A Filmmaker's Guide to: "Marnie" (1964)

This was a film that is not a normal Hitchcock film and yet, it has all of the emotions of tension and suspense that are constantly associated with Hitchcock. “Marnie” is a film about a woman of many personalities, dealing in theft and greed, in hope and want for something more for herself and for her mother. What Marnie does not know is that a man is watching her every move from the moment she enters her new job. Sean Connery plays the super-suave James Bond like character in the same era where he was actually playing James Bond (this was actually during the same time one of my favourite Bond films “Thunderball” (1965) was being made, believe it or not!). There’s a lot os twists and turns like a normal Hitchcock film and I would definitely liken this film in personality to “Vertigo” (1958) and in plot towards “To Catch a Thief” (1954). However, it is much more dramatic and melodramatic than the earlier Hitchcock films and possibly marks a new direction in the way in which his films were being made with the changing atmosphere towards thriller films. Remember, by the end of this decade we would have “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) and by the start of the next we would have “The Exorcist” (1973) and so, Hitchcock knew he had to start making his own moves either into the more graphic genre or towards a more dramatic and intense thriller. Needless to say, I didn’t think he’d be able to do the latter since his older films were already super-intense. But he did it. He managed to gain intensity without losing very much.

I am not going to lie though, I did not think that this Hitchcock film was as good as the others, but I also did not think it was bad at all. If we are going to compare this to other Hitchcock films, it would not fair that high for me out of five. But we are not going to do that because I do not think it is fair to judge a director on their possible change in direction to fit with the times. “Marnie” (1964) has to be judged on its own and so, as we are judging it on its own it actually makes out for a brilliant viewing experience.

One thing that I have to say was pretty incredible though was Tippi Hedren’s acting. I found her acting in this film to actually be more pronounced than she was in “The Birds” (which was her acting debut as well as another Hitchcock film she was in). I found her acting in “Marnie” to be far more intense and possibly inspired by Kim Novak in “Vertigo” (1958). Marnie seems like a woman of stamina and class, like Kim Novak in “Vertigo” (1958). But also, we have hints of the slyness of Grace Kelly’s characters in other Hitchcock films such as her dark, but active character in “Rear Window” (1954). I feel like Tippi Hedren’s performance, though in a later Hitchcock film, was based mostly on the older Hitchcock characters with the majority of the influence stemming from Kim Novak in “Vertigo” (1958).

I also found the story to be absolutely compelling. A woman of multiple personalities who goes around stealing and thieving. It first looks incredibly wrong and that she is the villain. Much later though, we are given the option of who to respect and who to judge. Like in many Hitchcock films, we have to trust the one that is untrustworthy just to see how they make it out of this. I find that this same situation happens in “To Catch a Thief”. But instead of trusting simply the story of the thief like we do in “Marnie” we also have to trust the thief themselves to catch another just like him. We are met with various decisions throughout the movie which all have a great impact on how we see the different characters, their motives and their alliances. Marnie’s choices on how to help her mother should give us a clear idea of what she seeks to do and how she seeks retributions rather than just glorification for her own social status.