[.ca] Marnie

From Amazon.com:
You could call this one Hoot Along with Hitch. With the possible exceptions of Topaz and Family Plot, this is Hitchcock's cheesiest movie, visually and psychologically crass in comparison with a peak achievement like Vertigo--although it shares some of that film's characteristic obsessive themes. Sean Connery, fresh from the second Bond picture, From Russia with Love, is a Philadelphia playboy who begins to fall for Tippi Hedren's blonde ice goddess only when he realizes that she's a professional thief; she's come to work in his upper-crust insurance office in order to embezzle mass quantities. His patient program of investigation and surveillance has a creepy, voyeuristic quality that's pure Hitchcock, but all's lost when it emerges that the root of Marnie's problem is phobic sexual frigidity, induced by a childhood trauma. Luckily, Sean is up to the challenge. As it were. Not even D.H. Lawrence believed as fervently as Hitchcock in the curative properties of sexual release. --David Chute

Chronique amazon.fr:
Perçu comme un film décevant à sa sortie, Pas de printemps pour Marnie a, depuis, vu sa réputation grandir. Car même s'il peut être considéré comme un Hitchcock mineur, il n'en reste pas moins un film fascinant. Tippi Hedren incarne Marnie, une voleuse compulsive qui ne supporte pas d'être touchée par un homme et qui devient folle à la vue du rouge. Intrigué par ce comportement névrotique, le psychiatre Mark Rutland entreprend de la soigner. La relation complexe qui unit les deux personnages les fait évoluer sur le terrain des névroses, de la sexualité, et du fétichisme. Sean Connery prête son charisme au psychiatre, tandis que le compositeur Bernard Herrmann, alter ego d'Hitchcock, collabore pour la dernière fois avec le Maître. --Christophe Gagnot

The masterpiece that is Marnie:
This is my favourite movie, probably because there isn't another film like it. It's a very intellegent and romantic thriller made just before movies started to tackle more 'adult' themes in a more graphic way. Marnie explores these themes but it is done in a romantasised and stylistic manner. Hitchcock directs brilliantly as you'd expect and manages to coax a real tour de force from Tippi Hendren. Connery is in his prime and Louise Latham is truly staggering as Marnie's mother. The underated (and dead sexy) Diane Baker is also excellent. I really can't recommend Marnie enough and this DVD is superb (better than the region 2 one).

someone understands:
I have had traumatic childhood experiences with men, and Tippi Hedron's performance as Marnie shows an amazing depth of understanding of what it's like and how such things can affect you well into your adulthood. People may find it very unrealistic, but I have lived much of this (not the thievery!). It's amazing to me that her portrayal of the character shows such a depth of understanding of what I have lived.

Hitchcock turns a thief into a victim:
Director: Alfred Hitchcock Format: Color Studio: Universal Studios Video Release Date: August 3, 1999 Cast: Tippi Hedren ... Marnie Edgar/Margaret Edgar/Peggy Nicholson/Mary Taylor 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 Mariette Hartley ... Susan Clabon Alan Napier ... Mr. Rutland Bruce Dern ... Sailor Henry Beckman ... First Detective S. John Launer ... Sam Ward Edith Evanson ... Rita Meg Wyllie ... Mrs. Turpin John Hart Alfred Hitchcock ... Man leaving hotel room Rupert Crosse ... Office worker Louise Lorimer ... Mrs. Strutt Kimberly Beck ... Jesse Carmen Phillips ... Sidney Strutt's secretary Melody Thomas Scott ... Young Marnie One of Hitchcock's masterpieces, and like many other of his efforts, a psychological drama. Marnie (Tippi Hedren) was a kleptomaniac, a compulsive thief. She supported her mother, Bernice Edgar (Louise Latham), who was a stern, domineering person of religious conviction with high standards of personal conduct, and who had turned her daughter into a man-hater. Enter Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) who marries Marnie, knowing that she is a thief and liar, but unaware of all of her serious hang-ups. However, as the problems begin to surface, he tries to solve them. Grace Kelly was originally considered for the part of Marnie, but was already the princess of Monaco and her subjects were less than enthusiastic about it, and besides, the picture was being made by Universal while she was still under contract to MGM, so she dropped the idea and never again considered a movie career. This was also an early effort in the career of Sean Connery, before his series as James Bond. An entertaining film, with good acting throughout, and the excellent direction of Hitchcock, with his usual trademark cameo. You should enjoy the picture. Bruce Dern plays a focal role, as well, as an unnamed sailor, but it is not an unimportant part. Joseph (Joe) Pierre author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance and other books

Freud Wrote the Script:
Hitch was truly angry that Grace Kelly backed out of this project, so Tippi Hedren got the call. Then Hitch made Tippi-Marnie suffer. No director ever played out his psyche in film like Hitchcock. The rape fantasy is central to Marnie. The criminal female mind, both sensual and man hating in its ambiguity is portrayed in Freudian terms. Visually, Marnie is startling to see and familiar to Hitch's fans. The backgrounds, for example, Baltimore Harbor and Marnie's childhood street are beautiful, yet unreal in a plastic sense. I noticed this in Vertigo; a place is somehow more beautiful and possibly ominous because of painted device, careful set, or clothing design that we have not seen except for Spielberg in his space visitor films or Spike Lee in his plastic black neighborhoods, so we always feel while we are viewing that the real world is somehow enhanced. Then there's the details, the way the shots are set up. The camera gradually circles the blonde ice goddess. Give us a close up of the keys in the drawer with the combination and pull back to show the cleaning lady in a split shot with the burglar. Marnie is a psychological thriller and because it plays Hollywood-Freudian, it slows and is stilted or amateurish. Couch time is pretty much a personal drama difficult for a general audience to care about. For all the tribulations uttered on the shrinks couch, the story is still the thing on film. Marnie is predictable and slow to unwind. All the advantages of a slowly unraveling story helped Hitch in Vertigo, but Marnie seems to plod along. Still, Marnie is better than 99% of the films ever made.

Exciting & Stimulating in a way few movies are -:
Those who give poor ratings to this movie need to buy/rent thrillers with lots of machine-gun fire etc. This movie is not like that. But there are layers and layers of things to think about. It moves slowly at times as if Hitchcock supposed viewers could not make the connections very well. But there is enough here to provoke (as it has!) many essays and papers on the psychological issues it draws upon. QUITE WORTH A LOOK!!!