Retrospective Film Review

Marnie (1964) • 60 Years Later — Hitchcock’s psychosexual thriller has problems

A man marries a woman who’s a habitual thief and has serious psychological problems, then tries to help her confront and resolve them.

A flash of lightning. A drop of crimson ink. Why do these things make Marnie (Tippi Hedren) overcome with fear? Why does she have nightmares plagued by concerns of being cold? And why can’t she bear to be touched by anyone apart from her mother? These are the questions the viewer will almost immediately ask when watching Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie.

We begin with Hitchcock’s archetypal MacGuffin: a large sum of money has been stolen from Crombie & Strutt’s accountancy firm, and our protagonist is the culprit. Our morally ambiguous main character flees to a new location and takes a fresh job, where she is employed by Mark Rutland (Sean Connery). Though he suspects her of the theft, it soon becomes clear that he harbours ulterior motives…