Anyone have a favorite quote from Marnie? The film is full of neat little quips, especially from Mark. Mine would have to be: (After Marnie and Marks encounter with Strutt at the party)
Mark: "5 Minutes! Iam five minutes behind you, and in those 5 minutes, you've got yourself up like a cat burglar, and packed for a world cruise!"
Mark: "You're sure you haven't misplaced an old husband or two in your travels?"
Marnie: "...to know that women are stupid and feeble, and men are filthy pigs! In case you didn't recognize it; that was a rejection."
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In overall dialogue; Hitchcock loved to push the envenlope with suggestive word play between his leading men and ladies. The script between Hedren and Rod Taylor upstairs at the pet store in 'The Birds' came close, but didn't quite touch the frank words between Hedren and Connery at the track races in 'Marnie' a year later. The censors were clearly not hip to the (disguised-by-gender) discussion between "blonded" Marnie and equine novice Mark, about placing a bet on a horse named Lemon Pudding.
Lemon pudding is crude slang, suggesting the same thing that Marnie's handbag did in the opening shot. In origin, it referenced a blonde prostitute - or an otherwise promiscuous woman.
It's use in Marnie, has always raised eyebrows - and question marks. I'd heard about this scene in "Marnie" long before I saw the film.
Whether or not Hitchcock meant anything suggestive with "Lemon Pudding", is debatable. The race horse in question, was male - ridden by a male jockey. Does this mean that the term's use was innocent? Or, was that Hitchcock's way of sneaking it by the censors? I've heard all arguments - some work, some don't.
That this tiny piece of dialogue sparked controversy, no doubt pleased Hitchcock, and perhaps that was all it was meant to do. It's metaphorical value, if any, can be argued to armagedden.
Marnie- "You don't love me. I'm just something you caught. You think I'm some kind of animal you've trapped."
Mark- "That's right, you are, and I've caught something really wild this time haven't I? I've tracked you and caught you and by god I'm gona' keep you."
I really like Lil. She's awful in a delightful way.
After Marnie's bad dream - Mark and Lil are in her room. Marnie says she's cold and Lil looks at Mark and says "that's your department, isn't it, old boy?" Her look is classic.
And when Mark brings her horse and Marnie jumps up on the horse and rides off like a pro jockey - Lil says a couple of good things. "Well, she did say she could ride a LITTLE." and something like "If you need help, Mark, I'm a fighter. I have no scruples whatsoever." No kidding!
And Mark has a line after the Strutts show up at dinner. It's something like: "You're the very well-known, friendless, orphan" to describe her charade.
And when Mark brings her horse and Marnie jumps up on the horse and rides off like a pro jockey
She should have been whipped for abusing the horse. You don't "gallop off" on a horse that hasn't had a chance to loosen up its muscles. They're just like any human athlete--they need to warm up a bit and loosen their legs before they go jumping fences.
Always feel free to attack someone as a substitute for thinking.
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Marnie- "You don't love me. I'm just something you caught. You think I'm some kind of animal you've trapped."
Mark- "That's right, you are, and I've caught something really wild this time haven't I? I've tracked you and caught you and by god I'm gona' keep you."
This sounds like an allusion to Mr. Rochester from Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre":
“Jane, be still; don’t struggle so, like a wild frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its desperation.”
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.” [...]
“God pardon me!” he subjoined ere long; “and man meddle not with me: I have her, and will hold her.”
And here, thinking of all these wild bird metaphors, another quote comes to my mind. It's from George Bizet's opera "Carmen":
"L’amour est un oiseau rebelle Que nul ne peut apprivoiser, Et c’est bien en vain qu’on l’appelle S’il lui convient de refuser.
(Love is a rebellious bird that nobody can tame, and you call him quite in vain if it suits him not to come.)"
At the racetrack, when Rutland was suggesting that they bet on the horse named "Telepathy," Marnie starts to have one of her "red" episodes and when Rutland asks why she advises not to bet on him and wants to leave, she replies without hesitation, "He's walleyed."
The horse went on to win by 4 lengths....
wall⋅eyed  /ˈwɔlˌaɪd/ Show Spelled [wawl-ahyd]
–adjective 1.having eyes in which there is an abnormal amount of the white showing, because of divergent strabismus. 2.having large, staring eyes, as some fishes. 3.marked by excited or agitated staring of the eyes, as in fear, rage, frenzy, or the like: He stood there in walleyed astonishment. 4.having an eye or the eyes presenting little or no color, as the result of a light-colored or white iris or of white opacity of the cornea.
Mark Rutland: Marnie, it's time to have a little compassion for yourself. When a child, a child of any age, Marnie, can't get love, it takes what it can get, any way it can get it. It's not so hard to understand.