Bunny Lake Is Missing

Rating:
Summary: Campy, Creepy Cult Classic!
Review: Ever since the gossips got wind that Reese Witherspoon might be doing a remake, audiences have rediscovered this shadowy, sumptuous period thriller that jettisons you back to the hip London of the mid 1960s.

Perfect casting (with the exception of one major player, whose identity might interfere with your first-time enjoyment, so I won't be a Spoiler) with La Lynley as the gamine supreme, Keir Dullea as her lookalike brother, Olivier as a charming detective and Martita Hunt & Noel Coward in amazing cameo performances.

Otto Preminger and Saul Bass bring marvelous mood to the pulp fiction novel by Evelyn Piper on which this was based.

Yes, it's dated...yes. modern audiences will find chuckles in the storyline holes, but all in all it is a marvelous movie beautifully presevered on DVD. But why, oh why, didn't Columbia get Carol Lynley to do a Commentary track!? This is her personal favorite credit and she has great stories share... If you get the chance to hear her speak on the subject, grab it!

Meanwhile, cuddle up with the popcorn and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing psychological thriller
Review: Who is Bunny Lake and has she really gone missing? Perhaps the only thing missing is a bit of sanity! Without any visual evidence whatsoever, we are led to believe that Ann Lake(Lynley), a young single mother just arrived in London from America, has dropped her 4-year-old daughter Bunny off at a private school, leaving her under the supervision of the school cook. After meeting a couple of movers at her new flat, she returns to pick up her daughter to find that the child has gone missing, but no one, including us, can recall ever seeing the child. At this point, her overbearing brother Stephen(Dullea) literally bulldozes his way through the school delivering accusatory blows against the staff under the auspices of looking for answers. The police are brought in and an investigation ensues under detective Newhouse(Olivier) but instead of answers, only more questions surface: Is Stephen's "in your face" overprotection a facade or diversion? Does it have something to do with Ann having had an imaginary playmate called "bunny" as a child? Director Preminger presents us with a bizarre cast of characters all suspicious and therefore suspect: Wilson the nice-old-man/sadomasochist; Ada Ford the philosophical and sinister co-founder of the school; and of course the two principles, shell-shocked Ann and hypertense Stephen. Laurence Olivier delivers a subtle but calculating performance as the detective, and seems to be the only sane presence for most of the film. The music is a bit too jumpy at times but remains effective. The title sequences by Saul Bass are highly inventive and brilliantly set the stage for the film to follow.