MovieChat Forums > Marnie (1964) Discussion > Handbags

Handbags

posted 9 years ago by dlynch843
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Hitchcock has a history of 'feminizing' some of his leading male characters--see 'Psycho' for the most famous example; There are a number of scenes over the years where we see the man handing over a woman's purse to the leading lady. In Marnie, at the end of the tea drinking scene, we see Mark handing Marnie her handbag--in Dial M for Murder, Robert Cummings does it; In Rear Window, it's Raymond Burr; In The Birds, it's Rod Taylor; and in a final, more comic way, Family Plot, where we see Bruce Dern crawling out from under Blanche's car with her handbag wrapped around his shoulder. Anyone else notice this handbag thing?

[–] Sponiatowski 8 years ago

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I've never noticed this before. Next time I watch his films I'll look for this to see if I can figure out if it means more than feminizing his male characters.

According to Robert Bly of "Iron John" fame, a male does have to steal the key away from his mother to reach manhood.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good (wo)men to do nothing.E. Burke