I remember almost 40 yrs ago, I needed 2 units to get my 2nd B.S. degree, and elected to take a "Study of Hitchocock" class (which was a few weekends of watching Hitchcock films and listening to analysis). The professor talked about Hitchcock's love of "icy blondes", and showed "Marnie". It seems to me now an interesting choice, given all the other Hitchcock classics, "Marnie" being a bit weird and not entirely well-received in its day, yet eerily Hitchcockian.

Aside from its sort of comic-book Hitchcockian psychology (satirized in "High Anxiety" by Prof. Lilloman's "Zat's it! Zu haf High Anxiety becuz zu hated zur Fazer!", or similar), the movie kind of highlights Hitchcock's unique appeal:

1) Poor Tippi Hedren...she seemed to be the victim of a repressed/horny old man who had gained too-much Hollywood license. After she rejected his advances, he apparently terrorized her on the set, which played to his voyeuristic fantasies. But here and in "The Birds", it...(modern guilt kicking in)...works?

2) Ever the gracious and professional one however, Hedren always thanks Hitchcock for helping make her a star.

3) I guess the message in the class was that Hitchcock being weird was almost his appeal. His great matte-shots, interesting camera angles, twisted yet simple story lines (also lovingly satirized in "High Anxiety") were what the public loved, but also ground-breaking in many ways.

4) The thing I can't shake is how letting the audience anticipate or imagine the sex and violence is better than seeing it splattered all over the screen. That was a product of the times, Hayes Code etc, but Hitchcock did anticipation better than anyone else. It hints at a sort of life's-lesson...the chase is more interesting than the kill, don't waste time explaining the MacGuffin (sidenote: was this MacGuffin Marnie's...oh nevermind!).

5) "Marnie" has a lot of camp value. Its funny to see Bond...oops! Connery have such a hard time bedding this one (for a change), Hedren almost comically/SNL icy (is "High Anxiety's" Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) an amalgam of "Rebecca's" Mrs Danvers and Marnie?)

6) For some reason, those old Technicolor visuals really get to us seniors...its like being able to revisit the warmth of our childhoods. Modern CGI seems like an assault on our senses. When we see things like "Vertigo", its a delicious post-card of the old (and decent) SF I barely remember from the 50s (when women wore hats, men wore ties to restaurants). I even prefer the obviously fake paper-mache rocks on old sets...its kinda like "aww..."