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Marnie (1964)
In Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller - a tale
of sexual perversity and obsession - and a 'sex mystery' with the
questioning tagline: "Would his touch end Marnie's unnatural
fears or start them again?"
- the opening title credits - a slide-show of 19 cards,
revealed as pages turning from the right of the screen to the left
- an initial set of four brief sequences cleverly and
economically introduced clues to the main character's identity and
appearance: (1) the camera trailed behind a dark-haired woman with
a yellow plastic-leather handbag (under her arm), who was carrying
one suitcase while walking down an empty, outdoor train station platform,
(2) the witnessing of the theft of $10,000 from an office safe -
discovered empty - by tax consultant Sidney Strutt (Martin Gabel),
who yelled out: "Robbed! Cleaned out! $9,967!"
- presumably taken by his pretty female employee Marion Holland - who
had not provided references, (3) again, a rear view of the alleged
female thief walking down a hotel corridor (with a bellhop carrying
lots of packages of recent purchases of clothing) and into a room;
she packed up two bags of luggage (one to discard evidence of her old
identity, and one with her new clothes and possessions), and replaced
her old Social Security ID card (Marion Holland) with a new and different
fake Social Security card (Margaret Edgar); she washed the black dye
from her hair in the sink, and revealed her natural blonde hair with
a closeup of her face - memorably seen for the first time - as she
tossed her hair back, and (4) she deposited her old suitcase in a transportation
storage locker and discarded the key down a drain
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Yellow Plastic-Leather Handbag
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Theft of $10K from Sidney Strutt's Safe
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Fake IDs
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Marnie Washing Black Hair Dye Out
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- in a few short moments, the title character Margaret
'Marnie' Edgar (Tippi Hedren) had been introduced as a blonde con
artist, liar and compulsive thief (kleptomaniac)
- the second main character -- wealthy widower and
playboy Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), was the owner of a Philadelphia
publishing firm where Marnie was hired as a typist; during her romantic
involvement with Mark, Marnie was experiencing nightmares, severe
panic attacks (occurring during a thunderstorm), and a phobic fear
of the color red; after Mark discovered Marnie's theft of funds from
his company, he strangely blackmailed her into marrying him
- in a much-debated rape scene, Marnie's newly-wed husband
was with her during their honeymoon cruise to Fiji; he kissed her,
ripped off her nightgown (the silky garment fell to her feet), embraced
her, laid on top of her on the bed and took her (his face filling
the entire screen); the sexually-frigid Marnie stared upward in a
frozen, paralyzed catatonic state - completely lacking any passion
or emotion, but then the scene cut away to a porthole
Marnie's Nightmarish Flashback to Childhood Murder
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- the sequence of the traumatically-recalled nightmarish
flashback - Marnie's recollection when she described the source
of her deep-seated problems occurring during a thunder and lightning
storm; as a young 5 year-old (Melody Thomas Scott), she had witnessed
her 20 year-old prostitute mother Bernice Edgar (Louise Latham)
attacked by sex partner and pedophile sailor (Bruce Dern); the
client had begun to kiss and molest young Marnie ("Make him
go, Mama. I-I don't like him to kiss me. Make him go, Mama!"),
and Bernice had tried to protect her daughter; when her mother
screamed out: "Marnie, help me," young Marnie defensively
delivered a blow to his head with a fireplace poker ("I hit
him, I hit him with a stick, I hurt him") - and murdered him
("There, there now"), and crimson blood ran down the
white T-shirt of the mortally-wounded seaman; Marnie's mother was
the one who took the blame and stood trial for the self-defense
murder
- these events were revealed to be the source of all
of Marnie's phobias, prudishness, recurring nightmares and fear of
the colors red and white - she was desperate for love, but couldn't
allow a man to be intimately close to her; she had subconsciously
attempted to 'repay' (with monetary gifts) her mother for standing
up for her, although she had almost entirely erased the memory of
the killing; mentally-ill, cheating, lying and disturbed Marnie had
secretly feared that she wasn't loved, and would never be loved or
have children, so she compensated by stealing and cramming robbed
goods into her purse or suitcases (a symbol of her empty womb)
- while comforting Marnie, her mother also confessed
how Marnie had been conceived at the age of 15, after having sex
with a boy named Billy in exchange for his basketball sweater; she
steadfastly vowed her love for Marnie by adopting her
- in the conclusion, Mark provided assurances when he
spoke to Marnie to convince her to think more highly of herself,
and not regard herself as a cheat, a liar and a thief: "Marnie,
it's time to have a little compassion for yourself. When a child,
a child of any age, Marnie, can't get love, well, it takes what it
can get, any way it can get it. It's not so hard to understand";
he also vowed to help defend her, told her that she wouldn't go to
jail, and that they would work out their mutual marital problems
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Much-Debated Rape Scene with Husband Mark Rutland (Sean
Connery)
Start of Nightmarish Flashback
Aftermath of Revelations
Reconciling with Mark
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