Marnie (1964 Alfred Hitchcock)

Now, about that Marnie. Hedren and Connery are good, as is Martin Gabel as the wronged employer. (Diane Baker is the sister-in-law, Alan Napier the father.)

Still: DVD Beaver

Starts great and has good scenes e.g. robbery with deaf cleaner (where we see Marnie at the safe and the cleaner appears in the same frame Q says 'Only Hitchcock can do that'), but seems very talky compared to other Hitchcocks, as though the pseudo twaddle from the end of Psycho has infected the script (by Jay Presson Allen). Has one stunning shot at the outset of the flashback scene where the room seems to contract, like Vertigo's staircase, but in other places is marred by oddly unrealistic background paintings* and fake horse riding. It's not without interesting camera angles, fades to black and amusing red pulsings though, and is well cast down to the bit parts.

If Hitch was obsessed by Tippi it would explain why he seems to be only half-interested in his own film. Not sure Hil's right about the colour-coding either.

Regular A team: Burks / Herrmann / Tomasini. I'd be hard pressed to distinguish the score from Vertigo in places.

Beware the UK DVD, which is a 4x3 crop of 1.85:1.

*Which Hitch explained as resulting from a 'technical mixup'.