29: Marnie (1964)

MARNIE’s legacy is a low point for Hitchcock. The production, specifically his treatment of young starlet Tippi Hedren, revealed him to be an aging megalomaniac whose years of dominance had gone to his head. The final product is mostly interesting in the context of 60s Hollywood. Released in 1964, it arrives amongst a new generation taking the baton from Hitchcock and reinventing the big budget b-movie. Case in point, cursed filmmaker Roman Polanski’s REPULSION the following year. Unlike Hitch, Polanski has clear understanding of his blonde heroine’s trauma, and uses inventive and exciting technique to get inside her head as she spins out of control. Marnie, by contrast, views Hedren’s protagonist from a distance, instead too often relating to Sean Connery’s domineering and abusive love interest character.