Marnie is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a screenplay by Jay Presson Allen, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Winston Graham.

Margaret "Marnie" Edgar, posing under the identity Marion Holland, flees with nearly $10,000 that she stole from the company safe of her employer, Sidney Strutt.

Mark Rutland, a wealthy widower who owns a publishing company in Philadelphia, meets with Strutt on business; he learns about the theft and recalls Marnie from a previous visit.

On their honeymoon cruise, Marnie resists Mark's desire for physical intimacy, revealing that she finds sex repellent.

Mark initially respects her wishes, and tries to woo her, but after a few nights, they quarrel over Marnie's aloofness, and it is implied that he rapes her offscreen when he persists and she freezes without consent.

During a fox hunt, the red riding coat worn by one of the hunters triggers another of Marnie's fits and Forio bolts, misses a jump, injures its legs, and is left lying on the ground screaming in pain.

Marnie frantically runs to a nearby house, obtains a gun, and shoots her horse in an act of animal euthanasia.

In addition, Alfred Hitchcock's cameo can be seen five minutes into the film, entering from the left of a hotel corridor after Marnie passes by.

Hunter was unhappy with the rape scene in the original novel, as he felt the audience would lose sympathy for the male lead.

[8] According to royal biographer Craig Brown, Hitchcock offered Princess Grace the title role in March 1962, and she accepted; but in Monaco, the reaction to the announcement was categorically negative.

The film was also being developed during a tense period of France–Monaco relations in which France threatened to revoke Monaco's special status, leaving the ruling Grimaldi dynasty anxious to preserve the country's public image.

Hitchcock also considered two other actresses who were, like Hedren, under his personal contract, Vera Miles and Claire Griswold, wife of director/actor Sydney Pollack.

Eva Marie Saint, star of Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959), and Susan Hampshire unsuccessfully pursued the role as well.

In the end, Hitchcock opted to use Tippi Hedren, a one-time model he had seen in a commercial for a diet drink in 1961, then cast successfully in The Birds.

Hedren told writer Moral that she was "amazed" that Hitchcock would offer her this "incredible role", calling it a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity".

Green explains that shooting had been scheduled to begin on November 25, 1963, at Universal City Studios in California but had to be postponed because the nation was in mourning for John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated three days before.

Herrmann's later score for Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black (1968) also repeats the main theme in Marnie, although slightly altered in its harmony.

Eugene Archer of The New York Times wrote a lukewarm assessment, calling it "at once a fascinating study of a sexual relationship and the master's most disappointing film in years".

Archer's main criticisms were "an inexplicably amateurish script" and the casting of "relative newcomers" Hedren and Connery in roles that "cry for the talents of Grace Kelly and Cary Grant".

[17] A review in Variety wrote that the opening was slow, but once it got going Hitchcock's story "generally keeps the action fairly fast-paced—provided audience can overlook certain puzzling aspects, such as why the lady became a thief—and gets strong performances from his two stars and other cast members".

[18] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "As a story it seems naggingly improbable and, as drama, a nightmare from which the spectator constantly pulls away, struggling to wake up in a less disordered universe.

[19] Edith Oliver of The New Yorker called the film "an idiotic and trashy movie with two terrible performances in the leading roles, and I had quite a good time watching it.

The critical consensus reads: "A coolly constructed mystery revolving around a character who's inscrutable to a fault, Marnie finds Hitchcock luring audiences deeper into the dark".

[23] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

[32] Actress Naomi Watts dressed up as Hedren's Marnie (whose outfits were by Edith Head) for the March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair magazine.