Review of Wait Until Dark (1967) by Zachary K — 27 Oct 2009

For some unapparent reason, this perfectly-executed suspense thriller has escaped from movie fandom, and that's a shame. Terence Young's adaptation of the play of the same name is absolutely amazing, with surperior acting, an excellent build-up of suspense, and a well-conceived plot.

The film follows a woman named Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn) who was blinded a year earlier, and also lives in New York City. Because of this, she replies on the help of her husband Sam and a young girl named Gloria to help with chores such as buying groceries and so forth.

Everything begins to change though when a woman named Lisa drops a doll (full of heroin) into Sam's bag as he is coming home from Canada. Lisa later comes back to retrieve the doll, but is murdered down the street.

A trio of criminals including the headman Roat (Alan Arkin), Mike (Richard Crenna), and Carlino (Jack Weston) start to speculate the mysterious doll is somewhere in Susy's apartment, and for the rest of the film, they use trickery and disguise to discover if the doll is really in the apartment, and where it would be hidden.

The plot unfolds more deeply as the film goes on, and the dirty little tricks that the partners-in-crime play on Susy weave together a well-conceived mystery that she must solve to protect herself. I understand that the film is not too horrific through the majority, but the breathtaking climax is worth the wait after all the pieces have been put together.

Suspense starts to build about an hour into the film, and that's actually a very good thing, because the events that follow are so horrifyingly realistic that anyone should be scared out of their wits if they're watching it alone inside their home.

The movie gets so suspenseful, that I've heard that in the '60s when this movie was in its theatrical run, theatres would dim the lights to their legal limit to match the darkness on screen. Yeah, it's a big deal! One last great thing I should mention about this film is that all of the actors do quite a fine job.

The actors who play Gloria and Sam are pretty good, and the crime trio played by Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, and Jack Weston are excellent, but the true star here is Audrey Hepburn. It's no wonder that she received Best Actress nominations for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, because her interpretation of a recently-blinded woman who goes through endless terror and torture is flawless.

She looks on as if she truly is blinded to the world around her, and if you can pull this off plus much more, than you are in for a true cinematic treat. There's so much more I can talk about that makes this film so great, but I should just end with these words: see it or die, like some unmentionable people in this movie! Wait until dark to watch it though.

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