This ten-part personal essay on iconic director Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie is part of Maddy’s Third Master of Suspense Blogathon. Click here for the site in general, which is called Classic Film and TV Corner.
A polite reminder before reading this blog entry of mine 🙂 This essay of twenty-fifth favorite film of all-time (Marnie) is very personal to me and I worked very hard on it. I am asking everybody who reads it to remain courteous and kind (any mean or insulting comments will be deleted) and to try to understand where my love for Marnie comes from. I personally believe that I laid out everything articulately and I hope you readers feel the same and get as much out of this essay as I did 🙂
At the same time, it is my hope that I have treated every single subject presented here in a highly sensitive manner 🙂
Also, try to keep in mind that this blog entry was written for dyed-in-the-wool Marnie fans like myself 🙂
Spoiler Alert: This blog entry includes potential spoilers so If you have not seen Marnie, I highly recommend that you watch the film before reading this blog entry
Prologue
Indifferently received by both critics and audiences during it’s initial theatrical release in 1964, Marnie has long since been reassessed (and justifiably so) as one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s many underrated masterworks. Aside from being championed by film critics such as Dave Kehr, Robin Wood and Richard Brody, French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard used clips from Marnie in his 8-episode video essay project Histoire(s) du Cinema. The esteemed French actress Catherine Deneuve once said that she always dreamed of playing Marnie Edgar (read here). The March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair featured actress Naomi Watts dressed as the title character (click here). Furthermore, Marnie ranks at number 47 on the BBC’s list of The 100 greatest American films, which was published back in 2015 (click here). In my opinion, Marnie is not only Hitchcock’s second greatest film after Vertigo (his magnum opus), but it also happens to rank at number 25 on the list of my first 100 favorite films of all time (click here). Not unlike that aforementioned 1958 classic, Marnie can be best classified as a dark and twisted psychological mystery-thriller/romantic drama. Similarly, the result is the Master of Suspense at his most complex.
Chapter 1: The First Half – A Psychological Mystery-Thriller
The film opens with a black-haired woman with a yellow purse walking down the middle of a train station. The next scene depicts her angry boss Sidney Strutt (Martin Gabel), who runs a tax consulting company. He reveals to other colleagues that she stole $10,000 from the company safe. In addition, the employee’s name was “Marion Holland”. One such aware individual is Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), who heads a Philadelphia-based publishing company. Rutland tells Strutt that he saw Holland on his last visit with him.
As it turns out, her actual name is not “Marion Holland”, but Margaret “Marnie” Edgar (Tippi Hedren), a habitual thief and compulsive liar. After washing the black dye out, her hair color is revealed to be blonde. Armed with the stolen $10,000, Marnie drives to Baltimore to see Bernice (Louise Latham), her mother. Before that, Marnie heads to a stable in Virginia to see Forio, her horse. Upon entering Bernice’s house, Marnie is triggered by the presence of red gladiolus. The color red occupies and flashes on the screen centering on Marnie’s panicked reaction. The relationship between Marnie and her mom Bernice is a dysfunctional one given the latter’s aloofness towards the former. As Marnie implies, Bernice is more affectionate towards a little girl that she babysits than her own daughter. Additionally, we learn that Bernice’s distrust in men is seconded by Marnie. At this point in the story, Marnie suffers an unseen nightmare involving tapping while muttering something.
Now dyed with chestnut hair, Marnie targets Mark Rutland’s publishing company under the alias of “Mary Taylor”. As with Sidney Strutt, Rutland hires Marnie without asking her for references. Once again, Marnie plans to open the safe and steal all the cash. Unbeknownst to Marnie, Mark is actually one step ahead of her.
Chapter 2: The Second Half – A Mystery-Thriller/Romantic Drama
Not too long after the robbery, Mark Rutland goes to the stable to confront Marnie (now back to natural blonde), who is riding on her horse Forio. While traveling on the road, Rutland demands that Marnie tell him the whole truth about who she really is. One detail we learn from Marnie is that unlike other men, Mark was the only one that she trusted given how kind he had been to her. Two weeks earlier, Mark comforted and caressed Marnie during a thunderstorm that caused some damage to his office, which destroyed the last of his deceased wife’s mementos. A week after, the two attended a horse racetrack in New Jersey. Marnie pleads with Mark to let go of her, but he refuses. Mark tells Marnie that it would make him irresponsible. Instead of turning Marnie over to the police, Mark blackmails her into marrying him. A betrayed Marnie tells Mark that you don’t love me. I’m just something you’ve caught! You think I’m some sort of animal you’ve trapped! To which Mark replies with something along the lines of that’s right–you are. 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.
While on their honeymoon cruise, Mark tries to get a deeper understanding of what makes Marnie tick. Frustrated that he is not getting anywhere, the sex starved Mark bursts into Marnie’s room and attempts to make out with her. After screaming NO!, Mark realizes that he took her nightgown off. A seemingly regretful Mark than covers Marnie with his robe. Suddenly after Marnie lies down, it is implied that Mark rapes her. The next morning, Marnie is nowhere to be found in her room, which greatly concerns Mark. A frantic Mark runs all over the place until he finds Marnie drowning in the cruise ship swimming pool. Thankfully, Mark resuscitates Marnie before it was too late.
After returning from the honeymoon, Marnie calls mom Bernice to reassure her that she is fine. This discussion is heard by Lil Mainwaring (Diane Baker), the sister of Mark’s late wife Estelle. She is aware that Mark owes Sidney Strutt $10,000. This is after she finds a note in Mark’s drawer in this room. Not too long before he brings Marnie’s horse Forio back to his mansion for her, Lil overhears the two talking. She learns that Mark repaid the $10,000 to Strutt that Marnie stole from him. After admitting that she eavesdropped on their conversation, Lil promises to support Mark in any way possible. In response, Mark wants Lil to befriend the isolated Marnie. Instead, she invites Strutt to one of Mark’s house parties, which worries Marnie when he recognizes her, but Mark distracts him with another subject. When Marnie confesses to Mark that she robbed others, he makes sure that her other victims are compensated as well. Though he is able to convince him to drop the charges against Marnie, Strutt does remind Mark that he would feel differently If he was the victim of a theft.
During a fox hunt with Lil, the red coat of one of the hunters triggers Marnie to the point that she rides Forio in the wrong direction. A concerned Lil trails her. While riding, Forio falls and injures his legs inciting a now hysterical Marnie to beg a nearest resident for a gun to put the horse out of it’s misery. Lil offers to do the job, but Marnie refuses and does it herself. Afterwards, a devastated Marnie tries, but fails to steal the money from Mark’s safe. Subsequently, Mark announces that he is taking her to see her mother Bernice.
Chapter 3: A Mystery Solved
Prior to the upcoming climax, Mark’s investigation has proven to be a rich one as Marnie has a phobia of thunderstorms, the color red and men in general. Mark learns about the second thing in the aftermath of one of Marnie’s nightmares. During a word association game, Mark mentions the word red and it causes Marnie to break into tears pleading for psychological help. On the side, Mark discovers from a private investigator that Marnie’s mother Bernice was a sex worker, who was tried (and possibly acquited) for the murder of a sailor when Marnie was 5-years old. We also learn that Marnie was a witness to it. Mark takes Marnie and drives her to Baltimore to confront mom Bernice.
Upon arriving at the destination amid a thunderstorm, Marnie’s mom Bernice angrily asks him to leave, but Mark demands that she tell Marnie the truth about what happened on that fateful night long ago. When Bernice tries to physically attack him, a visibly shaken Marnie begins to remember her trauma by muttering you let my Mama go! You’re hurtin’ my Mama!…You’re one of them. One of them in the white suits. Mark taps on the wall to help her remember.
The flashback begins during a thunderstorm, as mother Bernice (inside of course) takes a then 5-year old Marnie (Melody Thomas Scott) out of a bedroom so she and her male client can have sex. The client in this case is a drunken sailor (Bruce Dern). A teary eyed Marnie recalls to Mark and Bernice that he came out to me. Continuing the story, we learn that after comforting her, Bernice mistook it for child molestation. She then tries to fight him off with a fireplace poker and after being overpowered, Marnie takes the poker and kills him with it. To paraphrase Marnie’s own words, I hit him, I hit him with a stick, I hurt him. In the aftermath of his murder, Bernice and the then young Marnie scream horrifically. Cut back to then present day, Mark has finally solved the mystery surrounding not only Marnie’s fear of the color red and thunderstorms, but also her aversion to human intimacy, not to mention sex.
In addition, mom Bernice reveals that she took the blame for the sailor’s murder and successfully fought the authorities, who threatened to place Marnie in a foster home in the wake of the incident. For Bernice, Marnie was the only thing that ever mattered to her. In Bernice’s own words, she promised God right then, if he’d let me keep you, and you not remember, I’d bring you up different from me. Decent. Touched upon hearing this, Marnie tells Bernice that I certainly am decent. Of course, I’m a cheat, and a liar and a thief, but I am decent. Nevertheless, Mark tells Marnie that it’s time to have a little compassion for yourself. When a child, a child of any age, Marnie, can’t get love, well, it takes what it can get, any way it can get it. It’s not so hard to understand. A now more amicable Bernice bids farewell to the two of them and says goodbye sugarpop to a now cured Marnie. As the rains stops, the two exit and Marnie requests to Mark (relating to the two options he handed to her earlier) that she would rather stay with him than serve a prison sentence. The final image implies that Mark will grant her wish.
Chapter 4: An examination of Childhood trauma
While it might seem messy at first, after repeated viewings, Marnie can be credibly interpreted as a profound and strangely optimistic examination of childhood trauma. This is precisely what the title character suffers from. Marnie Edgar’s childhood trauma comes in the form of three phobias: astraphobia, chromophobia/erythrophobia and genophobia.
–Astraphobia–
According to the Cleveland Clinic, astraphobia is an intense fear of thunder and lightning. The phobia is more common in children, but it can last into adulthood (read here). In addition, astrophobia is sometimes caused by a traumatic childhood event during a storm, which is what the title character suffered from in the film (read here). Marnie’s fear of thunderstorms is revealed to us during a regular workday in Mark Rutland’s office. As a tree branch crashes into his window from the outside, Marnie hangs on to Mark for life. At the same time, a slight flash of the color red triggers her further.
–Chromophobia/Erythrophobia–
Coined by Scottish artist David Batchelor in his 2000 book of the same name, the term chromophobia refers to a fear of corruption or contamination through color (read here). According to Batchelor, this psychological phenomenon can be traced all the way back to Ancient Greece. If a doctor were to diagnose Marnie Edgar with chromophobia, she would undoubtedly be placed under the subcategory of erythrophobia. Though commonly associated with blushing, an individual’s fear of the color red can also come from other factors. Marnie’s aversion to the color red plays a prominent role in the film. In chronological order, she is triggered by a bouquet of red gladiolus, red ink on her blouse, a horse jockey’s red-and-white jersey and the red coat of a fox hunter.
–Genophobia–
Though she does not mind being comforted by Mark Rutland when she is scarred, for the most part, Marnie Edgar’s distrust in the opposite sex boders on genophobia. In other words, a fear of sexual intimacy. This is evident during her cruise ship honeymoon with Mark. Frustrated by her unwillingness to make love, Mark frightens Marnie by taking her nightgown off, which leaves her emotionally stunted. Though initially remorseful, it is not too long before Mark takes advantage of this situation by implicitly raping her. In the wake of this, Marnie tries, but fails to commit suicide. As to be expected, Mark is still baffled as to why Marnie is afraid of sexual intercourse. A significant portion of it is rooted in her mom Bernice’s mistrust of men, which is just the tip of the iceberg.
-The Root Cause of Marnie’s Phobias-
Ironically, astraphobia, chromophobia/erythrophobia and genophobia serve as contributing factors in Marnie Edgar overcoming her trauma. Amid a strong thunderstorm, Mark Rutland brings Marnie back to her childhood home to confront her mom Bernice. Deeply concerned about the root cause of Marnie’s phobias, Mark demands Bernice tell her the whole story about what happened on that fateful night from a long time ago. Initially, Bernice responds with physical resistance, but stops upon hearing an emotionally upset Marnie blurt out you let my Mama go! You’re hurtin’ my Mama!…You’re one of them. One of them in the white suits. Mark taps on the wall to help Marnie remember. As mentioned earlier, the flashback involved Bernice when she was a young sex worker. A heavy thunderstorm can be heard from the outside, which scares the then 5-year old Marnie. Suddenly, Bernice’s drunken male client, a white-suited sailor tries to comfort her. Mistakenly believing that he is a child molester, Bernice tries to fight him off with a fireplace poker. Under the impression that he is trying to kill her mom, Marnie picks up the fireplace poker and beats him to death with it. The adult Marnie finishes up her story with I hit him, I hit him with a stick, I hurt him. Flashing back again, we now see a now horrified Bernice and then 5-year old Marnie loudly screaming at the sight of the sailor’s bloodied corpse. As we fast forward back to the then present day, Marnie is now in a more relaxed state of mind.
As with Vertigo, Marnie is another Alfred Hitchcock thriller that features the lead character overcoming their fears through a recreation of a traumatic experience. Unlike the former, the latter ends on a more hopeful note. After recalling every single detail of that traumatic childhood incident, Marnie learns from mom Bernice that she had always loved her. So much in fact, that she not only fought tooth and nail to prevent the authorities from placing Marnie in a foster home, but also took the blame for the sailor’s murder by standing trial for it. Marnie takes Bernice’s sentiments to heart by declaring I certainly am decent. Of course, I’m a cheat, and a liar and a thief, but I am decent. This also answers Mark’s question relating to why Marnie became a thief. This is expressed through Mark’s advice to Marnie with it’s time to have a little compassion for yourself. When a child, a child of any age, Marnie, can’t get love, well, it takes what it can get, any way it can get it. It’s not so hard to understand. Aside from renouncing her criminal past, Marnie leaves her past phobias behind as she and Mark exit the house. Subsequently, Marnie tells Mark that she would rather remain married to him than serve a jail sentence, which Mark (rather implicitly) happily agrees to.
Chapter 5: Beyond Marnie Edgar
In Marnie, the title character’s presence impacts two central characters and one small, but pivotal one. Here, it comes in the form of Sean Connery’s Mark Rutland, Diane Baker’s Lil Mainwaring and Louise Latham’s Bernice Edgar, who is Marnie’s mother.
-Mark Rutland-
On the surface, Mark Rutland is an affluent by the books CEO of the Rutlands publishing company in Philadelphia. In the center, there is an element of darkness to his character. Aware of Marnie Edgar’s recent robberies (Rutlands serving as the most recent target), when it comes to nabbing criminals, Mark is thrilled at the prospect of using his unorthodox methods on a beautiful woman. A widower, Mark sees himself as the trapper and Marnie Edgar as his prey. In a display of tough love, Mark blackmails Marnie into marrying him. Either that or prison. Besides, Mark is well aware that Marnie does not want to end up in jail. Mark truly loves Marnie, but she is incensed by this notion as she tells him you don’t love me. I’m just something you’ve caught! You think I’m some sort of animal you’ve trapped! Mark answers her question with that’s right–you are. 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.
To an extent, Mark is like James Stewart’s John “Scottie” Ferguson from Vertigo, which was also directed by Alfred Hitchcock. As with Scottie, Mark’s obsession with a gorgeous blonde woman also borders on the unhealthy. Even so, this is where the similarities end. Unlike Scottie, Mark is upper class and when it comes to his sexual impulses, he actually acts on them. In Vertigo, the sexually repressed Scottie may have undressed Madeline Elster, but he never ever acted on that impulse. Here in Marnie, Mark not only undresses the title character, but also implicitly rapes her. The close-up of Mark’s lusty eyes indicates this. Today, this criminal offense would be categorized as marital rape, but back in 1964, it was still considered perfectly legal and acceptable in American society.
At the same time, Mark sincerely loves Marnie and cares deeply about her. In a display of kindness, Mark brings Marnie’s horse Forio back to his mansion for her. Not unlike how he comforted her during a thunderstorm earlier, Mark consoles Marnie after she suffers from a nightmare. In trying to figure out the root cause of Marnie’s recurring nightmare, he starts a word association game with her. When Mark mentions the words red and white, Marnie gets triggered and breaks down into tears. As Mark hugs her, Marnie admits she has a problem (Help me. Oh, God, somebody help me!). Perhaps the greatest thing Mark might have done for Marnie was helping her overcome the phobias that plagued her. After revealing her trauma amid the climax, Marnie is able to feel at peace with the world. In addition, she wants to remain married to Mark, who believed in her the entire time.
-Lil Mainwaring-
Initially, Lil Mainwaring’s relationship with Marnie Edgar resembles an antagonistic one, but as the film progresses, it becomes much more complicated than that. Lil is the sister of Mark’s deceased wife Estelle and she always hoped that he would marry her. While on their honeymoon, Lil spies in Mark’s room and in a drawer, finds a note reminding himself to pay Marnie’s former boss Sidney Strutt the $10,000 that she stole from him. Upon overhearing Mark telling Marnie that he payed Strutt off on her behalf and later, Marnie’s phone conversation with her mom Bernice, Lil comes to the realization that she is not only a liar, but a thief. In a futile attempt to win Mark’s affections, Lil promises to help Mark in any way she possibly can. For Mark, he wants Lil to befriend Marnie, who actually does not have any friends. Seemingly ignoring this, Lil invites Strutt to one of Mark’s house parties and right after telling Marnie that he recognizes her, Mark keeps him busy with conversation. In other words, Marnie dodged a bullet.
Perhaps the closest Lil has ever come in expressing empathy towards Marnie comes during the fox hunting sequence. When a jockey’s red coat triggers Marnie, she rides Forio (her horse) in the wrong direction, which causes Lil to chase after Marnie out of concern for her safety. When Forio injures his legs, a frantic Marnie runs to a nearby stranger’s house and demands a gun to put him out of his misery. When Lil arrives, she tries to calm her down by offering to shoot the Forio, but Marnie does it instead. In the wake of this incident, a credible argument can be made that Lil would now rather see Marnie placed in a psychiatric hospital than in the outside world.
-Bernice Edgar-
When we are first introduced mom Bernice Edgar, it becomes clear to us that the relationship between her and daughter Marnie is a troubled one. When she is not complaining about her hair being too blonde, Bernice chastises Marnie for spending too much money on frivolous things. Ironically, Bernice is fond of babysitting little neighbor girl Jessica “Jesse” Cotton (Kimberly Beck), who is every bit as blonde as Marnie is. Aside from relying on Marnie’s financial support, Bernice babysits on the side to make money. Due to mobility issues, Bernice never really leaves the house. Implicitly jealous of Jesse’s presence, Marnie asks Bernice why don’t you love me, Mama? I’ve always wondered why you don’t. You never give me one part of the love you give Jessie. Mama – Why do you always move away from me? Why? What’s wrong with me? Deeming it ridiculous that an adult is jealous of a child, Bernice denies the accusation. Unconvinced, Marnie goes on with my God! When I think of the things I’ve done to try to make you love me. The things I’ve done!”; You think I’m Mr. Pemberton’s girl. Is that why you don’t want me to touch you? Is that how you think I get the money to set you up? Insulted, Bernice slaps Marnie, who apologizes to her before heading to bed. This marks the first appearance of Marnie’s nightmare as she gently tosses and turns in bed. If their is one thing that unites the two, it lies in their distrust of men. Marnie always agreed with Bernice’s notion that men and a good name don’t go together. This is confirmed when Marnie tells her that we don’t need men, Mama. We can do very well for ourselves. You and me. Bernice nods in agreement with a decent woman don’t have need for any man.
Later on, Mark Rutland brings Marnie back to that same childhood home to confront Bernice about why her daughter is afraid of men. As the memory becomes all too vivid, Marnie starts to remember the root cause of her troubled state of mind. When Marnie was a 5-year old child, Bernice was making money as a sex worker. At this moment, she was making out with a drunken white-suited sailor. Upon noticing that Marnie is frightened by the noise of the loud thunderstorm, he tries to calm her down. Under the impression that he is trying to molest Marnie, Bernice beats him with a fireplace poker. When she is outnumbered, Marnie uses the poker to kill him. The sight of the sailor’s bloodied white shirt incites Bernice and Marnie to scream very loud, which traumatizes the both of them for life. Back in the then present day, Bernice tells Marnie that she claimed responsibility for the crime and stood trial for it. Contrary to earlier, Bernice reveals that she always loved Marnie more than life itself and vowed to fight the authorities who wanted to place her then young child in a foster home in the wake of the sailor’s murder. To Bernice, she was the only thing in this world I ever did love. It – it was just that I was so young Marnie. I never had anything of my own. In addition, Bernice promised God right then, if he’d let me keep you, and you not remember, I’d bring you up different from me. Decent. This revelation not only comforts Marnie, but it can be implied that Mark’s concern for her incites she and Bernice to reconsider their previous negative attitude towards the opposite sex.
Chapter 6: A Litmus Test
More or less marked as the beginning of director Alfred Hitchcock’s supposed decline in quality, Marnie actually serves as the conclusion of his peak period, which began in 1954 with Rear Window. Despite an indifferent reception during it’s initial theatrical release in 1958, Vertigo has since been reassessed as Hitchcock’s crowning achievement. After redefining cinematic horror with Psycho in 1960, Hitchcock’s flair for suspense would reach it’s purest expression with The Birds in 1963. Out of these five key Hitchcock classics, Marnie (released in 1964) is the one that stands out as a litmus test for cinephiles. You either love it or hate it. I am part of the former group. My reasons are rooted in the views held by late film theorist Robin Wood, former Chicago Reader critic Dave Kehr and The New Yorker’s Richard Brody.
-Robin Wood’s Take on Marnie–
There’s a sense, and I don’t mean this in any derogatory way, there’s a sense in which Hitchcock’s is the most artificial form of cinema that’s ever been invented. He talks in interviews uh, repeatedly about his ideal of pure cinema. And he means by this putting together, often tiny fragments of film, in order to create effects. I’m always amazed, seeing Marnie again and again, at the extreme level of virtuosity that Hitchcock had reached when he got to this point when he made this film.Sequence after sequence seems almost a miracle of pure cinema. In the timing of the editing… the whole complex of editing, camera movements, camera position, acting, gesture, expression, the way in which a head is turned slightly in one direction or another. The command of this pure cinema is extraordinary, but it is a very artificial form of filmmaking in a sense.
He remained all his life very influenced by German Expressionism, which was really his first exciting experience of film. He’s always said how excited he was by it. He worked in German studios at first in the silent period, very early on when he started making films. He saw Fritz Lang’s German silent movies. He was enormously influenced by that. And Marnie is basically an Expressionist film in many ways. Things like scarlet suffusions over the screen, back projection and backdrops, artificial-looking thunderstorms. These are Expressionist devices, and one has to accept them. If one doesn’t accept them, then one doesn’t understand and can’t possibly like Hitchcock.
I would say myself, and this may sound provocative and even arrogant, but if you don’t like Marnie, you don’t really like Hitchcock. I would go further than that and say if you don’t love Marnie, you don’t really love cinema.
-Robin Wood
The Trouble with Marnie (2000)
(Click here)
While I agree with everything that Robin Wood stated above, I do have a slight issue with his last paragraph. In those two sentences, I would go one further by adding Vertigo as another film that one must love in order to be both an Alfred Hitchcock devotee and a cinephile. Though he replaced it with Marnie for the 2002 edition, Wood did place Vertigo as one of his 10 favorites from the 1992 Sight and Sound poll (read here and here).
-Dave Kehr’s Take on Marnie–
Universally despised on its first release, Marnie (1964) remains one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest and darkest achievements. Tippi Hedren, in a performance based on a naked, anxious vulnerability, is a compulsive thief; Sean Connery is the neurotically motivated southern gentleman who catches her in the act and blackmails her into marriage. The examination of sexual power plays surpasses Fassbinder’s films, which Marnie thematically resembles, going beyond a simple dichotomy of strength and weakness into a dense, shifting field of masochism, class antagonism, religious transgression, and the collective unconscious. The mise-en-scene tends toward a painterly abstraction, as Hitchcock employs powerful masses, blank colors, and studiously unreal, spatially distorted settings. Theme and technique meet on the highest level of film art.
-Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
(Click here)
Like myself, Vertigo is Dave Kehr’s favorite Alfred Hitchcock film based on his top 10 choices for the 2012 and 2022 Sight and Sound polls (read here and here). As for how he sums up the equally masterful Marnie, I could not have stated what he said any more eloquently.
-Richard Brody’s Take on Marnie–
I’ve long thought that “Marnie,” not “Vertigo,” is Hitchcock’s best film—and, as such, is one of the greatest films of all time. It, too, is about disguise, deception, crime, and desire, about mental illness and unhealed trauma. The plot twists in “Marnie” aren’t as elaborate or as surprising, but it captures, more harrowingly, a sense of derangement—inner and outer, intimate and widespread—that reflects a world on the breaking point. Nobody would mistake Hitchcock for a political filmmaker, but “The Birds” and, especially, “Marnie,” are the work of an American Antonioni, whose psychological dramas are matched by architectural and symbolic ones, by a confrontation with the roiling chill of technological modernity.
But, yes, these movies also feature the performances of Tippi Hedren, which are not only the ultimate Hitchcock performances but—and especially that of “Marnie”—among the very best in the history of cinema.
-Richard Brody
The New Yorker
(Click here)
As much as I love Marnie, I have to disagree with Richard Brody when he cites it as Hitchcock’s best film. Make no mistake, Marnie is (to quote him) one of the greatest films of all time. In fact, aside from ranking at number 25 on the list of my Top 100 favorite Films, Marnie also happens to be my second favorite Alfred Hitchcock film. What I take issue with is him placing Marnie higher than Vertigo. For me, when it comes to great films, none of them will ever top Vertigo, which will not only forever stand as Hitchcock’s greatest achievement, but also as my number one favorite film of all time. That being said, I do agree with Brody’s sentiments regarding Marnie on a whole. Brody’s summary of The Birds and Marnie as the work of an American Antonioni is an interesting one. Coincidentally, when I published a list of my Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All Time, blog visitor Bill White compared Hitchcock to Michelangelo Antonioni as well in one of his replies (click here). At the same time, Hitchcock briefly looked up to Antonioni an an influence when he tried to reinvent himself a few years later with the unrealized Kaleidoscope (read here).
Chapter 7: Marnie as a celebration of Form
German Expressionism’s influence on director Alfred Hitchcock’s career on a whole can be traced all the way back to the Silent era with his 1927 breakthrough film The Lodger, which was also his first suspense thriller. After hitting his stride in the United Kingdom, the British-born Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and as the 1940’s progressed, so did his artistry as a filmmaker. By 1964, Hitchcock had already mastered the tricks of the trade. Which brings me to Marnie. Stylistically, Marnie is Hitchcock’s ultimate tribute to cinema. When it comes to visual style, no other Hitchcock film has displayed the aforementioned filmmaker’s trademark combination of German Expressionist intensity and Classical Hollywood allure more openly than in Marnie. Coincidentally, Marnie marked the last time that Hitchcock collaborated with three key regulars. For Hitchcock, that was cinematographer Robert Burks, editor George Tomasini and composer Bernard Herrmann. Tomasini died a few months after the film’s release and Burks died in 1968. During the filming of his then following film Torn Curtain, Hitchcock had a falling out with Herrmann over it’s music score, which resulted in him being replaced by John Addison.
-The Title Sequence-
Uncharacteristic for it’s time, Marnie intentionally opens with a title sequence more fitting for the 1940’s and it’s prior decades than the 1960’s. Set to composer Bernard Herrmann’s operatic prelude, we first get a storybook illustration of the Universal logo with the words UNIVERSAL PRESENTS. The next page turns and the name TIPPI HEDREN shows up before turning again to a page with the name SEAN CONNERY. Next page features the words IN ALFRED HITCHCOCK’s and after that, turns to one that spells in the center page MARNIE and on the bottom of it, from the novel by WINSTON GRAHAM. Before reaching the last page with the words Directed by ALFRED HITCHCOCK, the next thirteen pages credits everything from the supporting players to the Screenplay by JAY PRESSON ALLEN.
Click here to watch the title sequence
-Mise en scene-
From a technical standpoint, Marnie resembles a German Expressionist film shot in Technicolor. This is emphasized by Albert Whitlock’s mattes and Robert Burks cinematography. The artificial backgrounds symbolize Marnie Edgar’s troubled mental state. Chiaroscuro lightning comes in the form of the aftermath of a thunderstorm. After a tree brach crashes through a window in Mark Rutland’s office, we see light shining on the left of the screen and darkness covering the right side. Other standout examples include Marnie in a bathroom stall and she and Mark’s alone time in a stable. A panicked Mark’s running down the cruise ship’s hallway to find Marnie is another demonstration. Though it opens with a dolly zoom shot, the climactic flashback sequence is lit in a way that subtly evokes the tinting (yellow in this case) in films such as Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu among others. Periodically, a red light briefly flashes in front of Marnie upon spotting something associated with that color. During a thunderstorm, white lightning flashes in front of Mark and a terrified Marnie, who buries her head on his shoulder. As a visual storyteller, all of these aforementioned elements serve as just a few of many examples in how director Alfred Hitchcock builds suspense.
-Costumes and Music-
Simultaneously, Marnie can arguably be viewed as a contemporary throwback akin to Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which was also released in 1964. In Marnie, the past is exemplified by Bernard Herrmann’s distinctive music score, which debatably gives off vibes characteristic of not only the 1950’s, but (debatably) that of the 1930’s and 1940’s as well. As elegant as they are trendy, Edith Head’s costume designs serve as a representation of the then present. The colors of Marnie Edgar’s suits range from light and dark greens to grey. The lower sleeves on one of them is covered in fur accents. Black, brown, gray, tan and yellow are the colors of Marnie’s slacks and sweaters. The trench coats are green and tan. Dresses and evening gowns are black, yellow and white. The blouses are in various subdued colors. The nightgowns and robes are blue, green, pink and white.
Click here to read a Classic Critics Corner article on Edith Head’s costumes for the film
Chapter 8: The Content of Marnie
Not unlike many of director Alfred Hitchcock’s other films, there is more to Marnie than meets the eye. On the surface, Marnie is a psychological thriller, but in the center, it is a marriage drama doubling as a companion piece to Hitchcock’s then previous film The Birds.
-A Marriage Drama-
As the film’s second act progresses, Marnie emerges as a twisted marriage drama. This is confirmed by the metaphorical representations of Mark Rutland and Marnie Edgar as husband and wife. In this case, the former acts as the psychiatrist treating the latter as a patient. Though generally well-intentioned, some of Mark’s unorthodox methods at curing Marnie of her phobias go too far. On their honeymoon, Mark’s behavior towards Marnie resembles that of a sexual predator. This becomes evident when Mark rapes Marnie off screen. No longer a widower, newlywed Mark strives for sexual intimacy within the relationship, but Marnie’s fear of sex makes it an impossibility. While playing a word association game, Mark mentions the word red, which causes Marnie to break into tears and admit that she is troubled. An empathetic Mark hugs and consoles Marnie afterwards. Eventually, we learn that Marnie’s distrust of men stemmed from a childhood incident that left her traumatized. Whereas Marnie recalls the events in the presence of Mark and mom Bernice, we experience it visually in the form of a flashback. In the very last shot of the film, Marnie tells Mark that she wants to stay married to him. Cured and rehabilitated, Marnie now desires an intimate relationship with Mark. In the end, love conquers all.
-A Companion Piece to The Birds–
Thematically, Marnie can also be seen as a companion piece to The Birds from a year earlier, which was also directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Like The Birds, Marnie examines how upper class society influences a woman. In contrast to socialite Melanie Daniels in The Birds, habitual thief Marnie Edgar comes from either a lower or lower middle class background. Mom Bernice’s former profession as a sex worker when Marnie was a child confirms this. Contrary to Melanie’s more or less harmless pranks, Marnie’s addiction to stealing is much more complex. Aside from using stolen money to fulfill her dream of an affluent lifestyle, Marnie also uses it to financially support the somewhat ailing Bernice, who babysits for cash. Even so, Bernice remains dismissive towards her efforts. Despite her frequent denials, Marnie is still convinced that Bernice loves Jessie (a little neighborhood girl that she babysits) more than her. If practical jokes served as Melanie’s way of overcompensating for the lack of a mother, then lone non-violent robberies serve as Marnie’s way of trying to get love wherever she can find it.
Unlike The Birds, Marnie centers on a woman married into money as opposed to one who was born into it. Nevertheless, both films are similar in that they feature the lead female character being tamed not once, but twice. In The Birds, the initially mischievous Melanie Daniels becomes emotionally mature in the wake of the frequent attacks on Bodega Bay by the title villains. In Marnie, the title character’s loss of interest in stealing becomes evident shortly after marrying Mark Rutland. The former climaxed with an avian attack on Melanie, whereas the latter double climaxes with Marnie’s mercy killing of her prized horse Forio and her childhood flashback.
The ties that bind these two films together is rooted in the strained relationship between a troubled young woman and a matriarchal figure. Near the end of The Birds, Melanie Daniels rests her wounded head on the shoulder of Lydia Brenner, who has (symbolically) regained influence over adult son Mitch, whom she possess as a mother. If anything else, Lydia will now be babying Melanie like she had with her other children. In a way, it is a win for Melanie, who always wanted to be mothered. This is where Marnie concludes similarly to The Birds. Shortly after the climactic flashback sequence, mom Bernice reveals to Marnie that she always truly loved her. The problem was that Bernice conceived Marnie when she was young and knew next to nothing about parenting. When Marnie turned 5, Bernice was still a sex worker and the drunken behavior of one her male clients rubbed her the wrong way. Under the impression that he was sexually assaulting Marnie, Bernice beat him with a fireplace poker. Once he overpowered her, Marnie picked up the poker and killed him in self-defense. Grateful to her, Bernice gave up sex work to raise Marnie. Not wanting her to repeat the same mistakes she did, Bernice set out to bring up Marnie as respectable as possible. Hitchcock and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen’s optimistic ending contrasts with the one in Winston Graham’s 1961 novel of the same name on which this film is loosely based on. In the book, Marnie comes home and discovers that Bernice had already passed away. For me, Hitchcock and Allen’s decision to keep Bernice alive enriched the film. The key to understanding why Hitchcock is the Master of Suspense can be best summed up by a quote from a 1939 lecture to Yale drama students along the lines of Suspense can be introduced in a simple love story as well as the mystery or ‘whodunit’ picture. Make the audience suffer as much as possible. In Marnie, we the audience suffer with the title character and root for her to gain a sense of comfort. Upon receiving it from her mother, we become every bit as relaxed and remorseful as Marnie is. The final image of Mark and Marnie exiting Bernice’s house is not so much a happy ending as it is a cautiously optimistic one. Even with Mark’s help, the road to recovery is bound to be a long one for Marnie.
-How Marnie Psychologically Impacts Me as a Viewer-
Like Vertigo, Marnie is another Alfred Hitchcock film that has impacted me on a psychological level. As ridiculous as this might sound, I see a little of myself in the character of Marnie Edgar, despite the fact that I am a male. No, I have never engaged in crime (theft in this case) nor suffered any kind of abuse like Marnie does in this film. Neither do I have a strained relationship with my loved ones like Marnie had with mom Bernice. The similarities between me and Marnie lie in how we respond to a past trauma. For example, I have felt apprehensive about emergency rooms ever since the death of my father at the age of 14. This traumatic experience has stayed with me ever since. Shortly after, I would get all teary eyed whenever empathetic psychologists and teachers brought up the word envy. This reaction was my way of confirming to them that I needed help. In Marnie, there is a scene where the title character cries about needing help to Mark Rutland, who hugs and consoles her in response, which is exactly how my psychologists and teachers reacted. For a while, it was hard for me to look at other people whose fathers were still living without becoming jealous or breaking down into tears. Fortunately, I no longer have these feelings, which often filled me with distress and shame. Despite agreeing with mom Bernice’s view of her as decent, at the same time, Marnie implies that she is imperfect by calling herself a cheat. Like a lot of average folk, I would sum myself up as decent with reservations, but never a cheat. The film ends with Marnie simultaneously feeling relieved about the past and uncertain about the future. The latter is rooted in the inevitable challenge of overcoming addiction and trauma. As a Catholic, Marnie’s state of mind in the very last scene mirrors mine shortly after confessing my sins to a priest at Confession. This aforementioned mindset is a very common one for Catholics. Unlike I Confess, The Wrong Man and Vertigo, Marnie may not be one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s Catholic films, but it’s impact on me as a viewer remains no less significant for all the reasons I stated and much more.
Chapter 9: Tippi Hedren – The Last Iconic Hitchcock Blonde
If Grace Kelly and Vera Miles were the epitome of elegance and vulnerability respectively, than Kim Novak was elegance characterized by moral ambiguity and vulnerability. Aside from adding an extra layer of complexity, Novak embodied the best of both worlds as a Hitchcock Blonde in Vertigo. My description of Novak can also apply to Tippi Hedren in not only The Birds, but Marnie as well. Along with Novak, Hedren stands out for me as one of the two quintessential Hitchcock Blondes.
Out of all the Hitchcock Blondes, Tippi Hedren represents the last of her type. Topaz and Family Plot may have featured blondes like Dany Robin in the former and Barbara Harris in the latter, but neither of them were iconic. Hedren came at the tail’s end of director Alfred Hitchcock’s vintage period, which began in 1954 with Rear Window and concluded (or at least for myself) in 1964 with Marnie. In Marnie, Hedren delivers a heartfelt performance as Marnie Edgar, a habitual thief and compulsive liar. As in a lot of Hitchcock’s films though, the women are too complex to be classified as femme fatales on a whole. For example, Vertigo’s Madeleine Elster may be a femme fatale on the surface, but in the center, her nuanced character renders this label misguided. Deep down, Marnie is an emotionally damaged woman, who resorts to stealing and lying as compensation for a supposed lack of motherly love. If North by Northwest is the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures, than Hedren is the Hitchcock Blonde to end all Hitchcock Blondes. Unlike Hitchcock’s other films from this period, Marnie (like The Birds before it) is told almost entirely from the woman’s point of view. Coincidentally, we viewers can’t help but see things the same way Marnie does and it goes beyond rooting for her. Take for instance Marnie’s relationship with Mark Rutland. Whenever Marnie is repulsed by him, so are we, and when she feels comforted by him, so do we. Now that is a true sign of an interesting character. Ms. Hedren would nod in agreement as she considers Marnie to be the personal favorite of her two collaborations with Hitchcock.
Chapter 10: The Vision of Marnie
As an Alfred Hitchcock film, Marnie works as both an ideal star vehicle for it’s lead actress Tippi Hedren and, in retrospect, the official conclusion of the director’s peak period. At the same time, like all great filmmakers, Hitchcock takes a property that intrigues him and reimagines it as something personal. The source material in question is Winston Graham’s 1961 novel of the same name. Hitchcock’s inspired vision is completed by female screenwriter Jay Presson Allen’s insightful interpretation of the aforementioned book.
-Director and Muse–
Director Alfred Hitchcock’s mistreatment of actress Tippi Hedren has been common knowledge for cinephiles since 1983 with the publication of late American biographer Donald Spoto’s book The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Twenty-five years later in 2008, Spoto published the equally questionable Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, which focused primarily on Hitchcock’s relationship with his leading actresses. One of the most talked about aspects of both books was Hitchcock’s frequent sexual harassment towards Hedren during the filming of The Birds and Marnie. When it comes to his biographies on Hitchcock, one needs to take Spoto’s writings with a grain of salt. For me, British film critic/biographer John Russell Taylor’s 1978 book Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock is still the authoritative biography on the Master of Suspense. That being said, Hitchcock did have an unhealthy obsession with Hedren on their two collaborations. This reportedly went beyond sexual overtures. Hitchcock made the rules of who Hedren could talk to, how to dress, what to eat, etc. According to Hedren, everyone – I mean everyone – knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone. One day, Hitchcock told Hedren of a dream he kept having where she said Hitch, I love you – I’ll always love you. A creeped out Hedren would tell Hitchcock it was just a dream. Later on, in Hedren’s own words: He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him – however and whenever and wherever he wanted. Hedren publically opened up about these incidents back in 2012, when her story was made into a controversial HBO film titled The Girl, which stars Sienna Miller as Hedren and Toby Jones as Hitchcock. When Hedren announced to him that she would not work with him again, a heartbroken Hitchcock retaliated by refusing to end her contract with him, which rendered her unable to chase roles for other studios. Hitchcock eventually sold her contract to Universal (the film’s distributor) in 1966. Though she appeared in two episodes of television shows produced by them (Kraft Suspense Theatre and Run for Your Life), Hedren’s refusal to act in a television western resulted in her release from Universal. Even so, Hedren has made it clear that while Hitchcock did ruin her career, he didn’t ruin her life. Hedren stated that that time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was. Furthermore, Hedren has been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn’t want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful. At the same time, while Hedren believes that The Girl is an accurate representation of her working relationship with Hitchcock, at the same time, she admitted that It wasn’t a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone. Hedren added that Hitchcock was absolutely delightful and wonderful too. Hedren also felt that Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field (read here). In addition, Hitchcock never got to the point of raping her. In a 2016 Inside Edition interview, Hedren reveals that she put an end to his sexual advances towards her and added that he never got that far (read here).
Click here to watch a 2012 HuffPost Live interview with Hedren
Click here to watch a trailer of sorts for Hedren’s 2016 auobiography entitled Tippi: A Memoir
Click here to see an Amazon page for the book
Click here to read a story from a Pro-Alfred Hitchcock forum entitled Save Hitchcock
Click here to visit the site in general
In order to understand director Alfred Hitchcock’s mad love for actress Tippi Hedren, one needs to go back to 1953 and 1954. During those two years, Hitchcock was making four films. Three of them were Dial M for Murder!, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief. What do they all have in common? All three of them featured the iconic Grace Kelly. For Hitchcock, Kelly was the embodiment of perfection. Out of all the Hitchcock Blondes, Kelly was his favorite. Now let us fast-forward to two years later. On April 19, 1956, Kelly became Princess of Monaco by marrying Rainer III, who was the Prince of Monaco (read here). This depressed Hitchcock to no end as she could no longer be his muse. From then on, Hitchcock needed the perfect replacement. To Hitchcock, Vera Miles, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint and Janet Leigh remained a pale shadow of Kelly. Then comes Tippi Hedren, who was a model at the time. The commercial of Hedren promoting the diet drink Sego prompted Hitchcock to cast her in The Birds. Hedren’s work in that film pleased Hitchcock so much for him to declare that Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head, and she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression (read here). In Hitchcock’s opinion, Hedren not only measures up to Kelly, but even surpasses her in some ways.
All of the above made Tippi Hedren the object of director Alfred Hitchcock’s desire. One could even say that Marnie is Hitchcock’s valentine to the aforementioned actress. Regardless of what she is feeling at the moment, the camera frequently gazes at the beautiful Hedren and her elegant fashion sense. Hitchcock is madly in love with Hedren like Sean Connery’s Mark Rutland is with her character, which is Marnie Edgar. Simultaneously, Mark’s way of loving and caring for wife Marnie is (with that one obvious debatable exception) akin to how Hitchcock might want to treat Hedren If he was her age and married to her. For Hitchcock, Hedren is Grace Kelly 2.0. This is confirmed by Hitchcock’s trademark cameo appearance. In it, Hitchcock stares at Marnie (backside and in disguise wearing a black wig) from a short distance, walking down her apartment hallway. Afterwards, he stares at the camera for a brief second.
-Interpretations-
Coincidentally, Marnie is a film that can be interpreted in many different ways. While it is not wrong to perceive Marnie as a psychological romantic mystery-thriller, by summing it up as such on a whole, one would only be scratching the surface of it’s numerous interpretations. Themes such as childhood trauma, marital rape and family estrangement are explored perceptively by screenwriter Jay Presson Allen. Merged, the three aforementioned themes result in a drama that is as much a haunting examination of childhood trauma as it is a disturbing and unsettling social commentary on marriage and an empathetic look at a strained daughter-mother relationship to boot.
Epilogue
When it comes to 1960’s Classical Hollywood cinema, Marnie stands out for myself as it’s crowning achievement. Along with Vertigo, Marnie is the most beautifully realized of director Alfred Hitchcock’s trademark effortless balance of form and content. Every other American masterpiece from that aforementioned decade can neither equal nor surpass the inspired vision and emotional wallop of Marnie. Like Vertigo, Marnie remains in a class of it’s own.
Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer
Click here to listen to famed composer Bernard Herrmann’s haunting soundtrack
Click here to watch a close to two-hour 2005 interview with Hedren
Click here to watch a 2012 BFI interview with Tippi Hedren
Click here to watch a 2013 hour long interview with Hedren
Click here to watch an over 30-minute 2013 interview with Hedren
Click here to watch a close to 50-minute 2013 interview with Hedren
Click here to watch a 2017 hour long interview with Hedren
Let me conclude this blog entry with two questions for my dear readers:
What parts of my Marnie essay stood out for you readers in particular?
What links in my Marnie essay did you readers love the most?
Also, I hope that I covered a lot of ground in helping all of you dear readers understand why I love Marnie so much.
For newcomers to my blog, I also participated in Maddy’s Second Master of Suspense Blogathon from last year in 2024 🙂 That one was on Vertigo, which is my number one favorite film of all time 🙂 Click here to read my Vertigo essay 🙂 Click here to view Maddy’s blogathon page on Hitchcock from last year 🙂 Once again, her website is titled Classic Film and TV Corner 🙂
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