Category Archives: 1001 Movie Club Selection
1001 Movie Club: Marnie (1964)
Stephen Jay Schneider chose this movie as one of the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.” He compiled a massive list from the classic to the obscure for his anthology. The most worthy movies are chosen to be on this list. Every year, there is a revision to include the most essential movies to be on the minds of film buffs everywhere.
Marnie is a Hitchcock film that I never heard of before the 1001 Movie Club chose it as one of the films to watch. I didn’t know what the movie was about going into it. I went in completely blind. The result is that there is some intrigue in this mess of a movie.
Based on the novel by Winston Graham, the movie tells the story of a seasoned con artist by the name of Marnie (Tippi Hedren) who pilfered over nine thousand dollars from her former boss, Mr. Strutt (Martin Gabel) and is on the lam. When Strutt has the police over at his office, a client Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) overhears about the theft.
After the robbery, Marnie changes her identity like a chameleon with fake Social Security cards or changing her hair color from black to blond. She visits her emotionally distant mother, Bernice (Louise Latham) and showers her with extravagant gifts. She is jealous of a neighborhood girl, Jessie Cotton (Kimberly Beck) taking all of her mother’s attention. The mother is mindful that they shouldn’t have men in their lives, be free. Marnie has frequent nightmares about her childhood with her mother whenever red is shown or a thunderstorm. This happens frequently throughout the movie.
Marnie goes back out for her next con becoming another character looking for payroll clerk jobs to get close to the money to steal it. She is called in for an interview with the company that Mark owns. The trouble is that the two already met at Mr. Strutt’s company, but that was when she was raven-haired. Mark thinks that Marnie is familiar somehow, but he is not sure. He wants Mr. Warden to hire her instead of a more qualified person for the job
As Marnie starts her job, she learns more about the idiosyncrasies of the company like Mr. Ward (S. John Launer) never remembering the combination to the safe in his office and he has to rely on Mark and Ward’s secretary, Ms. Clabon (Mariette Hartley) to help him.
When Mr. Rutland wants her to work overtime, he discovers when a thunderstorm is happening. She is vulnerable. He kisses her and a relationship is blossoming, but remnants of her past of slowly eroding their relationship.
The Hitchcockian staples are present with the quick pan in and out, the weird close-ups on the characters faces, the obviously fake backdrops. There were some interesting moments in this film about the origins of Marnie’s panic attacks, her descent into madness towards the end of the movie. The plot itself was uneven. When a great moment was taking place, it is ruined by red on the screen or Tippi Hedren shrilling all over the screen.
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
1001 Movie Club Approved
Judgment: The movie is pure melodrama disguised as a Hitchcock movie.
Rating: ***
1001 Movie Club Catch Up: The Apartment (1960)
Stephen Jay Schneider chose this movie as one of the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.” He compiled a massive list from the classic to the obscure for his anthology. The most worthy movies are chosen to be on this list. Every year, there is a revision to include the most essential movies to be on the minds of film buffs everywhere.
When Billy Wilder was spotlighted in a recent LAMB in the Director’s Chair, I didn’t even bother to visit more of his back catalog. Shame on me for not fulfilling my film snob credentials. It should have been suspended. Thanks to 1001 Movie Club, I would have never got the chance to see the #99 Movie of All-Time on IMDb, The Apartment or get the movie in past the post date.
Jack Lemmon plays an insurance agent, C.C. Baxter at Consolidate Life New York who on the outside seems like an overly ambitious worker bee that wants to move up with the company. Some of that is true. In actually, he is working the extra hours so the top officials of the company could have a safe place to carry on their affairs before eight o’clock. They compensate C.C. whatever they do in his apartment in exchange to getting a leg up on the corporate ladder.
The neighbors are growing more suspicious about the numerous activities that are happening at C.C.’s apartment every day, especially Mr. and Mrs. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen, Naomi Stevens). They think that he is living the high life with the drunken sex marathons, but he is just the schlubby guy left out in the cold. His bosses’ late night escapades are affecting his work.
When one of his bosses unexpectedly needs his apartment, he forced out in the cold, rainy night. He develops a cold with put his little side job into turmoil when he has to reschedule other encounters so he could recover.
Every day, C.C. passes by a bubbly elevator girl, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), but he notices her when he is sent to personnel department to let him know if he is being promoted or fired. Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), the head of personnel hears word that C.C. rented out his apartment to top officials at he wants in on the action. In exchange, he gives C.C. to tickets to a Broadway show. He want to ask out Miss Kubelik, but she is spoken by someone C.C. knows.
I thought that this movie would be a straight romantic comedy, but the action takes a dangerous curve to places I never thought it could possibly go. Shirley MacLaine owns this movie. She was given a wide range of emotions from being bubbly and feisty to being morose and heartbroken. Wonderful. There were some people that annoyed with some of the women with their helium-induced voices like Sylvia (Joan Shawlee) or Mrs. MacDougall (Hope Holiday). It’s like nails on a chalkboard.
This movie must have been very controversial at the time of its release. Before the sexual revolution later on that decade, I’m sure that this movie would have raised a few eyebrows. The struggle between male dominance and female empowerment, sexual dynamics, taboo topics that were rarely discussed much less shown.
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
1001 Movie Club Approved
Judgment: This is a testament of how a romantic drama should be handled.
Rating: ****1/2