Wait Until Dark

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.

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.

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.

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.