Rating: Summary: "A masterful shocker..." Review: A masterful shocker, directed with skill by Terence Young. Rife with tension, and featuring outstanding performances from Hepburn and Arkin. Builds to a truly frightening and suspensful climax.
Rating: Summary: Yes, please do see this film! Review: Occasionally, there's a book or a film that reduces us to the iteration of the most overused superlatives in the language, that robs us of our wonted articulacy and compels us to elate exclamations of praise. "Wait Until Dark" is one such masterwork.Alan Arkin's sinister vicious hipster, and Audrey Hepburn's unbreakably fragile blind woman, are two of the best performances in cinematic history. The script is marvellously devoid of tawdriness, of slackness, of shabbiness, and of gratuitous violence (though violence, implicit and explicit, does exist). The action occurs in a Greenwich Village apartment, for the most part. Three men, led by the bullying Arkin, are convinced that the Hendrixes (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and Audrey Hepburn) have come into possession of a doll that has been stuffed with narcotics. These men (Richard Crenna pretending to be a friend of Audrey's absent husband, Jack Weston impersonating a police sergeant) orchestrate an elaborate charade to distract, and to menace, Suzy Hendrix into revealing the whereabouts of the doll. Crucial to the plot is a young neighbour of the Hendrixes named Gloria (played by Julie Herron, with sufficient skill as to make us wonder about her other work in films). Are there flaws? Very few indeed. The streets of Greenwich Village are curiously unpopulous at all hours of the day, and Arkin's disguises are superfluous (Audrey's character being blind), except inasmuch as they entertain the audience. Is it scary? I wish I had seen it on the big screen when it came out, but I was born two years after the film's release! Arkin's casual, almost insouciant, sadism is an exquisite piece of acting (somewhat different from the affable Judge Rifkind of A&E's "100 Centre Street," but no less deserving of acclaim!); and Audrey Hepburn's Suzy is so compelling that we begin to perceive a small injustice in the fact that 1967's Best Actress Oscar went to "the other Hepburn" (for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"). Yes, please do see this film! Wait until dark, but don't wait too much longer!
Rating: Summary: Psychological Horror Movie Review: Wait Until Dark is definitely a scary movie it's psychological horror at it's finest! One of Audrey Hepburns best movies!
Rating: Summary: Home Alone for Grown-Ups Review: Ever have a clerk at the airlines ask if you are carrying anything for someone else? This is what happens if you don't pay attention to those warnings. The odds are all stacked against our heroine. She is blind while we can see everything. She is alone facing three professional criminals. While they (and we) know the danger Susie faces from the beginning, Susie only comes to such awareness in slow stages that make up the bulk of the drama in the movie. Based on a stage play, this movie happens entirely in the confines of her three room flat (except for the opening scenes during the credits which could be dropped without any harm). The tight feeling of being trapped there with Susie is inescapable. The only thing I disliked about the film was the smug attitude of Sam, the husband. While he is intent on making sure that Susie develops into an idependant blind woman after her accident, he often has a tone that was a little too patronizing for my taste. When he tells her how he expects her to defrost the fridge, I would have told him to do it himself or stop with the tips.
Rating: Summary: Hepburn and Arkin, super thriller Review: Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin star in a dark thriller that is a true shocker. Hepburn stars as a blind women in her apartment (Susy), that is routinely terrorized by a group of con-artist/henchmen led by Alan Arkin. They seek a toy doll that was hidden in the blind woman's apartment that contains several packages of valuable cocaine. Through the movie, (Which entire action takes place in a single room! A Broadway replica film) the con men each take turns in trying to convince Susy to give them the location of the doll in the apartment. A maddening, nail-biting thriller that SHOULD be watched in the dark.
Rating: Summary: Another Great Thriller Sleeper Review: This is a great thriller movie. I saw it the first time when it was first released and most of the women where screaming at the end of the movie and the men at the very least flinched several times. This movie is often unheard of by those born in the last twenty years. Even for them if they have any appreciation for older films like "Psycho" or "Rear Window" they should see this. Another to check out is "Magic" starring Anthony Hopkins long before his "Silence of the Lambs" fame. As so many have pointed out "Wait Until Dark" is best viewed late at night with the lights off.
Rating: Summary: Audrey hepburn can't act Review: The concept for the movie is great, ie. a blind women who has perceptions other than vision which allow her to figure out a dangerous situation. Alan Arkin is terrific. Unfortunately, Audrey Hepburn can't act. She talks like a little girl, makes inappropriate movements relative to her part as a blind person, and is simply unbelieveable. I have just seen her in Charade and she acts like Audrey Hepburn, not an actress in a role. She is pretty, petite, and elegant but not an actress. Meryl Streep or even Julia Roberts could have handled the part.
Rating: Summary: Last 15 minutes are a scream!!!!! Review: I was on the edge of my seat the entire movie. Wait Until Dark is the perfect thriller to watch in complete darkness when you're home alone (that is, if you don't scare easily). The last fifteen minutes are more chilling, more hair-raising, and more gripping then any other fifteen minutes in film history. In one part of the last scene, I screamed so loud, I probably woke up the neighbors. Seriously! Don't pass this one by!
Rating: Summary: Excellent Thriller ~ Don't miss out!! Review: This brilliant movie is one that everyone should see. Hepburn is probably the best blind woman ever to take the screen (and if you're thinking, "yea, right," then you have to see it to believe it!). If you plan to watch a only movie in pitch dark in your entire life, make it this one. This terrifying, heart- stopping, nail- biting thriller is sure to leave you on the edge of your seat! Now don't delay, go rent this movie: you won't regret it!!
Rating: Summary: Different ! Review: Different in a good way. My sister would tell you not to watch this movie alone in the dark, but I tell you do. Its affect is so much more potent that way. You will literally sit on the edge of your seat until this film is over. The plot plays out perfectly and the mystery and suspense is high! To help create the effect of blindness for this movie, Audrey wore thick contacts that dulled her eyes and vision. She memorized where everything was on the set so that in the dark, she was perfectly comfortable. Alan Arkin makes an incredibly nasty bad guy and Audrey's fear of him is quite catching, even over the screen. You scream out your feelings for this movie, if it hits you right.
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