MovieChat Forums > Frenzy (1972) Discussion > Was it mc?

Was it mc?

posted 9 years ago by lunar11
4 replies | jump to latest

Nearing the end of the film when Blaney was in hospital a policeman in the ward is drugged and put to sleep. One of the patients alerts the policeman who is keeping watch outside the ward. This policeman rushes into the ward (look at his face carefully) and crouches down toward the unconscious policeman. The the doctor who is examining the policeman says that his been given sleeping pills. The crouched policeman turns to the doctor and we get a clear view of his face. It looks like Michael Caine. Could this be a cameo appearance. Also, I don't think the policeman rushing into the ward is the same person crouched down.

[–] ecarle 9 years ago

This is interesting. Elsewhere on this board, it is guessed that the policeman is John Cleese in an early uncredited role.

It is likely NEITHER Caine nor Cleese...but definitely not Caine.

BECAUSE:

Hitchcock offered Michael Caine the role of...the killer Bob Rusk. And Caine declined it ("I didn't want to be associated with the part," wrote Caine in an autobio.)

And Hitchcock never talked to Caine again.

So I doubt Hitch would have invited Caine to do a tiny cameo in Frenzy.

I suppose the moral of this story is that both Michael Caine and John Cleese had faces in general(fair complexion, certain features of nose and chin) that turn up on a lot of British men.

Indeed, Hitchcock cast near-unknown Barry Foster as Bob Rusk largely because...HE looked like Michael Caine. And sounded like him. (Caine noted that Barry Foster "played my brother on a TV episode.")

Related: Alfred Hitchcock said, "I can move about freely in London because so many men there look like me."

[–] iangester 9 years ago

Lunar 11 - I have just posted the same question recently under Ian Gester. My colleague's and I are getting very frustrated over this one as it really looks like Mr Caine.

[–] SooBee (129) 2 years ago

It's very like him but hardly likely to be M Caine who was already a star by that time, 1972. It could be his brother though!

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Maybe everybody in London looked like Michael Caine.

I think this is interesting: Caine started out as a "handsome heartthrob" (with our without eyeglasses) but rather aged into an older fellow with less sex appeal.

But he always had that VOICE. In a world filled with British actors on film, Caine's Cockney accent seems to have ended up being the most FAMOUS Cockney voice in movie history. He's lasted decades of it, even as his looks faded.

Like a lot of famous movie stars before him (Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant) and during him(Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino)...Michael Caine's stardom has a lot to do with his voice.