For tonight’s movie we’re going for more of a psychological thriller than an outright horror (Though it is X rated). This is the 1967 Audrey Hepburn classic “Wait Until Dark”. This was Hepburn’s final movie of her main run of movie stardom, after which she decided to semi-retire and she wouldn’t return to the screen until nine years later with 1976’s Robin and Marian (Which is a fantastic film btw, with Sean Connery as Robin). Wait Until Dark won her nominations for the Golden Globes and Academy Awards for best actress (Losing out to Katharine Hepburn).
Her main support in the movie comes from Richard Crenna, who most movie fans will know as Rambo’s only friend Trautman, but alongside Crenna is Alan Arkin and Jack Weston. The movie is helmed by long time James Bond director Terence Young and is based on a Frederick Knott play (Likely why this is mostly a one room story).
October Review Challenge – Day 28
The movie begins with an altercation at an airport. A woman named Lisa (Samantha Jones) is smuggling heroin inside an old-fashioned doll, but is spooked by the presence of a man at the airport. She gives the doll to a man Sam Hendrix (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) for safe keeping with some story about it being a gift she wants to keep secret, with the intention of picking it up later. A few days later a pair of conmen, Mike (Crenna) and Carlino (Weston) arrive at the apartment of Sam and his blind wife, Susy (Hepburn) believing it to be Lisa’s residence.
The pair are surprised by the arrival of Harry Roat (The man from the airport) who tries to convince them to help locate the doll. They discover the corpse of Lisa and Roat blackmails them (As their prints are all over the house by now) to assist him in disposing of the body and then finding the Doll. The criminals assume the doll is either hidden somewhere, or possibly locked in the a safe that is in the front room. The group then engages in an elaborate con scheme to trick Sam’s wife Susy into revealing to doll’s location and/or opening the safe where they think it is being stored. As part of their con they have taken over a nearby phone booth so they can use it as a fake contact number.
Taking Advantage.
The scheme relies heavily on taking advantage of the fact that Susy is blind. However as the evening goes on she starts to become suspicious and she is aided by Gloria (Julie Herrod), a young girl that lives in the flat upstairs and occasionally helps susy with chores who is able to see the men use the telephone booth from her window upstairs. Unfortunately she is a little too trusting in Mike who had been posing as an old friend of her husbands and before she realises he is in on the scheme she admits that she now has the doll (Gloria had spotted it earlier and had “borrowed” it). She quickly hides and then sends him on a wild goose chase to her husbands office a few streets away.
Unfortunately some of the crew have remained outside to watch the building, so she is still trapped. Out of desperation she sends Gloria to meet her husband at the bus station (where he will be returning to imminently) and starts to prepare the apartment to make it more difficult for them on their return, mostly involving breaking all the lights. When Mike returns the situation changes drastically as allies turn on each other and it looks like Susie may be at the mercy of the psychopathic Mr. Roat. No more spoilers though, you will have to watch to find out how this all ends.
Oscar Worthy Performance?
The obvious thing to note here is the quality of Hepburn’s performance. She lost out on the Oscar to Katharine Hepburn for “Look Whose Coming to Dinner” and I can’t help but feel Katharine as great an actress as she was, won that award by virtue of the movies perceived importance and the popularity of her pairing with Spencer Tracy. Take that out of the picture and I can’t help but feel Audrey was cheated. I have never seen a more convincing performance from someone that isn’t blind playing a blind person. She didn’t do it with the benefit of sunglasses either, so every moment she is on screen she had to convince the viewer with her eyes that she couldn’t see and she does it so well it didn’t even feel like an act.
It’s interesting that blind characters seem to be the last thing in Hollywood that can be played by someone that doesn’t have that specific issue. Hollywood insists on casting actually deaf actors as deaf characters, but when it comes to blind ones it seems fair game. Not sure how long that will continue but even while it continues I doubt someone could do a better job than Audrey did here. Outside of acting blind she puts forth the characters good nature, her struggles with her disability and the sheer terror of the situation incredibly well. However, while I have nothing but praise for the performance the character herself comes across as almost naive in her good nature and far too trusting.
The Villains.
There is a solid performance here from Richard Crena too as the primary antagonist and most likeable of the bunch. You feel he is warming to Susy while also becoming frustrated with her. Good job the chemistry was there since the majority of the film is just him and Hepburn. Alan Arkin as the dangerous Mr. Roat however is a more interesting case. He plays his character over the top, almost like a comic book villain but the interesting thing here is that were he to appear in a movie or TV show these days no one would bat an eyelid to it. Indeed the character would probably be praised.
The strangely nonchalant psycho is a mainstay of modern fiction, for example the show “Mr. Robot” was packed to the brim with characters just like Roat. Back in the 60’s however, his performance seemed out of place. Jack Weston as Carlino is largely just there, but doesn’t harm the film. There was however one very minor (uncredited) role of a character called “Shatner” early on that stood out for notably poor acting, but the moment passed quickly and character didn’t return.
Sound and Story
Another strong aspect of this movie is the Henry Mancini soundtrack. While a good part of it is standard Mancini with a somewhat romantic tone, there are good portions of it that make use of discordant harmonies and somewhat off tunings. It is perhaps a bit of an evolution from Mancini’s “Experiment in Terror” soundtrack, but I feel perhaps with a bit of an influence from Bernard Herrmann’s psycho thrown in for good measure. One of the best things about watching movies from the 60’s is getting to hear soundtracks like this.
The plot is perhaps a weakness. The story relies heavily on the actors to raise it up since the truth is not a huge amount goes on here. There isn’t a great deal of character development and no plot twists so to speak. It is simply a matter of Susy slowly figuring out what is going on around her but even when she figures it out there is little she can do other than try and survive the night. The game of cat and mouse is entertaining to watch though in places you need a great deal of suspension of disbelief. Ultimately though the performances trump the failings in the story and make the tension feel real enough to ignore a few plot holes. The film does drag a bit in the middle though, but not drastically.
The Fear Factor.
In regard to it’s horor based aspects, Susy goes full “Final Girl” at the end and we have three murders throughout the night, including the classic discovery of a corpse in a wardrobe. One of the murders involving vehicular manslaughter was outright brutal and while not featuring gore does involve the guy running back and forwards over the body. I can see how the movie got an X rating. Compared to modern horrors it’s not that intense but it does satisfy in the same way an 80’s final girl survival does. That’s not to say this is really a horror, since the majority of the film is just two-three people talking in a room (Well it is based on a play).
Conclusion.
This was always going to be a movie made or broken by it’s lead. Fortunately it’s the former. There wasn’t quite enough to the story to hit a truly high score here but it definitely deserves a spot in this October’s 7/10 club and probably deserved the Best Actress Oscar too, but that’s the Oscars for you.
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