Crime
Thriller
Horror
After a serial killer strangles several women with a necktie, London police identify a suspect—but he claims vehemently to be the wrong man.
Directors
Jon Finch
Richard Ian Blaney
Barry Foster
Robert Rusk
Barbara Leigh-Hunt
Brenda Margaret Blaney
Anna Massey
Barbara Jane 'Babs' Milligan
Alec McCowen
Chief Inspector Tim Oxford
Vivien Merchant
Mrs. Oxford
Billie Whitelaw
Hetty Porter
Clive Swift
Johnny Porter
Bernard Cribbins
Felix Forsythe
Michael Bates
Sergeant Spearman
Jean Marsh
Monica Barling
Madge Ryan
Mrs. Davison
Elsie Randolph
Gladys
Gerald Sim
Mr. Usher the Solicitor in Pub
John Boxer
Sir George
George Tovey
Neville Salt
Jimmy Gardner
Hotel Porter
Noel Johnson
Doctor in Pub
Directors
User reviews3
Review
Featured review
This is probably my least favourite Hitchcock story. It is still cleverly constructed, but somehow it has a vulgarity to it that I rather struggled with. The premiss is a serial killer who has been brutally killing women using a neck tie, then dumping their bodies. The police are baffled until "Brenda Blaney" (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) is found raped and killed in her office, and suspicion falls on her ex husband "Dick" (Jon Finch). He flees, is apprehended and judicial process takes it's course. We all know who actually killed "Brenda" so insofar as this is a murder mystery, then that's that. It is, though, quite a curious character study of the mind of a man who is jovial and engaging one moment, then brutally lethal the next - a sort of deadly schizophrenia that might be borne out of sexual frustration, or misogyny, childhood - all of the above? Barry Foster is efficient, if a little lightweight as "Rusk" and there are enthusiastic efforts from Anna Massey and pub landlord Bernard Cribbins. What raises this (slightly) above the norm, is the fun sub-plot between Alec McGowen ("Chief Insp. Oxford") and his wife Vivien Merchant - she a budding gourmet who seems intent on offering the poor man the most complex dishes when all he wants is pie and mash; and - as ever with Hitch - intimate and clever use of the camera. What suspense there is all comes to a rather weak head, I felt, and though this is still an eminently watchable film, it is all just a little bit tacky, and it lacks much that made it's director great. It might have worked better in black and white?
Geronimo196728 May, 2023
Top picks
TV shows and movies just for you
Box office
Budget
$3,500,000Gross worldwide
$12,600,000More to explore
Editorial lists
Related lists created by IMDb editors
- The Billion-Dollar Film Club: 50+ Movies to Reach $1 Billion Worldwideupdated 1 day ago • 52 images
- The most anticipated sequels, prequels, and spin-offs coming in 2023updated 4 days ago • 26 images
- The best things to watch this weekend: Dec. 16 - Dec. 19updated 2 months ago • 7 images
- December Picks: The Movies and TV You Can't Missupdated 2 monts ago • 20 images
- New and upcoming sequels, prequels, and spin-offsupdated 3 monts ago • 45 images
