how long had Blaney been friends with Rusk?
Rusk mentions their days in the RAF.
Strange, that ex-wife (Brenda) had never met Rusk previously?
I don't think that Rusk mentions their days in the RAF. I don't think that Rusk and Blaney served together.
The "RAF buddy" is the goofy-looking guy with the attractive, mean wife: Porter. He mentions that Blaney and he fought in "that Suez business" in the 50's.
My assumption about the friendship of Rusk and Blaney is that it is ...all surface. Rusk gives the impression of being friends with EVERYONE in Covent Garden. Rusk DOES say that he was "just about to come over for a quick one" at Blaney's pub(Blaney has just been fired there), so I figure that the chatty, cheery Rusk "made friends" with Blaney AT the pub...customer to bartender(THAT happens a lot) and maybe out on the street. It is clear, later in the film, when Blaney enters Rusk's flat with him("My home...my nest") that Blaney has never been there before.
So..surface friends only. No RAF past. I don't think.
Consequently, Brenda never met Rusk and...the movie points out cleverly...she only knows him as "Mr. Robinson"..her marriage bureau customer.
Nice explanation
shareThank you.
Frenzy doesn't get talked about much now, but it was a Hitchcock film and quite the comeback for him. It made him relevant again in modern terms.
And I think the script is a key reason why.
Its very Hitchcockian -- and the practice of other good storytellers (Hitchocck didn't take screenplay credit, but helped write the scripts for his films -- to "leave some details out and let the audience put it together and fill the gaps."
When first we meet Rusk, he is very much Blaney's good friend(which helps improve the tempermental Blaney in our eyes; RUSK likes him.) "I was just coming over for a quick one" tells us that Rusk is a regular at Blaney's pub, and later Rusk introduces his mother to Blaney from the window of Rusk's flat (establishing both "Mother" and Rusk's digs.)
These lines are soon planted:
Blaney(to Brenda): I got a tip on a horse from a good friend of my, Bob Rrrusk. (Blaney says it with Shakespearan rolling "Rs", we are to REMEMBER that name.)
Later, when Rusk comes through the door to Brenda's we get this:
Brenda: Oh, its you, Mr. Robinson.
ROBINSON. The audience is immediately on edge. Something's wrong...