The Trouble with Marnie (2000 Video) User Reviews

Good Documentary But Slightly Disappointing

[calvindyson · 7/10 · 2 May 2006]

"The Trouble with Marnie" is a very informative and interesting documentary, it is of a substantial length and emerges (along with "The Making of Psycho" and "All about the Birds") as one of the better featurettes in the Hitchcock Collection.

All the interviews are fascinating to watch, and being a Tippi Hedren fan, it is a real treat to watch her talk about her filming experiences. Jay Presson Allen and Evan Hunter also made interesting contributions to the documentary and it was quite a surprise to hear about Evan and Hitchcock's dispute over the "rape" scene. It was also a treat to hear from Louise Latham and Diane Baker, I always find it far more interesting listening to people actually involved in the production and acting of the film as appose to Film Historians and Biographers (but we do hear from afew of them as well).

However, and that's a big "however" seen as I must nit-pick at this thing, I have two great disappointments with it. Firstly the lack of Sean Connery is very frustrating as we all know he is alive and well and could (and should) contribute to such documentaries. But then he is a very private man and, as far as I know, doesn't care much for giving interviews. But I feel that with his participation my mind would be taken off my other much much bigger disappointment with the documentary. That is it deals with none of the controversy that arose between Hedren and Hitchcock during the production. It is well known that the pair had a major fall out during the making of the film but I've never heard it straight from Hedren herself. It is a great disappointment as she is right there sitting, yet she says nothing about the subject. Now this could be due to two reasons, either Tippi Hedren does not want to talk about the matter, or (and i think this is much more likely) being a Laurent Bouzereau documentary, it is relatively controversy free. This really irritates me about Laurent Bouzereau his featurettes are always good and entertaining but they could be so much better with just that little bit more. There's never any talk of major arguments, its basically always people talking about how much they thought Hitch was brilliant and how everybody was great and everyone had a great time, well it is well documented that not everyone did have a great time filming Marnie! Just some disappointments stop this documentary from being brilliant, but it is still a worthy watch.

Two things, otherwise great

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 8/10 · 1 October 2010]

This is the feature-length documentary on the DVD of Marnie, and note that it spoils the film. It consists of interviews, clips of the film and stills/covers from this and other of Alfred's movies. There is clear(and deserved; always nice when that is the case) love-fest in this, but it also goes into things that were meant to have been different, and might have even improved the final product, in spite of it already being excellent. It was originally meant to have a male co-worker(he became Lil) with whom Mark would compete for Marnie's affections, and a therapist. They go into the rape scene, and how the first writer was fired for trying to cut it. In general, this is very interesting, and they cover most of what we'd wanna know. It is lacking any involvement from Connery(I understand that he is a private man), and this doesn't go into the well-known falling out between Hedren and Hitchcock. Tippi could have told us her version; that would really have added to this. Still, a very informative 58 and a half minutes. There is disturbing content and blood in this. I recommend this to every fan of the picture itself. 8/10

Memorable Marnie-isms

[filmofyoursoul · 10/10 · 7 September 2007]

Since we all seem to thirst for more Hitch knowledge this documentary is a welcome addition..Jay Presson Allen is delightful, Diane Baker, Louise Latham are great to see and hear and Tippi proves a class act once again. Retaining her beauty and poise to this day, it is easy to see why Hitch became enamored of her. She enchants us with her tales from filming and charmingly so. Fascinating to hear about the real horses being used and Disney being involved with helping the Hitch team out ..great .amazing stuff here especially on the technical end where MARNIE took it's biggest drumming.. (after the chic effects from VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST and THE BIRDS and the general now-wave PSYCHO) the old fashioned street sets and rear projection of MARNIE must have baffled at best. it also placed a huge pressure on the performers, especially Hedren who is on the screen almost the entire time. this woman did not have it easy ~! after the rigors of THE BIRDS, psychological torment of MARNIE boyh off the screen and on..a humorous story she tells of berating Hitchcock when he told her she would be frigid and her husband would be Sean Connery. More documentaries like this would be welcome

"One might call MARNIE a sex mystery . . . "

[pixrox1 · 8/10 · 22 August 2013]

. . . says MARNIE director Alfred Hitchcock (in archival footage) at the beginning of this 58 minute, 26.33-second long documentary on Hitch's offering for the big screen from 1964. The trouble with Marnie was that the audience wanted a romance such as NOTORIOUS, my favorite Hitchcock flick, while the director was obsessed with pop psychology during his latter days, especially from 1958 onwards, says his actress daughter Patricia. Early in his career, Hitchcock's sexual obsessions were fairly simple and somewhat subtle (torture a blonde in trouble for an hour and a half, then let a tall dark stranger ride in to the rescue during the final reel). Prior to 1958, only SPELLBOUND (1945) was marred by an obtrusive Hitch putting his viewers on the psychiatrist's couch. After THE WRONG MAN (1956), only NORTH BY NORTHWEST is not bogged down by needless psychobabble, often highlighted by lame "special" effects (if you discount his last three James Bond wannabe pictures). This supplement to MARNIE does a great job of highlighting all the problems, from the tacky tumble from a sound stage rocking horse to the ludicrous matte painting where mom Beatrice lives.