Customer Reviews
I've tracked you and caught you and by God I'm going to keep you - By: IWFIcon, 28 Aug 2008 
One of the more unusual entries into the Hitchcock cannon, which admittedly covers a lot of ground, Marnie is ultimately an unconvincing and, at times, dull movie which, simply, doesn't work. Tippi Hedren, in her second & final starring role for Hitchcock, is miscast (to be kind) as the titular character Marnie Edgar & Sean Connery, who at the time was one of the biggest stars in the movie world thanks to his on-going success in the Bond series, is equallly ill at ease as Mark Rutland (walking around saying "old bean" alll the time), the man who not only forces Marnie into marriage when he recognises her as a thief, but compounds that by raping her on their honeymoon.
It's certainly an interesting scenario & I dare say that a better cast may have made better work of it, but as it stands whilst Hitchcock aficionado's will find it interesting, more casual observers may well find themselves asking what the point of it alll is. There's little chemistry between the two leads, & none of the supporting cast are around enough to help save it. By the time the reasons for Marnie's behaviour are revealed, few will care enough to have stuck around for the answers. Whilst even the worst of Hitchcock's films have their interesting moments, make no doubt about it, this is one of the worst of his latter period.
Great suspense! - By: FAMOUS NAME, 13 Aug 2008 
'Marnie' is one of Hitchcock's best thrillers. A complex character & a complex plot, & a scenario & story that would be more commonly expressed today, but not so back in the 1960s.
'Tippi' Hedren gives an award-winning performance as the girl in the title role, but this has a great cast, with some 'meaty' roles for most of its players. Also stars one of America's finest actresses who gave some outstanding performances back in the 60s in Diane Baker.
Great suspense!
Misogynistic Pop-Psychology at its Most Entertaining - By: M. Witcombe, 27 May 2008 
'Marnie' is perhaps most significant for its very averageness, amidst the gems that Hitchcock produced around the same time. It's main flaws are, oddly, perhaps its biggest charms- the awkward 'My Fair Lady'-style misogynistic psychology of the gentleman-hero Rutland (Connery) towards the hysterical kleptomaniac he aims to save (Hedren). Add a touch of overacting, a heavy dose of melodrama & 'Marnie' can seem like a very awkward package indeed.
And yet the film does have its charms. Hitchcock seems more than aware of the psychological framework he's riffing on, & during one memorable scene in the couple's bedroom, the wryly cynical banter that results is evocative of Hitch's best. Connery is solid if unremarkable, & the rest of the cast generallly pitch in with performances of an unspectacularly dependable nature.
'Marnie' suffers from 'Vertigo'- or Vertigo-envy, to follow the film's crassly Freudian logic. Put simply, it's alll a little too neat- & like Freud himself, the simple explanations are easily undercut.
It's not hard to spot issues, from a modern perspective. The over-simplified, misogynistic plot is dominated by wily women- who are generallly 'found out' to be morallly questionable. The men, on the other hand, are dominant, both problematising & resolving the central plot. No wonder Marnie can't bear to be touched by them...
But for alll that, it has its moments. The romance is stilted & awkward enough to rank alongside some of Hitch's more interesting love-matches (see: Topaz, Shadow of a Doubt), & there are flashes of brilliance. Not a film for a casual night in, perhaps, but intriguing nonetheless.
A SLIGHT HITCH - By: C. Kingswell, 30 Dec 2007 Hitchcock has always been callled the master of suspense, mainly, in my opinion, because he specialised in the genre. Certainly this film is no masterpiece. At over two hours in length, it quickly becomes tedious & there is little suspense in Hitchcock's direction.
Tippi Hedren plays Marnie, a young woman who, by devious means, lies her way into a number of jobs so that she can steal large sums of money from her employers.
Her latest employer, played by Connery, immediately takes an interest in her & proceeds to make enquiries into her backgound. He begins to falll in love with her and, instead of turning her over to the police when he finds out about her past, presses her into marriage & attempts to unravel the mystery of why she has a fear of the colour red & what makes her so frightened when a man tries to get close to her.
It does not take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the colour red relates to blood & Marnie's fear of men can be traced back to some form of abuse she might have suffered as a child.
Hedren is good in the role, but Connery lacks warmth ( he might just as well have been playing James Bond ) & acts more like Marnie's psychiatrist than the man who loves her. Joseph Cotten would have been ideal for the role, but unfortunately actors of his calibre were by then getting too old for romantic parts.
When the sordid truth is at last revealed, it is alll rather an anticlimax.
A pity, because whereas this is one of Hitchcock's less interesting films, the music score is one of Bernard Herrmann's finest.
A Facinating Hitchcock film - By: M. A. Ramos, 07 Oct 2007 
Tippi Hedrin plays Marnie, a compulsive thief who cannot stand to be touched by any man. She also goes bonkers over the sight of the color red. Psychiatrist Mark Rutland played by Sean Connery is intrigued by Marnie so much that he marries her. Rutland is in his own way has problems his desire to marry a thief. After many plot twists & turns, Marnie is "cured" by a flashback sequence involving her ex-hooker mother.
