Marnie (1964)

Lesser (Much Lesser) Hitchcock

Without the presence of a sublimely gorgeous Sean Connery (this film just possibly marks the absolute apex of his unique male presence, even exceeding "Dr. No"), I would probably never watch this film again except to laugh at some of the scenes that Tippi Hedren's truly astonishing lack of any acting ability whatsoever unwittingly made so funny.

This is definitely not Hitch at his best, particularly compared to his classy, stylish masterworks like Rebecca, Notorious, Shadow of a Doubt, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, Spellbound, To Catch a Thief, and Psycho. Of course, those films were peopled with legends like Ingrid Bergman, Eva Marie Saint, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart, Doris Day, Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, James Mason, Martin Landau, etc.

The first problem, of course, is Hedren, with her dreadful high voice and not a vestige of thespian talent. Hedren's simpering would embarrass the star of your high-school play and makes Gwyneth Paltrow look like Cate Blanchett. The second problem is an awful script filled with cheap symbolism and impossibly immediate resolution, with bad lines that Hedren's delivery turns into High Camp. The script and its dramatically challenged female star lumber about like elephants in a tea-room.

Connery, to do him credit, gave it his best shot, but how he kept a straight face playing to Hedren and wrapping his mouth around some of these lines is the only truly suspenseful aspect of the film. But even his charisma allied to an intelligent and sincere effort can't save the film from the aura of failure that clings to it, from its beknighted star to its clunky script to its painfully obvious backdrops.

"Marnie" is the story of a young woman (Hedren) who makes her living by infiltrating companies as a bookkeeper, and then embezzling their money, changing identities, and moving on to a new location and a new company. As the film opens, Marnie is doing just that: we see her changing suitcases, packing new clothing and accessories, selecting one of several Social Security cards to anchor the next phase of her existence, and rinsing dark dye out of her hair until she lifts a dazzling golden head out of the sink.

We also see Marnie paying a visit to her mother in Baltimore, who lives alone and is lame enough to need a cane to walk. It's clear the relationship between mother and daughter is, shall we say, tricky: the rigid, emotionally cold Mom doles out only grudging bits of affection to her desperately needy daughter - whose career Mom knows nothing about.

Then Marnie moves on to her next target, the Rutland Company, located somewhere in Virginia, in horse country, where she gets a nice job sitting about 12 feet from the company safe, whose combination lock the manager (contrary to every logical rule of security) is always opening in full view of his employees. When he can't remember the combination, which happens twice a day, he shakes his head in full view of the employees, walks back to his desk in full view of his employees, and pulls out the drawer where he keeps the combination and peers into it, muttering the numbers to himself, in full view of his employees. The only wonder here is that Marnie is the first employee to take advantage of the manager's stupidity and burgle the safe. My old Mum could have done it, easily.

But before Marnie (calling herself Margaret Edgar, Edgar being her real last name) can get her hands on the goods, she comes to the attention of the Rutland Company's heir, Mark Rutland (Connery). Attracted to her great legs, blonde looks, and ladylike air, Mark requests her secretarial services over the weekend. As they work, Mark notices several things about Mrs. Edgar: she's terrified of the color red and of thunderstorms, she shares with him an interest in horses (horses=sexual sublimation, get it? get it?), and she's sexually indifferent to him, something that he isn't used to (although I can't think why. . .:))

The intrigued Mark not only begins keeping an eye on Marnie but after he overhears a guest at one of his father's parties insist that he recognizes her as the beautiful brunette who ran off with his company's money, decides to to do some detective work. Mark uncovers Marnie's prior identity and her flight with her former employer's cash. But rather than turning her in, Mark gives her a choice: marry him or go to jail. If she marries him, he will pay back the money she stole so the case against her is dropped. Marnie is forced to agree to this heinous blackmail, squeaking, "And then YOU take possession of ME!!!"

As we now know that Marnie has a BIG problem with men and sex, Mark's "bargain" has a deliciously prurient edge due to the absurdity of Marnie quailing before the idea of hooking the handsome, AND rich, AND sympathetic, AND intelligent Rutland (rut=sex, get it? get it?) in the persona of the staggeringly desirable Connery. To the dismay of his widowed sister-in-law, Lil (Diane Baker), who lives with Mark and his father in their grand home and has been trying to seduce Mark for ages (that's men for you: reject them and they chase you; be too available and you're invisible!), Mark marries Marnie, giving her an eleven-carat diamond engagement ring. When someone wonders why Mark didn't give Marnie his dead mother's ring, Lil, who harbors suspicions about Marnie herself, replies sourly, "He said he wanted her to have something that had never belonged to anyone else."

Marnie and Mark head off to their wedding night and honeymoon on a luxury ocean liner. Sure enough, Marnie can't go through with consummating the marriage - pressured by the eager groom, she goes into a state of catatonic shock at finding herself naked in a stateroom with Sean Connery. (Well, I'd have been stunned myself, but. . .)

The shock of being deflowered (it's a sure bet that Marnie is a virgin) by her (rich gorgeous intelligent) new husband under these circumstances prompts Marnie to try to drown herself by throwing herself into the liner's Olympic-sized deck pool. When Mark pulls her out and revives her, he asks her why she didn't just throw herself overboard, to which the choking Marnie replies with this deathless line: "The point was to kill myself, not feed the fish."

The script is a minefield of such lines, and while Hedren's delivery reduces them to hilarity, one can only wonder if even some of Hitch's formidably talented previous leading ladies, such as Ingrid Bergman or Teresa Wright or Grace Kelly or Eva Marie Saint, could have redeemed them.

The film charges to its conclusion as Mark, determined to get to the bottom of Marnie's fears of red, thunderstorms, sex, and men, tracks down her mother. He discovers that the cold, straitlaced, Bible-totin' Mrs. Edgar is not a widow at all, but was an unwed teenaged mother who, in order to support her little girl, became a hooker, and one night brought home a drunken sailor (an early cameo by Bruce Dern) that the six-year-old Marnie murdered by hitting him over the head with the poker when she saw him struggling with her mother (hence the limp). Needless to say, during this event, much RED blood was spilled, and a THUNDERSTORM was occurring, and Marnie has repressed all memory of the events, presumably including the trial and endless interviews with police and social services. And that, children, as the British say, is how the little white bunny rabbit got its fluffy tail!

In a scene worthy of "Saturday Night Live", after much sturm und drang, Mark brings Marnie home and forces Mrs. Edgar to tell Marnie the truth about what happened that night, as Mom snarls, "Yew-git-outta-mah-HOWSE!" Ditto how, as a result of the murder and the subsequent trial, Mom changed her ways and vowed that if the authorities let her keep the traumatized little Marnie, "Ah'd bring ya up decent!" I.e., as a respectable, God-fearin', frigid Christian woman who would rather die than have a man touch her - even her lawfully consecrated husband - even when said lawfully consecrated husband is vintage 1964 Sean Connery. "She's LUCKY to be that-a way, she's LUCKY!" Mom cries when Mark protests that her daughter is living only half a life.

Presto! Like magic, once the truth is out, Marnie's problems fade like snow in the sunshine. As they step outside her mother's little Baltimore row house, against a manifestly fake backdrop of the Delaware River waterfront (where a thunderstorm has just passed and the sun is now emerging - get it? get it?), Marnie quivers in that tinny voice, "Mark, I don't want to go to jail. I'd rather stay with you." Mark: "Had you, love?" Fadeout.

This is one of the worst scripts ever written, way below Hitch's usual standards. It has the feel of those old paint-by-numbers kits, a sensation made even sharper by the hapless Hedren, who can't rightly be called an actress at all.

Campy to the max, the film deserves all the sneers that have been heaped upon it. However, do watch it once: you'll be amazed at how some of the funniest lines come in handy over the years. And for you Connery fans, Himself at his stunning best makes it worth at least one viewing. April 14, 2008

not the best hitch

loaded with cliches and unintenionally funny.... camerawork as usual is top notch...no real suspense.... this is the kitchensink hitch..... kleptomania,prostitution, suicidial tendencies, sexual dysfunction, the list is long not a bad two hours to while away but this is below grade hitch March 26, 2008

"TWO FACES HAVE I" Lou Christie

Sufficiently recovered from "The Birds", Hedren is teamed with Sean Connery,and the results are much for the better.But, alas, in this movie she has too many bats in the belfry, not of her own making. She's a highly refined liar and swindler, who's terrified by thunderstorms, bright lights, physical contact, and Martin Gabel (who must have been yanked off a 60's quiz show to do a bit part). She loves horses, yet does dangerous stunts with them,the last of which leading to an equine fatality. Connery is obviously sexually attracted by her,but seemingly marries her as a personal reclamation project. As one problem after another is brought to light, with the assistance of a local "Sherlock Holmes", it seems that Hedren's mother is at the bottom of most of this, never having explained the sordid past, nor ever having taken her daughter for counseling.The story ends on a hopeful note, with at least a chance for Marnie to avoid jail time for past "sins", and Connery now perhaps able to live a somewhat normal life with her. March 8, 2008

Great Hitchcock mystery-thriller-romance

This is a wonderful movie. A thriller-mystery, but unusual for its psychological focus. Marnie (Tippi Hedren) is a compulsive liar and thief who takes a job as a payroll clerk, steals all the money, and then goes to another town and a new identity--until the rich young Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) catches on and, in effect, blackmails her into marrying him, not knowing that she is frigid and can't stand to be "handled." A very tense and unhappy marriage, as Mark tries, and finally succeeds, in finding out what troubles Marnie. Interesting from a feminist perspective, in that Marnie loves horses and her mother, but can't stand men. Marnie is revealed to be the killer of one of her mother-prostitute's customers. Man-killing and man-hating, yet finally "tamed" by Sean Connery. Hitchcock uses color to good effect. Marnie is also notable for the obviously fake backdrops during horse-riding scenes. Otherwise, typical Hitchcock style, with Hermann music. August 17, 2007

Hitch's Last Masterpiece

Blasted when it was first released in 1964, this misunderstook Hitchcock film has picked up speed along the way and joined the ranks of his other earlier works. Tippi Hedren stepped in as the leading lady when Grace Kelly bowed out for political reasons, and she gives the best performance of her career. This was the last movie to use all of Hitchcock's "team," and the experience and polish that they learned is all exhibited here. Bernard Herrmann's haunting score is lush and adds much to what is going on. I would highly suggest multiple viewings of this film; each time you will catch more and appreciate the journey that Hitchcock takes you on. I will warn you though; even for a 1964 film, it has many adult themes and is definitely somewhat disturbing in light of its two main characters: a frigid kleptomaniac and her determined suitor who is obsessed with taming her. It was a highly personal movie for Hitchcock; he pushes Vertigo even further and goes to areas that would not have been permitted even 5 years earlier. Briefly, the story is of Marnie (Hedren), a beautiful ice-blonde who makes a habit of moving from city to city and robbing her male employer after she has earned his trust. Things change when she gets a job in Philadelphia working for Rutland & Company, a firm run by the handsome and widowed Mark Rutland (Sean Connery). Mark's scheming young sister-in-law Lil (Diane Baker) doesn't like the romance that she assumes is budding between Marnie & Mark. In reality, he has caught Marnie red-handed and blackmails her into marrying him; he believes he can "cure" her of the kleptomania. On the honeymoon, he also discovers she is frigid. The drama intensifies from there...especially once he finds out that Marnie's dead mother (Louise Latham) isn't so dead.

The extras include a highly informative Making Of Documentary, with contemporary interviews of Tippi Hedren, Diane Baker, and Louise Latham, as well as a gallery of production/publicity photos. All in all a great package that makes this DVD worth owning. July 1, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...