Review of Wait Until Dark (1967) by Edith N — 25 Jun 2008

I think the ending, which I won't give away here, is supposed to make you feel how noble and brave Audrey Hepburn's character, Susy, is. She's overcoming her blindness with great strength. But it's enough to throw you out of the film, and of course, there isn't enough time for you to get back into it. The film is intense, and the scene leading up to it is definitely chilling--it gives [i]Stephen King[/i] the creeps!--but the last minute is definitely vexing, and if anyone else has seen it, we can discuss it in heated spoilers in the comments section.

There's this doll stuffed with what I assume is heroin. Some mysterious white powder, anyway, and it's surely not baking powder. The doll is smuggled into the US and into the possession of Sam Hendrix (Efrem Zimablist, Jr.), who is not part of the ring. Of course, that's why he gets it; he's the patsy. But he gets the doll safely across the border, and then, for some reason, it cannot be retrieved. Somehow, to retrieve it involves sneaking into the couple's apartment and messing with Susy until she gives up the doll, which she cannot find. She's being simultaneously stalked by the dead creepy Alan Arkin (who said at one point that, deserving or no, one does not receive Oscar nominations for being mean to Audrey Hepburn) and wooed by the smarmy Mike Talman (Richard Crenna). Somehow, one of them will get the doll.

The film was played with the last eight minutes or so in a darkened theatre. Not the way all theatres are darkened, mind--we're talking pretty much nothing but exit signs. (The original opening requests that smokers not light up during the sequence, which tells you a bit about what a different time 1967 was.) Stephen King says he knows someone (or knew; [i]Danse Macabre[/i] was a long time ago) who saw it in a theatre so cheap that the exit signs were broken, and he cannot fathom how eerie that must have been. And, indeed, I rather wish I had seen it in winter, instead of at a time of year where it doesn't get really dark around here until around ten. Still, I'm glad to have seen it.

Alan Arkin does give one of those movie-stealing performances of which he is so oten capable. He's right that, you know, no one's going to award the guy who's trying to kill Audrey Hepburn. But those who say he deserved to be are right. For one thing, he really liked her. He didn't [i]want[/i] to hurt Audrey Hepburn, but he makes us believe that he does. He plays Mr. Roat from Scarsdale with a beautiful menace that takes a bit away from Audrey, who just has to scream and tremble. Oh, she gets her licks in, but let's face it--even if she weren't blind, she'd be The Girl in the Horror Movie, which means her job is to be threatened.

Do, indeed, wait until dark to watch the movie if you can. Wait until the middle of the night--or winter, when it's dark early. Turn out all the lights in the room; turn out any lights that would disturb your viewing. And be prepared to have the bejeezus creeped out of you.