody fool, Johnny, getting yourself involved like this" - she pre-judged Blaney due to his divorce to his wife on grounds of "extreme mental and physical cruelty," and felt he could have murdered Brenda in a fit of drunkenness; she questioned why he wouldn't explain his innocence to the police; however, she gave in to her husband's insistence to have Blaney stay the night: "Well, if you want to be arrested for harboring a wanted man, or subverting the course of justice or whatever, on your own head be it, Johnny"
• Johnny offered the two employment at his English pub The Bulldog in Paris, France, so that they could slip out of the country until the real killer was found; before "Babs" left, Blaney proposed to her that they meet the next day at the flower stall at Victoria Station at 11:00 am for a day trip to France with Johnny that wouldn't require a passport
• during Inspector Oxford's preliminary investigation at the New Scotland Yard, he had discovered circumstantial evidence - Brenda's face powder on Blaney's £10 pound note used for the hotel room; Oxford explained to Sgt. Spearman his theory about the killer being impotent: "The important thing to remember is they hate women and are mostly impotent....Don't mistake rape for potency, Sergeant. In the latter stage of the disease, it's the strangling, not the sex, that brings them on. Above all, of course, they're sadists"; he had also researched Blaney's divorce to Brenda and discovered testimony about verbal abuse
• back in the Globe pub around mid-morning, manager Forsythe phoned Inspector Oxford to report that his ex-bartender Blaney was the necktie killer, who had until just recently been employed at the pub and had a romantic overnight with his barmaid named "Babs"; she was reportedly still alive (her clothes were still in the pub); the Inspector wasn't worried about locating her: "Today, ladies abandon their honor more readily than their clothes"
• upon her return to the pub for work shortly later, "Babs" feared that Forsythe would implicate her in Blaney's alleged crime, and offered her immediate resignation to Forsythe; in the meantime, Blaney had requested for "Babs" to gather up the remainder of his and her belongings from the upstairs of the pub before their trip to France; conveniently, after overhearing "Babs'" resignation in the pub, Rusk appeared behind her and ominously asked her: "Got a place to stay?"

Rusk's Menacing and Ominous Question For Babs: "Got a place to stay?"

• Rusk offered his apartment to "Babs" for the night: ("You can stay at my place 'til you get something sorted out, if you want. I won't be in your way; I'm going up north for a few days"); when she suspiciously asked: "No strings?", he replied: "Now, do I look like that sort of a bloke?" - and she answered: "All blokes are that sort of a bloke"; Rusk's calculated invitation was a ploy to further implicate Blaney as the guilty serial killer; he offered to lead her to his place and volunteered to go back to the Globe and pick up her belongings; she said she would stay for one night only and then lied about going to see her sister in Southall the next day; he encouraged her bright future after quitting her job: "You've got the whole of your life ahead of you"
• Rusk's second much-more restrained 'necktie' rape/strangulation murder of "Babs" took place behind the closed doorway of the killer's 2nd floor (1st floor in the UK) apartment; as Rusk chillingly unlocked his door and invited "Babs" into his place, he stated his familiar pick-up line: "I don't know if you know it, Babs, but you're my type of woman"
• [Note: it was completely predictable that she was being assaulted behind the door in his apartment, so it was unnecessary for Hitchcock to graphically show a second murder-strangulation; he left it to the viewer's "fill-in-the-blanks" imagination; the brilliantly-executed, incredible lengthy backwards tracking camera shot slowly retreated from the upstairs closed door, and then proceeded down the stairs and out into the brightly-lit street where pedestrians were unaware of the horrors inside.]
• meanwhile, Chief Inspector Oxford arrived home to his wife Mrs. Oxford (Vivien Merchant), who proposed her latest 'gourmet' creation: "Soupe de Poisson"; one of the film's running jokes to provide comic relief was that she was continually having her long-suffering husband test and sample her experimental - and inedible - 'gourmet' dishes, soups, and meals as part of her coursework at the Continental School of Gourmet Cooking; he was dismayed looking at the soup with "mystifying ingredients" and "Quaille aux raisins" (quail with grapes) that he was being served, as he discussed Blaney as his chief suspect for the recent murder (and theft) case; Oxford's chipper wife was doubtful that Blaney was guilty of a "crime of passion" after 10 years of marriage: "Look at us. We've only been married eight years, and you can hardly keep your eyes open at night"; as he sawed at the miniature overcooked quail on his plate, he was hopeful to find his suspect: "We've got to find him before his appetite is whetted again"
• after "Babs" was raped and murdered, Rusk had stashed her nude corpse within a sack (off-screen) and in the middle of the night, he pushed the unwieldy bag on a two-wheeled dolly-cart to a truck where he dumped it amidst many other burlap bags of unsold potatoes covered by a tarp; ironically, the potato lorry-truck's load included a sack of potatoes that Rusk was also sending to Lincolnshire 150 miles north of London; but then, back in his apartment, after killer Rusk drank some wine and nibbled on a piece of bread, he was picking his teeth, and as he reached for his initialed/monogrammed stickpin (from his jacket's lapel), he realized that it was missing; in desperation, he thought that he might be incriminated if he couldn't locate it; he tore everything apart in his place looking for it, including a dresser drawer where he had stashed all of her clothes and other possessions

A Flashback -- Rusk's Realization That "Babs" Had Torn His Tie-Pin From His Lapel

• then, with a quick succession of brief flashbacked shots, Rusk remembered that his victim, barmaid "Babs" Milligan, had struggled with him during strangulation with his purple tie, and had torn the pin (with the initial R) from his coat lapel with her right hand; he raced back down to the truck, released the tailgate, and climbed inside, and began opening one of the burlap sacks; suddenly, he realized the truck was being driven away
• in a very claustrophobic and tense sequence in the back of the moving, jostling and swerving truck, Rusk frantically searched in the potato sack to find his missing, incriminating initialed/monogrammed stickpin; he must have dumped her in head-first, since he located her right leg half-covered in potatoes that spilled out as he dug deeper; at one point, he pulled at her leg and it struck him in the face; in frustration, he swore at the body: "You bitch! Where's that bloody pin?"; as the truck driver was proceeding along and suddenly braked, one bag of potatoes in his load (with the open tailgate) dropped off the back and spilled loose potatoes onto the highway; a passing car called out to alert him: "Hey, you're spilling your load!"; the driver pulled over - and as Rusk hid behind a few sacks, the driver reset the open tailgate and pegged it on each side, before continuing on his trip
• Rusk finally found the pin, but it was tightly clenched in a death grip by the nude corpse in a state of rigor mortis in the middle of her fingers; he first tried to cut it away from her clutching fingers with a pocket-knife, but the blade of the knife snapped in two; with no other alternative, he was forced to loudly break most of the corpse's fingers to eventually reveal the tie-pin and release it

The Potato Truck Sequence: Rusk's Incriminating Initialed/Monogrammed Stickpin Clenched in Hand of the Nude Corpse in Back of Potato Truck

• he was relieved, but then faced the daunting task of escaping from the back of the fast-moving truck; fortuitously, the driver stopped briefly outside an all-night truckers' Wally's New Cafe, where Rusk was able to release the tailgate before falling off the truck onto the ground; he hid in the outdoor GENTS restroom and watched as the trucker drove off, and then entered the cafe, but was filthy, completely disheveled and his coat was covered in potato-dust; further on down the road, two policemen on patrol noticed the passing truck with its tailgate open and the corpse's leg sticking out: ("Hey, do you see what I see?"); they pursued it with their siren blaring, and as the truck driver was alerted to them, he forcefully braked - the nude corpse fell out onto the pavement and was nearly run over by the police car; to the officers' and trucker's shock as they uncovered the face of the victim, they asked themselves "Who is it?"
• the next morning as he slept on the sofa in Johnny Porter's high-rise apartment, Hetty abruptly awakened Blaney and accused him of killing another victim, after hearing a report on the radio: "Brenda wasn't enough for you. You had to kill another girl too!...You strangled her like all the others"; she ordered him to immediately get up and leave; Johnny considered that they could provide him with an alibi (since he had been with them from the time "Babs" left until the present), but his disagreeable wife Hetty objected to aiding him, arguing persuasively that Johnny would be charged with a crime ("for harboring a wanted man" and "for being an accessory after the fact"); Johnny's offer of escape to France with him was also out of the question
• desperate to seek shelter and refuge somewhere, Blaney unsuspectingly sought help from Rusk; he hid in his fruit/vegetable stand and pleaded his innocence: ("You've got to believe me. I haven't murdered anyone. This whole business is insane"); Rusk reassured him and agreed to hide him in his apartment ("Now don't worry, you've done the right thing coming to your Uncle Bob"); the two split up, as Rusk carried Blaney's bag back to his aparment and then notified the police to arrest him; to further the appearance of Blaney's guilt, Rusk planted "Babs'" clothing in Blaney's belongings
• only moments later, Blaney was arrested for both murders and taken to the police station; when his bag was searched, he was shocked to see "Babs" clothes stuffed inside - and he called out: "It's RUSK!"; he had been framed as one of Hitchcock's 'wrong-man' victims; Blaney came to the conclusion that the treacherous Rusk was the true murderer, but couldn't prove it
• days later at trial in the Old Bailey, Blaney was found guilty by a jury, and sentenced to serve a term of life imprisonment for not less than 25 years; as he was taken away to prison, he yelled out that he was innocent and that Rusk was the guilty one: "Rusk did it! I told you all along! Rusk! I keep telling you!"; he also threatened to kill Rusk: "One of these days, I'm gonna get out and kill you, you bastard!"
• doubts began to enter the mind of Inspector Oxford, who continued to explore the possibility of Blaney's innocence; using a "mug shot" of Rusk, he questioned Brenda Blaney's secretary Miss Barling, who remembered Rusk as a persistent client (who falsely identified himself as Mr. Robinson) - he wanted the agency to find women for him who enjoyed "certain peculiarities" ("disgusting gratifications" from sexual masochism)
• feeling wronged and wishing to avenge Rusk's murders of the two women in his life, the imprisoned Blaney vowed to escape; he was able to succeed in injuring himself by falling down a steep set of iron prison stairs, and was rushed by ambulance to a hospital
• meanwhile, Inspector Oxford was discussing the case with his wife during her preparation of another formal gourmet meal; her intuition all along was that "sexual pervert" Rusk was the real guilty one; as she served her husband "pied de porc la mode de Caens" (pig's feet), Oxford conjectured that if Rusk was the murderer, he would have traveled in the potato truck - to cut her out of the tied sack while looking for something; he explained the breaking of the corpse's fingers in the truck, while his wife was noisily crunching on an Italian breadstick: ("Obviously he was looking for something....The corpse was deep in rigor mortis. He had to break the fingers of the right hand to retrieve what they held... It had to be something that would incriminate him. Something that he missed when he put the body on the truck. A monogrammed handkerchief, perhaps"); on a hunch, Oxford had already dispatched Sgt. Spearman to the truckers' cafe in Lincolnshire (where the potato truck driver had testified he had briefly stopped at the "pull-in" - his only stop!)

Gourmet Pigs-Feet Meal

Mrs. Oxford Noisily Breaking a Breadstick

Mrs. Oxford Crunching on a Breadstick with Her Husband

• as they were discussing the case, Sgt. Spearman arrived after his visit to the truckers' cafe, where the waitress recognized Rusk from the photograph, and presented the officer with the clothes brush Rusk had used to clean potato dust from his clothing; Oxford realized: "It rather looks like we put the wrong man away this time"; Mrs. Oxford corrected him: "What do you mean 'we'? You put him away"
• Blaney was being treated in a separate guarded prison ward of the hospital, where he orchestrated an escape with his fellow patient-inmates by putting sleeping pills in the uniformed guard's tea; during the commotion to treat the drugged guard, Blaney slipped out, hot-wired a parked car on the street, and hurriedly proceeded to Rusk's apartment bedroom, in order to kill him; at the Oxford's residence, the Chief Inspector was alerted to Blaney's escape, and anticipated where he might go
• in the final sequence inside Rusk's building, Blaney tiptoed up the stairs, entered the unlocked apartment, and discovered a figure under the bed coverings; conjecturing that it was Rusk, he beat the body with a crowbar, causing a female figure's arm with bangles to dangle off the side of the bed; when he uncovered the figure, he realized that the female (Susan Travers) was already dead - due to the necktie around her throat; he understood that the anonymous nude corpse belonged to the necktie killer's next strangulation victim (murdered earlier off-screen, with contorted features: rolled-back eyes and a curved tongue)

Mr. Rusk's Latest Necktie Murder-Strangulation Victim (Susan Travers)

• Oxford found Blaney at the scene - and looked like he was fully implicated in killing the woman, but then as Blaney protesed that he was innocent ("No, no, it's not..."), they both heard loud thumping and dragging noises of someone else lugging a large trunk up the stairs; the two remained quiet as the real necktie murderer Bob Rusk entered and was found with damning evidence in his own bed; Oxford cleverly noted to Rusk in a clincher line of dialogue: "Mr. Rusk, you're not wearing your tie"; the guilty Rusk dropped the trunk to the floor, and the title credits began to scroll

Capture of the Real Necktie Killer - Rusk - by Inspector Oxford: ("Mr. Rusk, you're not wearing your tie")