Alfred Hitchcock Herrmann's score and replaced him with John Addison, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. "Topaz" (1967), based on a Leon Uris novel, is partly set in Cuba. Both films received mixed reviews. Hitchcock returned to Britain to make his penultimate film, "Frenzy" (1972), based on the novel "Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square" (1966). After two espionage films, the plot marked a return to the murder-thriller genre. Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), a volatile barman with a history of explosive anger, becomes the prime suspect in the investigation into the "Necktie Murders", which are actually committed by his friend Bob Rusk (Barry Foster).
Frenzy with its cross motif. Cast notes After a pair of unsuccessful films depicting political intrigue and espionage, Hitchcock returned to the murder genre with this film. The narrative makes use of the familiar Hitchcock theme of an innocent man overwhelmed by circumstantial evidence and wrongly assumed to be guilty. Some critics consider "Frenzy" the last great Hitchcock film and a return to form after his two previous works, "Topaz" and "Torn Curtain". Hitchcock announced the project in March 1968. Hitchcock approached Vladimir Nabokov to write the script, but the author turned him down because he was busy on a book.