Marnie Blu-ray features mediocre video and great audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock creates a spellbinding portrait of a distrurbed woman, and the man who tries to save her, in this unrelenting psychological thriller.
A man confronts his accuser atop the Statue of Liberty, where one false move will spell death. A wolf in sheep's clothing allows the beast lurking within to bear its teeth. A housemaster slowly, oh so slowly, pieces together the heinous crime perpetrated by two former students. A woman searches for clues in a suspected murderer's apartment just as the man returns home. Four people work to keep the demise of a fellow smalltown resident a secret from a local deputy. An assassin's gun slides out from behind a curtain as an ordinary man races to thwart his plot. An airplane buzzes then roars past as a man dives for cover. The hiss of a shower masks the approach of a madman with a knife in his hand. Countless birds gather on a jungle gym as a woman smokes a cigarette nearby. A husband barges into his new wife's bedroom and has his way with her as she retreats into a near-catatonic state. A physicist discovers killing a man isn't as easy as it might seem, wrestling with his victim right up until the violent end. A purple dress billows out beneath a dying woman like spilled blood. A serial killer retrieves his pin from a woman's grasp, one dead finger at a time. A fake psychic tries to squirm out of a thief's vice-like grip as he pushes a syringe closer and closer. Be it drama, horror or comedy, psychological stunner, monster movie or international spy thriller, is it any mystery that filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense? Is it any wonder his movies still hold hypnotic sway over filmfans all these years later?
A thief and compulsive liar marries the very man she was attempting to rob...
Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly as Marnie Edgar, author Winston Graham's beautiful thief; a woman whose next target, successful publisher Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), catches her in the act, choses blackmail over arrest, and forces her to marry him, among other things. Paramount balked, though -- Our sweet princess, Grace Kelly? A thief and rape victim!? -- and the coveted actress eventually withdrew, albeit for a number of reasons. And so the Master of Suspense turned to Tippi Hedren, fresh off her career-defining performance in The Birds. Hedren, as it turned out, was the perfect choice. Cold, distant, volatile, wounded, passionate, terrified, emotionless. Whatever Hitchcock needed on screen, his lead actress delivered. Casting Connery was another coup. MGM's James Bond as a silver-tongued manipulator, a criminal in his own right and, worst of all, a rapist? The contrast alone is enough to make Marnie and Mark's scenes together charged with something entirely separate from the good will and sexual tension other screenwriters would have grafted onto the story. (Screenwriter Evan Hunter was Hitchcock's first choice, but Hunter wanted to do away with the pivotal rape scene; an instinct that led to his quick dismissal.) But much of Marnie feels cobbled together. There are unforgettable scenes to be sure -- Hedren's performance alone drives the otherwise stilted psychosexual drama along -- but just as many are unremarkable. Connery mugs and muses with authority (and a perpetually cocked eyebrow), but exhibits little connection to Hedren and the material; Marnie's trauma is a touch contrived, and never quite puts her present course into perspective; and Hitchcock struggles to maintain suspense through his second act. Be that as it may, second-tier Hitchcock is better than most classic directors' first-tier films, and Marnie is the last of Hitchcock's fully realized projects. Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, Family Plot... it's rather downhill from here.
Ooph. Where to start? Marnie's 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation isn't uneven, it's unwieldy. Yes, some shots are terribly soft, but rightfully so, as most every instance is true to Hitchcock's intentions and Robert Burks' oft-diffuse photography. But softness isn't the issue here. Or rather issues. Unnatural grain, manic grain, erratic grain, faux grain, chunky grain, coarse grain, soupy grain... some scenes feature a variety of grains, some just one. And while the transfer certainly has its moments, the dubious, ever-shifting grain field -- which behaves like an entity unto itself -- spoils the entire presentation, and reeks of a poor remaster of a problematic, outdated master; nothing approaching a proper restoration. Then there are the color disparities (strong as the film's palette, primaries and black levels may be), the print and encoding blemishes, and the seemingly untouched shots that stick out like a sore thumb. (The final stretch of Marnie and Mark's visit with Bernice is a mess.) Detail is reasonably revealing, especially in select sequences, but beware: screenshots can be extremely deceiving in this case. In motion, Marnie's Blu-ray debut is one long string of distractions and disappointments.
Universal's two-channel DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is much, much better, if for no other reason than there really isn't much of anything to criticize. Dialogue is clean and clear, without the interference of a notable noise floor, muffled voices or poor prioritization. Effects are more atmospheric in nature but no less distinct, and Bernard Herrmann's score is bright and commanding, even though it's a bit overbearing on occasion. Above all, the track represents Marnie's original sound design well and doesn't fall prey to any major mishaps.
The Trouble with Marnie (SD, 58 minutes): "One might call Marnie a sex mystery. That is, if one used such words." Hitch's daughter Pat Hitchcock O'Donnell, Marnie contributors and treatment writers Joseph Stefano (Psycho) and Evan Hunter (The Birds), screenwriter Jay Presson Allen, unit production manager Hilton A. Green, production designer Robert Boyle, author Robin Wood ("Hitchcock's Films Revisited"), filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, and actresses Tippi Hedren (Marnie Edgar), Diane Baker (Lil Mainwaring) and Louise Latham (Bernice Edgar) dive into Marnie, from its adaptation and script development to its Hunter-disputed rape scene, psychological unravelings, flashbacks, violence, expressionist devices, and its reception and legacy.
The Marnie Archives (SD, 9 minutes): Movie posters, vintage ads and production photos.
Of Hitchcock's final five movies, Marnie is the finest. A light switched off after The Birds, though; the last of the director's great films. Tippi Hedren is extraordinary but everything else suffers from diminishing returns, chief among them Connery, who brings very little to the screen other than quasi-Bond charm and a thinly veiled frigidity of his own. Universal's Blu-ray edition is even more uneven, no thanks to an erratic video presentation and a slim supplemental package. Marnie's DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is solid, but doesn't salvage the rest of the disc. This is easily one of the more disappointing titles in the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection and the one most deserving (and arguably most in need) of a fresh restoration.
