Wait Until Dark (1967) User Reviews

Menace surrounding Hepburn in the dark

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 8/10 · 20 September 2008]

To be blind, deprived of the power even to see the danger that threatens you, is a frightening experience... It also, obviously, gave director Terence Young the opportunity to carry out one of the most important rules of suspense: let the audience discover more than the principal character...

When we can see imminent danger which the victim, by definition, cannot see, the emotional impact is increased on the viewer... We desire earnestly to cry out in warning, but we cannot... We can only sit helplessly, and wait to see what become apparent... And when the sightless is a young and lovely woman, there are many twists and turns, disturbing moments, claustrophobic atmosphere, great suspense...

Most of the drama is played out in Hepburn's apartment in NewYork, and there is an outstanding development when Susy Hendrix (Hepburn), alone with her telephone cord cut and awaiting the return of the gangs, decides to use her disadvantage as a defensive weapon... Her one advantage in being blind was that she required no light—and she methodically destroyed all the light-bulbs...

After three brutal murders, only the master-criminal, a merciless villain (Alan Arkin) is left to confront her… He selected the most terrifying way of terrorizing her... Susy lost her sight in a car crash or really the fire from the crash…

Audrey Hepburn earned her 5th and final Academy Award nomination for her brilliant performance

Well acted suspense thriller

[robert3750 · 7/10 · 3 May 2020]

This was a great showcase for the acting talent of Audrey Hepburn. She does a great job as the vulnerable blind woman who finds the inner strength and perception to deal with a deadly situation. Alan Arkin is brilliantly menacing as the cold blooded killer. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I first saw this film when it opened.

Leaping Loungerooms!

[ptb-8 · 8/10 · 22 February 2004]

Never in my life have I ever seen 800 people fly off their seas like I did the night I saw WAIT UNTIL DARK at the cinema in 1970. And I was up there with them. Moaning away in shock. Screaming! (and I don't scream) ............In the run up to the final 20 mins the cinema management slammed the foyer doors, switched off all the aisle lights one by one all around the cinema, and turned up the volume; ripples of creepiness washed over the audience....and then....whammo! The noise from the audience, the screaming and the shifting about in our seats.....I haven't heard shocked noises like that in a cinema since. Do yourself a BIG favour...........get the DVD and watch this at home, by yourself, in total darkness! You will scream your head off and tell everyone you know what a great thriller this is.

Inner Light Vs. Darkness...

[azathothpwiggins · 9 November 2020]

The legendary Audrey Hepburn gives a stellar performance in WAIT UNTIL DARK. She's the seemingly vulnerable, yet strong and resourceful Suzy Hendrix. Suzy is blind, but she's also very smart. Finding herself inadvertently mixed up in a scheme involving narcotics and murder, she must use her wits in order to survive.

Led by the psychopathic mastermind, Roat (Alan Arkin), a trio of criminals attempt to gaslight Suzy because she has something in her apartment that they desperately desire. This is staged brilliantly, and Suzy gets caught up in the fake drama. That is, until she starts to smell a rat!

This is a tremendously suspenseful movie, filled with nail-biting sequences. Especially, the finale, when Suzy must face the full wrath of the unhinged Roat! Arkin deserves special mention for his portrayal of such a heartless, ruthless monster. He's not just creepy, he's terrifying! Richard Crenna and Jack Weston are also quite good as Roat's ill-fated cohorts, as is young Julie Herrod as the very helpful Gloria...

Non Stop Terror in the Dark

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 30 March 2006]

This film shows what a director can do with some good actors and a good script. It takes Audrey Hepburn to turn this into a great film. Her vulnerable blind woman, at the mercy of a group of drug traffickers, is amazing. Alan Arkin, who sometimes plays comic victims, is outstanding as a true psychopath. He doesn't want the hidden drugs. He wants power over everything. He'd be the last guy a group of organized criminals would want on their side. But they've got him and they need to cater to him. The movie is about situations as Audrey Hepburn must defend herself, once she realizes this is necessary. She knows the house and knows that in darkness she has a chance. Still, she weighs about eighty pounds and has probably never confronted someone physically in her life--and she can't see her attackers.

I'll tell a little story. There's a scene where a towel on top of a refrigerator hangs down so the door can't close. The woman must darken the room, but the light in the refrigerator is going to stay on until the towel is removed. A friend of mine saw this movie with his family, and when this happened, his mother, a real character, stood up and screamed: "Pull the towel out of the door." The whole family disappeared under their seats and denied the existence of this woman.

As far as suspense goes, I can't think of a movie (and that includes every slasher movie I've seen) that has such sustained terror as this one.

Excellent

[dbdumonteil · 8/10 · 29 April 2005]

Excellent,very underrated suspense where Audrey Hepburn shows how much

eclectic she was from psychological dramas (children's hour) to musicals (My fair lady)to thrillers "in camera " like this absorbing exciting "wait until dark" .Directed by Terence YOung (who directed the best James Bond bar one -Goldfinger-),it never gives the feeling of watching a filmed stage production and however it was a play in the first place.Hepburn is wonderful as the courageous blind woman who 's got to fight against killers (and she gets fine support from Richard Crenna and Alan Arkin) in her apartment.Influenced by "rear window" ,it's perhaps not as good as Hitch's classic,but it rises to the occasion.The scene when Hepburn shoots out (and smashes) all the lights is mind-boggling.So is the fridge's terrifying sequence which climaxes the movie.

Every cine buff fond of suspense deserves -and must see- "Wait until dark" Sit down and get some scares...in the dark of course.

Great thriller, great acting, great music, great directing.

[Semih · 10/10 · 7 July 2000]

My title sums it all. I was very surprised at how good this film was. I found it very similar to a movie like "Rear Window". One other person's comments was titled "The best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock never made". It think that is very true. Most of the film is shot within this basement apartment unit. And the thriller is so great because of Hepburn being blind and these three bad guys freely walking into her unit and introducing themselves as her husband's friends, or police, or some neighbour. But they all forget one thing: She uses her ears like no regular person does, she doesn't need eyes. But that is where the thriller kicks in. Sometimes it is pretty painful for us to watch (us who can see) because she seems so vulnerable. Wrapping around of all this is Henry Mancini's music. He is using a technique that he also used in the film "Night Visitor" where there is this melody on the keyboard and after everynote there is the detuned note following it. Pretty cool effect. One thing I didn't get though, There is a scene where the room looks pretty dark and Alan Arkin still has his sun glasses on. I loved this film, 10 out of 10.

Acting + Plot + Production = Wait Until Dark

[Tenkun · 10/10 · 27 April 2004]

Albeit obscure, 1967's "Wait Until Dark" is a fantastic movie in many regards. It may not have epic chases, mushy love scenes, or even a plot involving robotics, but it does capture the mind for that hour and a half. To its credit are the performances of Audrey Hepburn as an insecure "champion blind woman," Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as her encouraging husband, Julie Herrod as her helpful (but rebellious) young friend, and a whole host of (well, three) others as a variety of crooks, cops, and impostors. The plot is well thought-out, with twists and turns to keep you busy from even before Hepburn sets foot on the stage. It almost entirely takes place one or two rooms of an apartment, utilizing the limited set to a "Rear Window"-esque advantage. There is suspense, emotion, crime, passion, and a delve into the world of the blind- and its potential symbolism. Convincing performances, death and devilry, and an almost mother-daughter relationship are all found within this obscure classic, "Wait Until Dark."

Does she have to be the world's champion blind lady?

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 14 January 2002]

In "Wait Until Dark", I really felt sorry for Audrey Hepburn's Susy Hendrix: blind, lied to by a 'nice' guy who is actually in cahoots with a murderer, sassed by the bespectacled neighbor girl, and then--after a hellish night spent being terrorized by thugs--husband Efrem Zimbalist Jr. walks in and doesn't even give her a hand. "I'm over here, Susy", he tells her, mildly condescending. Film is based on Frederick Knott's popular play, and has an elaborate but obtuse set-up involving a missing doll filled with heroin. There's a great deal of talk about where it is, who had it last, etc. The filmmakers bide their time before getting to the showdown between Hepburn and Alan Arkin, cool and collected as a self-assured psychopath. If you can make it through the first half-hour or so, you'll find that "Wait Until Dark" gets cooking thereafter. There are some terrific jolts, and Hepburn is a great, stubborn fighter. The frosty, subdued color photography is 'realistic' and very stylish, as is Henry Mancini's spooky music. The end-credits theme song (by Mancini, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans) seems a throwaway, but is nicely sung by the uncredited Sue Raney. *** from ****

Fantastic

[bensonmum2 · 9/10 · 5 February 2005]

• A lot has happened to Susy Hendrix in the past year - she lost her sight in an auto accident, she got married, and now her husband has unknowingly brought home a doll full of heroin. Three men will do whatever it takes to get the doll. At first they try to trick her. When this doesn't work, they resort to violence.

• The con the three men attempt to work on Susy is amazing to watch unfold. They come to her one at a time with a story that slowly unfolds. They force Susy to believe that her husband was involved with a murder of a woman and that finding the doll is the only way to save him. The con reaches a point where Susy would do anything to get rid of the doll. But they push their luck a little too far and Susy starts to suspect that something is wrong. The con men believe they could pull one over on her because she is blind, but that doesn't mean she is stupid. Wait Until Dark may not be a traditional horror movie, but the final fifteen minutes or so with Susy and Roat alone in the darkened apartment are as gut-wrenching as I've ever seen. The horror comes from the situation Susy is faced with, the fact that we already know what Roat is capable of, and Susy's fragility and blindness. Together, these factors make for a very exhilarating ending.

• The acting in Wait Until Dark is phenomenal. I cannot tell you how impressed I was with Audrey Hepburn playing the blind Susy Hendrix. I bought her "blind act" from the first moment she appeared on screen. I'm not surprised that Hepburn was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance. And Alan Arkin is so deliciously psychotic as Roat. You really get the feeling he is capable of anything. Richard Crenna and Jack Watson are also quite good as the other two con men.

Wonderful Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman in a movie with intense sequences of terror and suspense

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 8 August 2007]

This is highly suspenseful and cerebral mystery that tells about a photographer(Efrem Zimbalist)arriving into N.Y. airport when a young woman(Samantha Jones) delivers secretly a heroin-filled doll.Later his blind wife(Audrey Hepburn),finding alone in their apartment is terrorized by a duo of nasties crooks(Richard Crenna,Jack Weston)and a cruel psycho(Alan Arkin)looking for the drug stuffed doll hided in her basement flat.It's a battle of wits between intelligent blind woman and evil villains and winds up pitting two rival,the obstinate blind girl and brutal psycho against each other in order to save herself and destroy them both.

The film contains tension,thriller,drama,mystery and shocks ,including decent scares with tense terror sequences especially in its final part,in a creepy denouement,near of the end with a crazy killer trying murder her.Although is sometimes slow moving and stagy,however is entertaining for the continuous suspense.Audrey Hepburn is sensational in one of her best films and terrific performance by Alan Arkin as a grisly murderer.Sinister and mysterious atmosphere is finely made by the cameraman Charles Lang and appropriate musical score by the classic Henry Mancini(Pink Panther's creator score).The film is produced by Mel Ferrer(Hepburn's husband) and based on Frederick Knotts's writings.The motion picture is well directed by Terence Young ,author of two best James Bond films(Dr No and From Russia with love)and again directed to Audrey Hepburn in a failed film titled ¨Bloodline¨.The movie will like to suspense enthusiastic and Hepburn fans.Rating : Better than average.

The Ultimate Thriller

[LahaiRoi · 10/10 · 21 November 2000]

"Wait Until Dark" has lasted for 23 years as one of the scariest movies ever made. Audrey is fabulous as a blind woman who is harassed by three men trying to find an object in her apartment without her noticing. The cinematography is excellent, especially at the end when the audience is practically struck blind as well. A wonderful choice for viewing on a dark night.

A Thriller That Would Be Nothing Without Hepburn and Arkin

[evanston_dad · 6/10 · 13 January 2007]

One of those high-concept suspense thrillers that falls apart the second you start analyzing its plot, "Wait Until Dark" goes around the world and back again in order to set up its premise -- blind woman being stalked by criminal thugs -- and then sits back and lets the actors do all of the work. And, luckily for this movie's creators, the actors deliver. Audrey Hepburn makes this a much better movie than it has any right being, and Alan Arkin delivers a weird but effective performance as the off-kilter psycho who comes after her for some heroin he believes is stashed in her apartment. The film gives away its stage origins -- most of the action is confined to Hepburn's apartment, and director Terence Young doesn't do a lot to give his movie a cinematic quality. But Hepburn and Arkin make this worth watching, and some moments toward the end do succeed in generating some truly nail-biting suspense.

Grade: B-

Questionable Story, But Good Acting

[Lechuguilla · 5/10 · 6 July 2003]

The problem with this film is its dubious story. The villain, Roat, conceives a plan that requires that he change his disguise, and further requires that he manipulate two other people. I can see how a psychopath might be intelligent and clever. What defies belief is how someone preoccupied with drugs could be so inventive, so creative, so quick-witted, and so resourceful. Had the object of his attention been something other than drugs, a valuable gem for example, the premise might have had more credibility.

To further the plot along, Roat's complex scheme requires an intelligent victim. And thus, Susy Hendrix, although blind, is super alert, quick-witted, and resourceful. Helping Susy is Gloria, the glasses-wearing, precocious teen.

Indeed, "Wait Until Dark" gushes with smart characters who know exactly what to say and do, at exactly the right moment. The result is a story that comes across as affected and artificial, a conclusion further supported by the film's implausible ending.

If the story is weak, the acting is not. Alan Arkin is terrific as the villain. Both Crenna and Weston give credible performances. And who could criticize the demure and likable Audrey Hepburn? Not me.

This movie does belong in the "thriller" genre. But its suspense is diluted somewhat by a too talky script, the result perhaps of its origin as a play.

Overall, "Wait Until Dark" is a good movie to watch once, mainly for the acting achievements of Arkin and Hepburn.

Classic Suspense with Legendary Actress

[jiffyscott · 11 April 2000]

I watched this movie out of sheer "desperation" -- I couldn't find any current movies on that I wanted to see or that I hadn't seen before, so I just ended up on the channel this film was on. It was fate!! What a fun, suspenseful film!!

If you have not seen Audrey Hepburn in a movie, see this and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and you will *really* appreciate her talent and beauty. Also of mention is Alan Arkin. I read that critics didn't like his role as the heavy in this film when it was first released, but personally I think he is great in it -- intimidating and kitschy at the same time.

This film builds the suspense throughout perfectly. There is not a lull or a let-down to be found! Also, this has a twist ending and a classic suspense/horror plot element that has been done many times since, but not as well!

The Bottom Line: 4 1/2 Jiffy's Out of 5

Gutsy filmmaking and great performances

[srella · 9/10 · 15 November 2001]

Everyone's afraid of the things that go bump in the night. For people who are blind, things that go bump in the day can be just as frightening.

Terrence Young's "Wait Until Dark," starring Audrey Hepburn, capitalizes on just that fear. A man in an airport is handed a doll by a complete stranger. The doll, unbeknownst to the man, is being used to transport heroin into the country. When some crooks want the doll, they track down the man. Their search leads them to his New York City apartment ... and his wife, who is blind.

Audrey Hepburn turns in a wonderful performance as Suzy Hendrix, a woman who has been coping with blindness for a year. Just starting blind school and learning how to relive her life, Suzy is a functioning -- albeit frightened -- mass of walking vulnerability. Her husband (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) is intent on making her learn how to do things on her own, and she is eager to please him, while at the same time desperate for help. Her stress and fatigue is palpable.

When the crooks -- played by Richard Crenna and Jack Weston, and led by a heavily accented Alan Arkin -- begin their elaborate confidence scam against Suzy, she has no way of knowing they are lying. If Crenna says he is an old war friend of Suzy's husband, how does she know he is making it up? If they tell her there is a police car watching her from outside her window, how is she supposed to know the street is empty? If the leader Roat is a different character each time he comes into her apartment, how can she tell?

Sadly -- and very suspensefully -- she is unable to tell truth from lies without the help from both her young neighbor Gloria and her own heightened senses. The suspense shifts halfway into the film from us wondering if she will be swayed by the conmen to if she will be able to outsmart them, and, ultimately, if she will be able to outlive them.

"Wait Until Dark" is an amazingly suspenseful film with wonderful performances by Hepburn, Arkin, and Crenna. It keeps you both on the edge of your seat and at the end of your patience as you wait for Hepburn to realize what we already know. Not only are the men out to get the doll, but they are out to destroy Hepburn's confidence, as well as her life.

Hepburn is totally believable as a blind woman, and she certainly did enough background work to earn the commendation -- as well as an Oscar nomination. Studying at a school for the blind before filming began, Hepburn learned how to use a walking stick, how to do her hair and make-up with her eyes closed, and even wore special contact lenses to impair her vision. Watching her, you truly feel her desperation and her vulnerability.

Perhaps what makes this feel so good is the boldness of its approach. Just as Hepburn smashes out the light bulbs in her apartment to nullify her enemies' advantage, so too does director Terrence Young put the audience in the same spot as both the victim and the attacker. With moments of pure darkness in the film's final, nail-biting scene, the audience is also rendered blind, forced to rely on their other senses, just as Suzy does. It is gutsy, and it is brilliant. The loss of vision only heightens our tension. It makes us the hunted.

Granted, there are some questionable plot points -- such as why Suzy didn't let young Gloria, who she soon found had the doll all along, keep it at her place, and out of the hands of the con artists, as well as the perplexing question of why a blind woman living in New York City very seldomly locks her door. But these are minutia in a sea of wonderful filmmaking, and nothing can take away from the "Wait Until Dark"'s wonderful, gradual climation of suspense. It is subtle, it is perfectly cast, and it is scary as hell.

Wow, I was really, really wrong about this one...

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 17 February 2013]

For years, I avoided seeing this film. After all, I thought, how can you base an entire film on such a flimsy plot?! Some guys terrorize a blind lady in her apartment--how interesting can that be?! Well, I finally broke down and saw it--and I was really surprised. The film had MUCH more depth than I'd suspected and it was amazingly taut thriller.

The film begins with an old man sewing some heroin into a doll. The doll is then taken aboard a plane by a lady and she convinces a nice guy (Efram Zimbalist Jr.) to carry it for her. Later, some very evil men come to get the doll--and the trail has led to Zimbalist's home. But he and his blind wife (Audrey Hepburn) have no idea what's going on nor that their lives are in danger. Now here is where it gets interesting. The three criminals (Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna and Jack Weston) decide that instead of just bursting in the place and ransacking it, they'll run a scam on the blind woman--and that is where the film gets REALLY interesting. I'd say more, but don't want to spoil the suspense. However, the film gets really, really creepy and the plot offered man surprises because it was so intelligently written. A few things I liked was the interesting child in the film (very unusual and different) and the wild ending. Overall, I major surprise to me and one of Hepburn's better films.

Deliciously Terrifying

[tacosauce0707 · 9/10 · 2 July 2005]

never have i ever seen a movie so thrilling that i have actually dreaded finishing it because i was having so much fun. there isn't a single part in the entire movie where you feel like you can take a second to look down at the bucket of popcorn and grab a handful because you know that as soon as you do you will miss something important and you wouldn't want to do that. right from the beginning with the airport scene the audience is given a sort of creepy feeling about what is going on and we cheer for the woman because she is portrayed similarly to a julia roberts in pretty woman (a prostitute trying to get away from her demanding pimp). although its clear that this person has never been the woman's friend and they will certainly never will. the entire premise of hepburn's blindness is amazing. i heard that they had to give her special contact lenses because her eyes were too intense for a blind person. isn't that mind-blowing? everything took off smoothly and the whole flight was without turbulence. although the landing was a tad jolty it left the viewer satisfied non the less. even when it seems as though hepburn's character is about to get killed she manages to get out of the situation smoothly. despite our crestfallen feelings of her surely impending doom after seeing her struggling to pick up a few household cutlery, she manages to prove not only to us but also to her husband that she can be a champion blind.

There is one scene that will really make you jump!

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 11 October 2005]

In my opinion, a movie really passes as being scary if a scene makes you jump. "Wait Until Dark" has one such scene (but I won't tell you what it is; I'm gonna let you get scared). The plot involves blind Suzy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn) unwittingly involved in a drug-smuggling plot. The really creepy aspect comes when oily thug Harry Roat (Alan Arkin) gets into her confidence.

This is one of those movies that will probably make you suspicious of the people around you. And don't stop the movie at any point - you have to watch it beginning to end to get the full experience. Another classic movie from one of the world's classic actresses and an ever dependable actor.

Scary but a bit slow getting into full gear...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 28 August 2006]

Only a handful of actresses were able to display vulnerability as well as AUDREY HEPBURN does in WAIT UNTIL DARK--and she's especially good here because she's playing a woman recently blinded who is learning how to cope with her handicap when the story begins.

The plot's suspense depends entirely on how she gradually (very gradually) becomes aware of the danger she's in when three intruders invade her apartment on a pretext--until finally, she learns that what they are really after is a doll stuffed with heroin that has been stored somewhere within her apartment.

It's only when the full realization of her situation becomes clear to Audrey that the story builds to the proper amount of suspense this sort of tale should generate. Before that, things get a little tedious and there's too much interplay between Hepburn and the interlopers before their devious scheme is developed.

The heroin seekers are played in rather theatrical style by ALAN ARKIN, JACK WESTON and RICHARD CRENNA and the stage origins of the original are sometimes clearly evident in the claustrophobic apartment setting.

Hepburn's blindness is well-simulated, but the tale itself is a bit too contrived to be taken very seriously. By today's standards, the gripping suspense of the final moments is somewhat tamer than when the film was originally made, diluted no doubt by the more graphic exposition of crime in today's thrillers.

Perhaps this is the fault of Terence Young's direction which lets the pace slacken too much before building to a strong climax.

Thrillers don't come any better than this.

[duane-17 · 10/10 · 10 December 1999]

I ended up watching this film with absolutely no preconceptions whatsoever, due entirely to the fact that I had never heard of the film before, (ignorance rules o.k!).

What I was presented with was an absolute feast of superb acting, Arkin & Hepburn especially. A plot that constantly led the viewer into a false sense of expectation, YES we knew Audrey was going to come out unscathed, but everything else in between ??? The girl who played 'Gloria' was sinister in her own right, & could surely have gone on & played many a possessed child in many a 'poltergeist' type film, had the opportunity arisen.

Personally speaking, I have a very short attention span when it comes to movies of any kind, but this one gripped me from start to end. Arkin wouldn't have looked out of place in a 1990's pulp fiction genre. Scary, believable, superb! Hepburn was her usual vivacious self, apparently revelling in the blind woman against all odds scenario, superb!

Two scary, sh** I wasn't expecting that, type of moments came in the form of the Arkin's car driving, & his incredible gymnastic spring towards the end. Corny maybe?, but so well done it can be totally forgiven.

The fact is, that this could so very easily have become a very mediocre 'stage play to film' adaptation. What makes it that little bit special is very hard to pinpoint. Perhaps it's because it's NOT a Hitchcock, but could so very easily have been. One can only ponder how the master of suspense himself could have improved this gem of film?

I would recommend anyone who watches this movie, to dim the lights to a mere glow, & prepare to be sucked in!

& remember to guard your luggage just that little more carefully next time at the airport!

Hepburn performance raises this above usual blind girl movies

[dfranzen70 · 7/10 · 23 February 2000]

In this classic movie, the elegant Audrey Hepburn is a young blind woman, left alone by her husband in their apartment. That would be okay, except thugs have an idea that some heroin is hidden in a doll in the apartment. So naturally said thugs spend the day trying to get into the apartment and find the doll. Hepburn plays the scared damsel-in-distress well, and she doesn't play her like a completely helpless fool, either. There are plenty of scenes that are relatively quiet, as the bad guys try to move around the apartment without Hepburn hearing them. The script keeps things moving along (not always easy when almost the entire movie takes place in the apartment), as the crooks try all sorts of means to get inside and get to the doll. How well they succeed more or less dictates how good the movie is, too: As they go, so goes the film.

GREAT THRILLER STAGE STUFF BECAUSE OF AUDREY & ALAN!

[shepardjessica-1 · 8/10 · 5 November 2004]

I'j not a big fan of thriller plays (and I've acted in this one), but well-made with superb casting - mainly Ms. Hepburn & Mr. Arkin with gliding, smooth support from Mr. Crenna & Mr. Weston; superbly lit with a great set and menacing music, it was Hepburn's last film for nine years and she should have won Best Actress (nominated), and I pick Bonnie & Clyde to win ALL the other categories (acting-wise), she kicks into gear and then retires..until ROBIN & MARION nine years later.

Anyway, most stage-play thrillers don't make it on FILM, but this one is very claustrophobic and believable because of Hepburn (who studies with blind people for a while). Turn the lights off ..like they did in the last 8 minutes in the theatre when it opened in '67!

Don't wait until dark to see this one

[helpless_dancer · 7/10 · 15 November 2001]

Terrifying look at how innocent lives can be changed with one simple chance meeting. Why Susie didn't just give the doll back as soon as she found it is beyond me. The hoods would have fought it out for the loot and maybe killed each other. Then again, perhaps one of them would have returned anyway. Very effective movie, much scarier than many of the splatter movies so popular lately, especially the last few minutes. Good acting from the entire cast; I particularly enjoyed all the devious facial expressions by Crenna and Weston.

too improbable to be effective

[jack-mckay-291-882636 · 5/10 · 13 February 2012]

Perhaps this was plausible back in the innocent 60s, but now there's just too much stretching of credibility for this movie to be effective. It's hard to be seriously frightened when what the bad guys are doing is impossible to believe.

Would real drug dealers go to such lengths for what appears to be perhaps a quarter of a kilo of heroin, street value $20,000, tops? Would serious bad guys engage in elaborate measures, including costumes and play-acting, in an attempt to fool Susie into revealing the location of the doll? In real life, one of them would put a knife to her throat in scene one, and that would be that.

Other things just misfire. Would a bad guy intent on terrorizing Susie splash gasoline all around, and then light a match, virtually assuring self-immolation just to scare her? For that matter, how many New Yorkers would leave a front door unlocked, with a note, no less, telling anyone who comes by that the door is unlocked, come on in? That's how Mike and Carlino get in so easily at the start, and how plausible is it that Carlino, instead of participating in the search for the doll, raids the refrigerator and lazily fixes himself a sandwich?

That's the weakness of this movie, in this modern era: it's so implausible that it's not convincing, and hence isn't particularly frightening. We know much more, I'm afraid, about drugs and drug dealing and drug dealers, than we did in 1967.