For any sense of appreciation for this movie, I think you first have to get past the absurdity of the basic plot. You figure that Mark Rutland became president of his family's business because he had a fair amount of business acumen and a semblance of common sense. Once he realizes that Mary Taylor has robbed his safe and has a history of aliases in other cities doing the same, how is it he keeps the romance going? Especially when Marnie makes every effort to dissuade him at every turn. They say love is blind and marriage is an eye opener, but it seems to me that Rutland had his eyes sewn shut.

With that off my chest, director Hitchcock does a decent enough job of maintaining intrigue and suspense in the story; the aforementioned safe robbery scene with the cleaning lady was particularly noteworthy. Yet at the same time, I have to wonder why Hitch resorted to such almost comical techniques as used in the riding sequence of the fox hunt scene and the rapid zoom in and out of the money in the safe. The latter reminded me of some of those 1940's Warner Brothers cartoons that employ a similar device. It had the feel of a fledgling director who might still be searching for his own vision in making a picture instead of someone with a whole pile of them under his belt already. I have to tell you though, the scene that made me wince was Marnie's horse taking that fall over the jump.

You know what the biggest surprise for me was? Finding out that actress Louise Latham played the parts of both the elder Mrs. Edgar and the young mother of Marnie in the scene with the sailor. The makeup job was so good for both characterizations that it even fooled Hitchcock's assistant director on the set, who asked who the actress was to show up for the flash back filming.

Coming off of Hitchcock's suspense thriller "The Birds", I thought Tippi Hedren did more than a competent job as the conflicted title character, bringing a range of emotion to a role that could have wound up a caricature if not done as well. Opposite Sean Connery, Hedren wondered how she could pull it off. Credit director Hitchcock with a firm but insightful bit of advice - "It's called acting".

Although Tippi Hedren as the title character in Marnie is a compulsive thief and sexually frigid, you have to ask yourself what's wrong with Sean Connery taking up with this dame. Especially since he has an attractive widowed sister-in-law in Diane Baker so obviously interested in him.

Like Spellbound and Vertigo, Marnie deals with psychological problems of the main character. Could Sean Connery have seen Spellbound and decided to become an amateur psychiatrist having been impressed with the way Ingrid Bergman cured and fell for Gregory Peck. Or like in Vertigo did he become obsessed with another Alfred Hitchcock blond as James Stewart did with Kim Novak.

Bits of both those vastly superior Hitchcock films are found in Marnie. Though both Connery and Hedren try their best this unbelievable plot just defeats them. There are also some bad production values, so atypical for a director like Hitchcock.

This is a good looking film and it is technically well made. However, once you peel away the excellent direction and well-coiffed hairdos, you are left with a very silly film indeed.

As an ex-therapist and psychology teacher, SOME psychological aspects of the film were very, very interesting while other parts were so flawed and silly I found myself laughing during the second half of the film. Marnie has an Antisocial Personality Disorder. She hates men and takes great pleasure in stealing--and has no pangs of conscience whatsoever. In addition, she has a classic case of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder because throughout the film she had flashbacks from an early childhood trauma. Lots of little things, such as thunder and the color red trigger these memories.

Now so far, none of the qualities I listed above would make it seem like she's a good candidate for marriage--especially since the touch of a man fills her with disgust. So naturally, when Sean Connery discovers that she is a career criminal, he falls for her and marries her!!! Can anyone really be that stupid? Perhaps,...but it gets worse. He discovers on their honeymoon (after he blackmailed her into marrying him) that she is 100% frigid--and boy, do I mean FRIGID!!! She even tries to kill herself after he forces himself on her (or tries to force himself--the film is unclear here). Now what would any sane man do now--she's a crook, she's cold and indifferent towards him and is nauseated by sex--yep, he'll stay married to her and try to work it all out without outside professional help!! After all, his college training as a botanist certainly would qualify Connery to treat her!! At this point in the film, I felt really irritated. Most of it was because it was such a silly premise. But, when together they face up to her childhood trauma it all comes flooding back and she's magically cured, it was just too much! Maybe Connery missed his calling--after all, no therapist is THAT good and he could have made far more money doing that instead of acting!!! All in all, some very interesting and brave topics but handled in a ham-fisted and silly manner--as if Hitchcock and the writers read an intro psychology text and then decided to make a film!!! Pure hooey despite some interesting performances.