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Ancient Indian Epic Mahabharata and Lang's film Der Mude Tod

   The famous director, the Master of Suspense Sir Alfred Hitchcock was almost 30 years elder to the French film director Truffaut . However, the age difference didn’t bother them to exchange their views and aspirations with each other. Hitchcock at his early age was deeply fascinated by the American movies and was a great admirer of Charlie Chaplin , D.W Griffith , Buster Keaton , and Fritz Lang . He was deeply captivated by   German Expressionism . Lang’s silent film Der Mude Tod ( Destiny in English) induced a great impression not only on him but also on the other great directors due to its concept and intellectual merit. Perhaps the   Bergman's film “ The Seventh Seal ”,  appeared to be influenced by Lang's  Destiny . The Seventh Seal Der Mude Tod: Ein Deutsches volkslied in 6 versen ( Destiny) (  Weary Death: A German  Folk Story in six versions ) was a silent German Expressionist fantasy romance film released in 1921 and directed by Fritz Lang . The film interpr
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Hitchcock's Frenzy - The background




Neville  Heath, the name is unknown to us. But his character was portrayed by Sir Alfred Hitchcock in his British thriller feature film  Frenzy, released in 1972. This was his  second-last film in his long and successful career. 

This was his last film which was made in Britain after he moved to The US in 1939. The film was a huge commercially success and was based on the novel “Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square “ by  Arthur La Bern.


The film revolves around an ex RAF serviceman, Richard Blaney ( Jon Finch), falsely implicated for serial murder which was originally committed by his friend Robert Rusk ( Barry Foster ).

Though Blaney was caught, he managed to get free to seek revenge on Rusk. The Chief Inspector, Timothy Oxford ( Alec McCowen) able to catch Rusk in a tactical move at the end.

Michael Caine was the the first choice of  Hitchcock  for the role of the main antagonist,  Rusk, however after his refusal, this was  offered to Foster after seeing him in the casting of “ Twisted Nerve”.

After making of  two unsuccessful films on another subject, Hitchcock again  returned to the murder genre with this film  & announced this project on March 1968 .

He had approached Vladimir Nabokov for the script, however, it was turned down and Anthony  Schaffer was hired.




                                                                                 
During preparing the role, Foster was advised by Hitchcock to follow two books on Neville  Heath, an English murderer, active in England in 1946.

Heath was born in a lower-middle-class family in Essex, England. He joined  Royal Air Force in 1937 but dismissed for going absent without taking leave. Later he was also caught for committing fraud to obtain credit and in burglary and forgery cases. 

He joined South African Air Force and elevated to the Captain rank but was court marshaled for wearing medals for which he was not entitled. At the end of WW II, his wife divorced him on the ground of desertion and he returned to Britain in 1946.

He used to carry a playboy personality and was charged for the murder of two ladies, Margery Gardener and Doreen Marshall. However, his trial and execution were based on the earlier murder that was of Margery Gardener.

The trial began on 24th September 1946 and after a thorough examination, it was revealed that Heath was a psychopath and sexual sadist but not insane. Finally, he was executed on 16th October 1946 at the age of 29.

The character of  Rusk was almost identical to Heath, though unlike Heath, Rusk was a serial killer.


Sudipto Roy

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