Marnie (1964)

You won't be disappointed!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Grace Kelly was all set to star in this movie, when the European Press went bonkers. "A Princess in a movie"? She had to bow out in which Alfred Hitchcock wrote in return, "do not feel bad, it is only a movie". Love Hedren in this, but Kelly was was one fo the absolute greats.

This movie is not one of Alfred's hits and it failed in theaters, but it deserves much higher reputation. Acting and directing are exquisite, and story, that begins as crime romance with humorous moments, develops into upsetting drama and holds attention through more than two hours. Only flaw are too obvious fake backgrounds in driving and riding scenes and in front of mother's house, but however stupid they look, those scenes do not diminish greatness of Hitchcock's directing. I recommend this movie to everyone, regardless of genre taste.8/10

Even as a teenager, I would never miss a Hitchcock movie. Marnie was one of the most puzzling of all of them. To start with, she is such damaged goods. She is quite beautiful as are all of Hitch's sultry blondes from Grace Kelly to Kim Novak. Tippi Hedren was physically abused by the demands of Hitchcock on the set of "The Birds." Sean Connery comes along an blackmails this young woman into marrying him. It would be better than jail. Of course, Connery wants the whole thing, and yet this young woman is resistant to anything sexual. The problem is that he is rich and she is beholden to him for saving her from prison. As time goes by, she has several dramatic incidents, including an attempted suicide. The secret for all this lies with her mother, who is a harsh, critical woman, beset by unhappiness and depression. The key to the film lies with her. This movie is quite a downer, even after it ends.

If you ask anyone who's vaguely familiar with the name of Hitchcock about the first titles that come to mind, you might get "Psycho", "The Birds", "Rear Window", "North by Northwest" or "Vertigo. Now if you asked the fans about their favorite movie, you might get have more expert answers, such as "Rope" "Shadow of a Doubt" or "Notorious", but whatever the titles are, chances are that the name "Marnie" won't be in the Top 5, not even the Top 10. Yet it's perhaps the film that explores the Hitchcockian themes with the most blatant defiance toward censorship, as if at that point of his career, after such a rich and unequaled filmography, Hitch decided to make his consummate psychological thriller in color, and where colors wouldn't just be ornament, but would put an emphasis on various psychological trauma.Why is "Marnie" so misunderstood then or disliked? It seems like the pathos of the film's titular protagonists has spilled over the film itself, as if "Marnie" became as unlikable as Marnie could be in the first act of the film, so, maybe this review will redeem what could be perceived as flaws or elements of lesser quality in comparison with Hitch' previous work. First, given the Master's prolixity, it's not the first movie a fan or discoverer will jump at, no Cary Grant, James Stewart or Grace Kelly. It has Sean Connery though at his prime after his first successful performance in "Dr. No" and there is Tippi Hedren who became a 'name' thanks to a bunch of flapping "Birds". The problem is that the rights of the novel were bought with Grace Kelly in mind. And Grace expressed her desire to work with Hitch again, much to his great pleasure. When everything was set, she declined the offer, because of family duties (at a time where Monaco was experiencing an internal crisis). Hitch abandoned the project.Convinced by Hedren's performance in "The Birds", he gave her the role of Marnie, but that was only the start of the many troubles the film would encounter. The second assigned writer (the first wrote the draft when Kelly was part of the project) didn't like the rape scene and thought it would be impossible to redeem the leading man after such an atrocious act, he tried to convince Hitch about it, and got himself fired for daring to remove the one scene that could be deemed as untouchable. The script went to a woman, Jay Presson Allen and strangely enough, she wasn't bothered by the rape, almost considering a honeymoon incident to put in the very psychological context of the main characters and this cold and neutral treatment allowed the viewer to immediately felt empathetic toward Marnie, who lacked a lot on that department. Tippi Hedren wouldn't even believe a woman could refuse to have sex with a hunk like Sean Connery, "it's called acting" answered Hitchcock. And he was right.The rape scene occurs halfway in the film, and at that specific moment, we already know about Marnie and Mark, the man who strangely fell in love with her. She's a compulsive liar and thief, she has many identities, she doesn't seem to feel any guilt about it, and she has a strange relationship with her mother (Louise Latham) carrying some sort of secret, one whose traumatic effect is to panic at the sight of the red color, or whenever she hears thunderstorms or tapping, another side effect is her obvious frigidity. The character of Marinie is probably the greatest source of inspiration for Hitchcock who, among many darlings, loved visual and subjective storytelling in order to convey fears or traumas (the white color in "Spellbound", the dolly zoom in "Vertigo") but with such a 'heavy' character, I'm almost satisfied Grace Kelly didn't have to play her, can you imagine Grace Kelly as a frigid and tormented woman? Actually, Tippi Hedren did a great job, conveying through her look and uncanny resemblance with Piper Laurie an instantly identifiable emotional vulnerability hidden behind some self-confidence. Now, why would a stud like Mark fall in love with her and not say, the beautiful Lil (Diane Baker, hired for her resemblance with Grace Kelly, and unrecognizable as the Senator in "Silence of the Lambs"). What's the attraction? I think it's precisely for these twisted characteristics that Mark is aroused, he finds Marnie fascinating and is driven by a double objective, to protect her and marry her. In his own way, he's not quite reasonable, and his zoology hobby can explain the way he perceives Marnie, a wounded animal. His eyes during the 'rape' scene don't suggest bestiality but possessiveness, a sort of obsession to respond to Marnie's own obsession; but that might ultimate cure her.The first writer regretted that the psychoanalyst from the book was removed by Hitchcock, who wanted to have two characters to carry the film as if he didn't believe Hedren would be enough, and actually, he's right because the mix of Marnie's pathos and Mark's hubris drive the story and Connery plays his part with a burning intensity that equals Cary Grant in "Notorious" and "Suspicion", and Laurence Olivier in "Rebecca". The old-school relationships are not always flattering and some special effects or matte backgrounds left a lot to desire, but the core of the story: Marinie and her relationship with Mark, her mother and her past, is worth the two hours of set-ups before one of Hitch' greatest climaxes. Even the "Psycho" sinned by too much on-the-nose explanations, but Hitch wouldn't have it in "Marnie" where the explanations are all visual, heart-pounding and disturbing.Still, "Marinie" didn't have the same resonance as the previous movies (none of the post-"Birds" films would actually), but given the sensitive material it handles, it seems to be more in line with what you see in today's movies and might be one of these cases where Hitchcock was ahead of his audience, another credit to his talent.