Marnie (1964)

Mark marries Marnie although she is a habitual thief and has serious psychological problems, and tries to help her confront and resolve them.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Winston Graham (from the novel by), Jay Presson Allen (screenplay)

Stars:

Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tippi Hedren	...	Marnie Edgar (as 'Tippi' Hedren)
Sean Connery	...	Mark Rutland
Diane Baker	...	Lil Mainwaring
Martin Gabel	...	Sidney Strutt
Louise Latham	...	Bernice Edgar
Bob Sweeney	...	Cousin Bob
Milton Selzer	...	Man at Track
Alan Napier	...	Mr. Rutland
Henry Beckman	...	First Detective
Edith Evanson	...	Rita - Cleaning Woman
Mariette Hartley	...	Susan Clabon
Bruce Dern	...	Sailor
S. John Launer	...	Sam Ward
Meg Wyllie	...	Mrs. Turpin

Storyline

Marnie Edgar is a habitual liar and a thief who gets jobs as a secretary and after a few months robs the firms in question, usually of several thousand dollars. When she gets a job at Rutland's, she also catches the eye of the handsome owner, Mark Rutland. He prevents her from stealing and running off, as is her usual pattern, but also forces her to marry him. Their honeymoon is a disaster and she cannot stand to have a man touch her and on their return home, Mark has a private detective look into her past. When he has the details of what happened in her childhood to make her what she is, he arranges a confrontation with her mother realizing that reliving the terrible events that occurred in her childhood and bringing out those repressed memories is the only way to save her.

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Plot Keywords:

thief | past | memory | honeymoon | money | 

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Taglines:

On Marnie's wedding night he discovered every secret about her . . . except one!

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 July 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pas de printemps pour Marnie

Filming Locations:

San Jose, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Actress Naomi Watts dressed up as "Marnie" for a portrait that was published in the March 2008 issue of the magazine "Vanity Fair." (She said she was fascinated by Tippi Hedren when they both acted in the film I Heart Huckabees.

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Goofs

When Marnie asks for the gun to shoot her horse, the woman of the house says she'll get her husband's pistol. She returns, however, with a revolver. Technically, a revolver is not a pistol, because it does not have a fixed chamber, but it is often thought of as one.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Sidney Strutt: Robbed! Cleaned out! $9,967! Precisely as I told you over the telephone. And that girl did it. Marion Holland. That's the girl. Marion Holland.
First Detective: Can you describe her Mr. Strutt?
Sidney Strutt: Certainly I can describe her: five-five, 110 pounds, size 8 dress, blue eyes, black wavy hair, even features, good teeth.
Sidney Strutt: [detectives unable to restrain laughter] Well what's so damn funny? There's been a grand larceny committed on these premises.

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Connections

Featured in Combat Shock (1984)

User Reviews

Yet another underrated Hitchcock

The rumors surrounding Marnie - the last in an amazing run of truly great Hitchcock movies that lasted from 1950-1964 - are plentiful. All of them consist of director Alfred Hitchcock's growing obsession for Tippi Hedrin (who starred in The Birds one year earlier). By the end of the movie, Hitchcock would not talk to Hedrin or even refer to her by name (this following a supposed failed pass at Hedrin), and his friends say Marnie was the last movie Hitchcock truly cared about.

Regardless of the rumors, Marnie was a box-office failure and went unnoticed until recently when DVD brought back Hitchcock's unremarkable films, along with his classics. And behold, from the ashes ariseth... Marnie.

Starring Hedrin as Marnie and Sean Connery as the man who falls in love with her, this movie tells of a compulsive thief and pathalogical liar who is caught by Connery and blackmailed into marrying him. Connery finds that Hedrin has incredible fears of red and thunderstorms, refuses to let men touch her and has disturbing dreams brought on by knocks at her door. Connery must play the dual role of keeping Marnie away from the police while trying to find out why she does what she does.

This is indeed an excellent Hitchcock film. He reminds the audience that he did start out directing silent movies, and uses this silence very well in the robbery/cleaning lady scene. The moments leading up to Marnie's revealing flashback are incredible, and the movie reeks of typical Hitchcock: slow, methodic pacing to a brilliant and stunning climax.

Marnie is not a patented "Hitchcock classic": The fades-to-red have not aged well (if they ever did look good), the horse-riding scenes just don't work, and the backgrounds are obviously fake (although it has been speculated that Hitchcock did this on purpose -- whatever the case he later regretted it). But the basic premise, the acting, the directing are all top notch and have turned Marnie into another of the "Underrated Hitchcock"s.

8/10