Seule dans la nuit

The legendary Audrey Hepburn gives a stellar performance in WAIT UNTIL DARK. She's the seemingly vulnerable, yet strong and resourceful Suzy Hendrix. Suzy is blind, but she's also very smart. Finding herself inadvertently mixed up in a scheme involving narcotics and murder, she must use her wits in order to survive.

Led by the psychopathic mastermind, Roat (Alan Arkin), a trio of criminals attempt to gaslight Suzy because she has something in her apartment that they desperately desire. This is staged brilliantly, and Suzy gets caught up in the fake drama. That is, until she starts to smell a rat!

This is a tremendously suspenseful movie, filled with nail-biting sequences. Especially, the finale, when Suzy must face the full wrath of the unhinged Roat! Arkin deserves special mention for his portrayal of such a heartless, ruthless monster. He's not just creepy, he's terrifying! Richard Crenna and Jack Weston are also quite good as Roat's ill-fated cohorts, as is young Julie Herrod as the very helpful Gloria...

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.

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.

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 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.