Flashback: Marnie – Tippi Hedren in Hitchcock’s darkest film
A tale of emotional manipulation and sexual violence, Marnie is a controversial work by the master of suspense. Tippi Hedren recently claimed Alfred Hitchcock sexually assaulted her during production
“Is Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie a sex story? A mystery story? A detective story? A romance?” asks the film’s original 1964 trailer. This ice-cold and brutal film is actually all four. A critical and box-office failure when it was released, Marnie is Hitchcock’s darkest work. The director’s vicious trip through the mind of a disturbed woman offers little in the way of respite, but captures the attention through intrigue, and the sheer filmmaking abilities of the master of suspense.
Hitchcock discovery Tippi Hedren, who made her debut in his previous film, The Birds , plays Marnie, a kleptomaniac who robs businesses by posing as an office clerk and then breaking into their safes. When she takes a job at a company owned by rich businessman Mark Rutland (Sean Connery, between making James Bond films), she doesn’t realise that he’s aware of her plans.
Rutland uses her criminal past to blackmail her into marriage, but the relationship falters when he finds out Marnie is terrified of sex. A deeper psychological dimension unfolds when Rutland hires a private eye to uncover the cause of her mental illness.
‘It was perverse, ugly’: Alfred Hitchcock sexually assaulted me, actress Tippi Hedren says in new book
Hitchcock uses the full repertoire of filmmaking, especially drawing on his earlier exposure to German Expressionism, to depict Marnie’s inner hell, and the script – which went through three writers – knits together perfectly.