Marnie (1964)
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Marnie Movie Review
Marnie is a 1964 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. It’s a pretty good, underrated Hitch movie.
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“And I’ve caught something really wild this time, haven’t I?
I’ve tracked you and caught you and by God, I’m going to keep you“
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It follows a problematic young woman who is a habitual thief and has a serious problem with the color red and thunderstorms. She cannot stand the touch of another man and her boyfriend is willing to help her. Eventually, it’s revealed that all of those problems stem from an accident that happened to her as a child.
I found the plot definitely familiar, but still strong as the storytelling is exceptional and the film is mostly very engaging and particularly well crafted in terms of technical aspects and the suspense. It definitely has a first half that lacks in suspense, but the second half compensates by having that fantastic ending which was so well filmed, thrilling and a perfect conclusion.
Tippi Hedren plays the titular character and she excelled at playing her. This is an extremely demanding role as the woman is so complex and difficult to comprehend so Hitchcock’s choice to give the role to inexperienced Hedren was interesting to say the least. But she definitely made this movie her own nonetheless and gave a better performance than the one she gave in ‘The Birds’. She is compelling, memorable and her performance is quite underrated.
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Sean Connery is reliably terrific and suave in his role and I found the fact that James Bond ended up in a Hitchcock film highly intriguing and satisfying. I liked that the film focused just on these two characters along with the mother who’s quiet memorable herself. The relationship between the two romantic leads is very well developed and quite memorable actually.
My favorite sequences include the romantic scenes and the conversations between the two as the dialogue is simply the film’s standout aspect. It’s sophisticated and the film’s tackling of post-traumatic stress disorder is particularly advanced for 1964. The film isn’t as sophisticated as I would have liked it to have been, but it’s still pretty satisfactory in the treatment of the main character’s psychological issues.
Marnie is technically stupendous. Alfred Hitchcock’s direction is fantastic per usual and this surely ranks as one of his most interesting departures when it comes to his thrillers. ‘Spellbound’ is similar to this movie in the psychological drama instead of thriller approach, but this one is much more sexualized and actually rather dark and sexy for its time.
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It is very well acted across the board and of course we get another terrific score from Bernand Herrmann whose score here is very beautiful, grand and old-fashioned. The cinematography is one of the standouts as well because the use of the color red accompanied by dramatic music made the thriller scenes even more suspenseful.
I just wish that the pacing was a bit brisker and that the runtime was reduced a bit as the movie can be a bit slow and ineffective at times. But other than that, it’s a pretty good film that isn’t one of the director’s best, but still ranks among his better, more underrated efforts.
Marnie definitely is a bit too slow in its pace and overlong in runtime, but still it’s a very good, underrated Hitchcock psychological thriller with strong storytelling, a great ending and fine dialogue. It is particularly memorable in Bernand Herrmann’s terrific score, superb cinematography and Tippi Hedren’s career-best, phenomenal performance in an extremely demanding role. Sean Connery is pretty good as well and reliably suave and the two are a memorable couple.
