20111023

MARNIE

The Alfred Hitchcock's motion picture, Marnie, premiered on the big screen in 1964. Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery starred.

Twenty years after Marnie was made, Sean observed, "It's funny, but the film buffs at UCLA are constantly dissecting Marnie these days to see how it was done."

"Marnie," Alfred explained, "is symptomatic of the American female; she is basically frigid."

The year was 1963. Alfred continued, "There is a vast amount of difference between appearance and actuality in the American woman. She is schooled from childhood by magazines and advertisements to make herself seem alluring and sexy. But alas, her inhibitions are too great.

"There is in this country a long tradition of Puritanism. There is also a lack of sophistication. That is why there is so much divorce in America. When a wife suspects that her husband is having an affair, she immediately summons a lawyer. A European wife is more sophisticated. She says, 'Let him have his fling; he will come back to me.' And he generally does."

Of Alfred, Sean said, "On Marnie, he only gave me 2 directions, both of which have proven invaluable to me ever since."

"The first," Sean shared, "was that I had a tendency to speak too quickly. So he got me to slow down. The second was that I used to keep my mouth open when I was listening to another actor. Hitchcock cured me of that habit by drawling in his inimitable manner: 'Sean, I don't think many people in Milwaukee will be interested in your dental work.'"

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