Warte, bis es dunkel ist

I watched this movie out of sheer "desperation" -- I couldn't find any current movies on that I wanted to see or that I hadn't seen before, so I just ended up on the channel this film was on. It was fate!! What a fun, suspenseful film!!

If you have not seen Audrey Hepburn in a movie, see this and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and you will *really* appreciate her talent and beauty. Also of mention is Alan Arkin. I read that critics didn't like his role as the heavy in this film when it was first released, but personally I think he is great in it -- intimidating and kitschy at the same time.

This film builds the suspense throughout perfectly. There is not a lull or a let-down to be found! Also, this has a twist ending and a classic suspense/horror plot element that has been done many times since, but not as well!

The Bottom Line: 4 1/2 Jiffy's Out of 5

At first I thought this movie would only be mildly suspenseful, but how wrong I was. This is quite a clever movie. I was really amazed by the thorough attention that is given to even minor details. Everything in this movie just fits together perfectly....the pace, the setting, the overall mood, the way one thing leads to another....everything. The director of this movie did a great job. Of course, what would this movie be without the excellent performances given by its cast. Who would've known that Audrey Hepburn, one of the classiest ladies of the twentieth century, would be so appropriate for a thriller like this one. She plays a blind woman, and she is so right for this part. Her performance is remarkable....I cannot picture any other actress of the day in that role. Also, Alan Arkin is awesome, playing a psychotic killer. For the most part, this movie contains some shocking moments that will make you jump. Definitely wait until dark to see this movie....turn off all the lights and watch it after midnight if you can, for an even greater suspenseful effect.

Recently blinded woman is unwittingly in possession of a doll filled with drugs. A very mean narcotics dealer concocts an elaborate scheme to trick her into handing it over to him. A great psychological thriller with a twist- the audience knows exactly what's happening but gets to watch the heroine try to figure it out. There's almost no explicit violence in this movie, yet there's an underlying current of foreboding and suspense that literally permeates the entire film. You know something very bad is going to happen.Alan Arkin gives the performance of a lifetime as the cool, calm, collected psychopath who truly enjoys hurting people. And Audrey Hepburn is incredibly beautiful. You could pluck her out of this movie, clothes and all, and stick her in the toniest 90's club in New York and she'd still be the height of fashion.

There's a great `shocking' ending that really doesn't make much sense- but it's still a really good sixties movie.

In "Wait Until Dark", I really felt sorry for Audrey Hepburn's Susy Hendrix: blind, lied to by a 'nice' guy who is actually in cahoots with a murderer, sassed by the bespectacled neighbor girl, and then--after a hellish night spent being terrorized by thugs--husband Efrem Zimbalist Jr. walks in and doesn't even give her a hand. "I'm over here, Susy", he tells her, mildly condescending. Film is based on Frederick Knott's popular play, and has an elaborate but obtuse set-up involving a missing doll filled with heroin. There's a great deal of talk about where it is, who had it last, etc. The filmmakers bide their time before getting to the showdown between Hepburn and Alan Arkin, cool and collected as a self-assured psychopath. If you can make it through the first half-hour or so, you'll find that "Wait Until Dark" gets cooking thereafter. There are some terrific jolts, and Hepburn is a great, stubborn fighter. The frosty, subdued color photography is 'realistic' and very stylish, as is Henry Mancini's spooky music. The end-credits theme song (by Mancini, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans) seems a throwaway, but is nicely sung by the uncredited Sue Raney. *** from ****

This film shows what a director can do with some good actors and a good script. It takes Audrey Hepburn to turn this into a great film. Her vulnerable blind woman, at the mercy of a group of drug traffickers, is amazing. Alan Arkin, who sometimes plays comic victims, is outstanding as a true psychopath. He doesn't want the hidden drugs. He wants power over everything. He'd be the last guy a group of organized criminals would want on their side. But they've got him and they need to cater to him. The movie is about situations as Audrey Hepburn must defend herself, once she realizes this is necessary. She knows the house and knows that in darkness she has a chance. Still, she weighs about eighty pounds and has probably never confronted someone physically in her life--and she can't see her attackers.

I'll tell a little story. There's a scene where a towel on top of a refrigerator hangs down so the door can't close. The woman must darken the room, but the light in the refrigerator is going to stay on until the towel is removed. A friend of mine saw this movie with his family, and when this happened, his mother, a real character, stood up and screamed: "Pull the towel out of the door." The whole family disappeared under their seats and denied the existence of this woman.

As far as suspense goes, I can't think of a movie (and that includes every slasher movie I've seen) that has such sustained terror as this one.