Review of Marnie

Introduction

Marnie stars Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren and tells the story of a thief and liar (Hedrun) who goes to work for a company owned by Connery, who falls in love with her. Connery then tries to unravel the mystery of her behaviour and make her love him. Things however come to a head when jealousy gets in the way...

Video

The video is presented in 1.33:1 full-frame and like the other discs in this series of Hitchcock movies is of reasonable quality given the age of the movie. Marnie does suffer from more grain than the other discs I`ve seen, and again there is some evidence of dirt on the print. In addition, some scenes are a little lacking in contrast, leading to some overly dark shadows - this mainly affects scenes shot in the studio rather than outdoors.

As with other Hitchcock movies, Marnie suffers from an over reliance on rear projection and use of matte artwork - in this case the hunt scene, Marnie mother`s street and the long car journey are cases in point - watch out for numerous inconsistencies in the car journey in particular.

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital Mono and adequately reproduces the dialogue and sound effects. There`s little in the way of excitement as far as the effects go, but the movie does have a good score, which helps to build the tension, which was so lacking from Torn Curtain.

The dialogue is always clear and understandable.

Features

The disc has a trailer and a documentary.

Like the other discs in the series that I`ve watched, the documentary is excellent. Running for just under an hour, the film takes an in depth look at Marnie, seen from the viewpoint of most of those who were involved - and is exceptionally interesting.

The disc is packaged in a silver Amaray case, which contains a colour four page insert with an introduction from Pat Hitchcock O`Donnell - the great man`s daughter.

Conclusion

I`ve not seen Marnie before and thoroughly enjoyed it - primarily due to the superb on-screen relationship between Hedren and Connery - both of whom play their parts exceptionally well. The film is very well made, although the customary over reliance on rear-projection instead of location shooting does let the movie down in places.

The story itself is well told and rarely uninteresting, with a variety of characters providing plenty of interest as things progress. Aside from Connery and Hedren, Diane Baker has a strong character (although in the documentary she admits that it wasn`t as strong as she would have liked) and the triangle of main characters all gel together well.

The video and sound are both as you would expect from a 1960s film, and they are backed up by an excellent documentary.