Wait Until Dark

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 ****

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

This was a great showcase for the acting talent of Audrey Hepburn. She does a great job as the vulnerable blind woman who finds the inner strength and perception to deal with a deadly situation. Alan Arkin is brilliantly menacing as the cold blooded killer. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I first saw this film when it opened.

Never in my life have I ever seen 800 people fly off their seas like I did the night I saw WAIT UNTIL DARK at the cinema in 1970. And I was up there with them. Moaning away in shock. Screaming! (and I don't scream) ............In the run up to the final 20 mins the cinema management slammed the foyer doors, switched off all the aisle lights one by one all around the cinema, and turned up the volume; ripples of creepiness washed over the audience....and then....whammo! The noise from the audience, the screaming and the shifting about in our seats.....I haven't heard shocked noises like that in a cinema since. Do yourself a BIG favour...........get the DVD and watch this at home, by yourself, in total darkness! You will scream your head off and tell everyone you know what a great thriller this is.

Great little gem that -for the most part- stands the test of time very well!

Audrey Hepburn is cast beautifully as the blind woman victimized by three deviants. Alan Arkin is truly terrifying as the leader and his performance here ranks as one of the all-time-great screen villians.

Director Young handles the pace masterfully. No sequence really goes on longer than it should. Henry Mancini uses a nice, quiet score that creates appropriate tension as the film builds to its classic showdown.

My favorite thing about the film is, I think, the use of lighting in the final sequence. Charles Lang uses a creepy, dimly-glowing, red-orange light to illuminate the apartment after Suzie has smashed every other bulb. The effect has a shadowy, nightmarish quality and the scene looks like it was filmed yesterday.

When you think about David Fincher reworking the original concept here for PANIC ROOM, it really is a flattering comment to WAIT UNTIL DARK and its power in still being able to chill. It's also funny to think that with all that impressive photography and filmmaking, the film didn't have nearly half the tension of this 1967 classic.