I was watching a Shudder series counting down the scariest movies of all time, and I think I caught a reference to Wait Until Dark there high on the list. I could be wrong, but I don’t quite remember when and where I first heard about the movie. But the premise of a blind woman dodging a killer struck me as interesting, and hey, it was actually on HBO Max.
It’s leaving at the end of the month too, but it looks like a Turner Classic Movies selection, so it might not be gone for very long.
A woman, smuggling drugs inside of a doll, gets concerned when she spots someone at the airport and convinces a photographer (Efrem Zimbalist Jr) to hold onto the doll for her. He takes it home, and the woman is taken away and killed. As it is, the woman had a pair of partners, recently out of prison for a con they used to pull, who are looking for the woman since she managed to get clear away while they went to jail, but her killer Harry Roat (Alan Arkin) meets them with a proposition: if they help Roat find the doll, he’ll pay them. The two men, Mike (Richard Crenna) and Carlino (Jack Weston), agree, but there’s a twist: the photographer won’t be home, but his wife (Audrey Hepburn) will be. And she’s blind.
As it turns out, Hepburn’s Susy has only recently lost her sight, so she’s still learning how to get around. Her husband Sam needs to head out to take some photos, and since Susy is blind, she can’t see a lot of the things other people are doing. Mike, first, shows up claiming to be an old Marine Corp pal of Sam, something he can pull off because he can easily look around the apartment for information without Susy realizing it. Since the woman with the doll turned up dead (in Susy’s closet originally, actually), Mike, Carlino, and Roat all come along, playing different roles in an attempt to get the doll that Susy can’t even find in her apartment under the threat of sending Sam to prison for the woman’s murder. However, just because Susy is blind doesn’t mean she is stupid or helpless.
Oh, I enjoyed this one. I was expecting this to be about a killer after a blind woman, but it really is more of an elaborate con being played on a woman who can’t see. Mike and Carlino are con artists. They aren’t particularly interested in hurting Susy. Roat, on the other hand, is clearly a psycho, and I was pleasantly surprised by Arkin in the role since I don’t think I have ever seen him play such an obvious villain before. Besides, this is one of those movies where it comes down to a smart script, and I tend to enjoy those more. It probably doesn’t hurt this was a stage play first. It has that feel with most of the movie set in Susy and Sam’s apartment.
As for Hepburn, she’s fine. This isn’t exactly the sort of role she’s known for, and that alone might make this worth a look for her bigger fans. Her Susy is a bit too much for screaming and general helplessness in many ways, but that’s somewhat to be expected given the time it was made. It also helps that Crenna brings some sort of authority to his role as a man pretending to be an ally, and I wasn’t overly surprised that director Terence Young also directed a number of Sean Connery’s James Bond movies, so he knows how to frame an action shot. Susy is blind, so it stands to reason she would use it to her advantage once she figures out what’s what. It may not put her on equal standing with the men looking to get the doll, but at the least, it gives her a fighting chance, and I got a real kick out of this one.
Grade: A
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