Frenzy

Blaney is fired from his job as a barman near Covent Garden. He talks with his friend Bob Rusk, who runs a fruit and vegetable stall in Covent Garden, and Rusk offers sympathy and hints at a horse race tip. Lacking money to bet, Blaney visits his ex-wife Brenda; they briefly argue, but she invites him to dinner. He ends up spending the night at a Salvation Army shelter, where Brenda secretly slips money into his coat pocket.

The following day, Brenda's agency office is visited by Rusk, who rapes Brenda and strangles her with his necktie. He reveals that he is the serial killer the newspapers call the Necktie Murderer. When he leaves, Blaney arrives hoping to talk to Brenda but finds the office locked and Brenda murdered.

With Brenda dead and the crime discovered, Blaney is named the prime suspect. He resolves to prove his innocence as the real killer remains at large. The police begin to close in, forcing him to lay low.

Blaney reconnects with Babs Milligan, a former pub coworker, and convinces her of his innocence. They go on the run together, staying at a hotel and fending off pursuit by the police. Their alliance is uneasy but necessary.

Blaney persuades Babs to retrieve his belongings from his old pub so he can flee. At the pub, Babs encounters Rusk, who offers to let her use his flat for the night.

Rusk rapes and murders Babs at his flat. He hides her body in a sack and later stows it in the back of a lorry transporting potatoes.

Back home, Rusk discovers his jeweled tie pin with the initial R is missing, realizing Babs must have torn it off during the struggle. He pursues the pin, but the lorry has already departed with the evidence.

Blaney, unaware that Rusk is the killer, asks for help to hide him and support. Rusk pretends to assist but then tips off the police, betraying him.

Blaney goes on trial and is found guilty by the jury. He protests his innocence as Inspector Oxford quietly begins to suspect the true culprit and reevaluate the evidence.

While Blaney is imprisoned, Chief Inspector Oxford studies the case with his wife, who is distracted by her exotic cooking course, and he narrows in on Rusk as the real killer.

Blaney deliberately injures himself to be moved to a hospital and is helped to escape by fellow inmate patients.

Blaney travels to Rusk's flat, thinking he is asleep, and attacks a sleeping figure only to discover a dead woman in Rusk's bed. Inspector Oxford arrives and confronts Blaney as Rusk returns with a large trunk, realizing his scheme is well and truly up.