Stream it now Wait Until Dark 1967

 

Creepy, interesting, and scary. Every moment has you on the edge of your seat~

A story too terrifying to watch, a production too beautiful to turn away from; I really was biting my nails at this one.

Today's film makers could learn a thing or two from this 60s thriller. Alan Arkin is chilling and Audrey Hepburn is sympathetic and engaging.

3.5/4--A fantastic drama/thriller that slowly builds up the suspense then explodes it like a bomb.

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...

Wait Until Dark, a movie that has apparently lapsed out of the public's eye, is in my opinion a thriller masterpiece. Done in the late 60's starring Audrey Hepburn and having a doll full of heroin as practically a McGuffin, the film at numerous points makes the audience just as blind as Audrey's character, omitting all of the light as she blinds her attackers so that they are on an even playing field. The plot has no holes despite pretentious naysayers using this as an excuse for cutting down a masterstroke in the genre. You'd almost think this was a Hitchcock movie because of how well the movie progresses and how well the characters fit into the plot. I have to admit I don't really know most of the actors in the film very well but they did a great job, especially Alan Arkin as Harry Roat. Something about the characters expressions, and those ominous sunglasses really put me off on the character, and it was an excellent choice for a villain. Day in and day out people act like 'old movies aren't scary' or that they aren't intriguing enough for the apparent ADD obsessed generation I live in, but time and time again older films have placed a serious impact on me rather than anything too recent. I recommend this film to anyone who wants to actually watch a good thriller, and to envision a time in movie history when you didn't need useless explosions and gratuitous blood and gore to constitute something being worth watching by the general public.

An interesting thriller that would have worked as well as a play as it did as a movie. Set almost entirely in one apartment, "Wait Until Dark" starts slow but gradually builds in suspense by combining very capable acting performances with a sympathetic main character. There's nothing complex about the script or plot. A blind woman unknowingly in possession of a stash of heroin hidden away in a doll becomes the target of a couple of con men and a sociopathic drug dealer. So the drama isn't tied up in a twisted, convoluted storyline or cliche twists. Nor is there much in the way of violence or shock value. Instead, the suspense develops out of the basic human drama.

Alan Arkin is convincing as the villain but the fact that his character develops all of these costumes, accents, and characters in his ruse to confuse the main character is a bit hokey and dated to the 1960s thriller/mystery genre. Certainly some of the thematic elements are cliche or derivative. Moments feel more like they belong on a late 1960s television show, rather than in a major motion picture. Still, as a film that uses its performances, setting, and characters to develop its thrills instead of violence or twists, "Wait Until Dark" feels refreshing to this modern viewer.

"The lovely thing was the way I let them set it all up. All that silliness of meeting in the parking lot, the whole thing, they had comic book minds. So, I let them do it their way, right up to the very end. And then, topsy-turvy. Me topsy and them turvy."

Some thrillers dig into your skin, and make you care for their lead characters.

This is one of those thrillers.

It creates and holds tension so well, with fantastic performances.

Audrey Hepburn plays Susy Hendrix, a blind woman living with her husband in a small apartment. Her husband was given a doll by a mysterious woman at the airport. The doll, unbeknowst to him, is filled with herion.

When a drug dealer named Roat (Alan Arkin) comes looking for it with two hired men (Richard Crenna and Jack Weston), tensions rise.

The errieiest parts are when one of the three men are doing something they shouldn't right in front of Susy, and she never knows.

Wait Until Dark is a splendid thriller, and I suggest it to anyone who wants to be scared and also use their brain.

I no longer work on Fridays (Yah!), so I spent this Halloween watching 'scary' movies. ;)



Wait Until Dark was a decent movie, and was definitely an enjoyable watch. But it's pretty much impossible to look past its glaring plot problems. I don't really need to get into detail there, but just know that it requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. Anyway, Audrey Hepburn is actually quite good in this, but Alan Arkin steals the show. He plays the 'will do anything to get what I want' bad guy very well, especially for being a well-known actor. Usually, it's easy to see the actor and not the character, but he really makes you believe he'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. Wait Until Dark isn't one of my favorite Hollywood films, but it's good regardless.