Review of Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) by Lee B — 08 Oct 2009

I?m loving the Otto Preminger vaults. I never knew much about his wide array of movies. They are great, and this movie is right there. It is a simply play on a paranoid mystery that wraps up (or you can figure it out) pretty early, but it just plays it simple for suspense and that feeling of dread. ?Disadvantaged? woman. New city. Different elements. Uncontrolled circumstances where no one believes her but her brother, who tries to help but it all seems lost as she gets more and more distant. Aside from how this story progression is handled, I loved the suspense in the end game final act when the pieces were already worked out but the cat and mouse game begins.

Pacing and piecemail story-telling can be exciting. It?s something I like about The Sixth Sense guy if he would only write his own story (I had said that Spike Lee needed to direct a story that wasn?t written by him to progress, then he did Malcolm X, which was superb), a great flare for suspenseful set-up, even with a preposterous story. Preminger is definitnly someone I want to watch the whole catalog from. And anyone who likes classic suspense mysteries should check this one out.