‘You don’t love me. I’m just something you’ve caught…’
In many ways, the 1964 psychological thriller Marnie was the end of an era for Alfred Hitchcock. It marked his final collaboration with cinematographer Robert Burks (who had worked with Hitch on 12 films, including The Birds, Vertigo and North by Northwest), editor George Tomasini (nine films including Psycho and Rear Window) and legendary composer Bernard Hermann (seven films – most notably Vertigo). If this was to be the end of Hitchcock’s golden era, it’s a fitting end to a dazzling run of films…
Marnie (Tippi Hedren) is a con artist and thief who buries her past trauma in petty criminality. When business owner Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) gets wise to Marnie’s attempts to rob him, he persuades her to marry him rather than go to jail. A disastrous honeymoon, however, leads the pair to dive into Marnie’s murky past.
While Marnie isn’t quite as arresting as the four films that preceded it (Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds), it’s still an exceptional piece of filmmaking culminating into an unforgettable final sequence that is a match to anything in Hitch’s oeuvre. While, by all accounts, Hitch’s treatment of Hedren was appalling, there is no doubting her performance; subtly different to her turn in The Birds but just as vulnerable… as human. While she perhaps doesn’t have much chemistry with Connery, this helps rather than hinders as the plot requires their relationship to be ambiguous for much of the film.
Marnie is a nuanced and layered film that contains multitudes. As with Vertigo, there is nobody to root for here. Just flawed characters trying to make sense of their broken lives – all wrapped up in Hermann’s exquisite score – another Hitchcock triumph.
