Psychosexuality Ahoy!

While this film is not prominent with serial killers, mistaken identities and elaborate murder plots, it feels almost like a soul sister to Hitch's psychological ripper Vertigo. The usually radiant Tippi Hedren takes a very prim and proper turn as Marnie, a frigid wallflower of a woman who aspires to achieve higher things, but something within her mind is keeping her back. Many obstacles block her way, one of them being wealthy widower Mark Rutland, (a smoldering Sean Connery, two years after making heads turn and womens' jaws drop as James Bond). While it would be a crime on my behalf to give the particulars away, what results is a study of repressed sexuality, paranoia and confusion, Hedren's character being the catalyst and the central victim of all.


What is the truth and what is the lie?

While this film possesses its own self-imposed flaws, due to budget, time and film constraints for the era, this offering by Hitch is respectable, primarily due to Hedren's performance as Marnie. Here the usually glamourous actress was given the perfect opportunity to dive deep into a complicated role and she came out a champion. If anybody who remembers her admittedly awkward performance in The Birds, they need not be wary here. Save for one somewhat ungainly moment, Hedren nails the role to the wall. Sean Connery meanwhile further cemented his reputation as a compelling actor as well as resident sex bomb, whose character makes it his mission to protect, analyze and even dominate the mystery that is Marnie. Given the Hayes Code that applied to cinema back in the day, much is implied rather than shown, but I feel it works in the favour of the tale. As expected, Hitchcock makes ample use angles, colours, a fitting score by the maestro Bernard Herrmann, and well-adapted screenplay based off the story by Winston Graham.


Can she be saved from herself... and him?

One of the things that struck me most was how sexual this film was. Granted, innuendo is no stranger to Hitchcocks' works, but this one managed to be a little more overt, and the sexual tension between Hedren and Connery's characters is so thick you could cut through it with a hot butter knife and still not reach the bottom of the cake. One particular sequence was rather racy for the time, involves one apex of the relationship between Marnie and Mark that takes place on a luxury liner that toes the line between passion and an act of imposed power. It all makes for a highly fascinating, though questionable relationship between the pair and it will no doubt leave the viewer questioning the integrity of Marnie and Mark's feelings.

While it is not as famed or impersonated as Psycho, or as talked about as Hitchcock's other blockbusters, Marnie rightly belongs in the pantheon of intelligent psychosexual drama/thrillers that have become increasingly rare in this uncompromising era of over-exposure and absurd censorship, mainly due to Hedren and Connery's performances and a stimulating plot that manages to keep you interested, if not wholly invested in the proceedings. While the morals of Mark of may leave some audience members, females in particular, a little sour, what cannot be denied is how deep Hitchcock went with this one. While it may not push the boundary of psychological intensity like Vertigo, this one isn't afraid of prodding curiously at the idea either.