seymourblack-1 Saul Bass' opening credits and Paul Glass' jazzy score set the tone for this psychological thriller about the disappearance of a little girl and the police investigation that follows. The atmosphere is dark, unsettling and tense and is beautifully enhanced by Denys N Coop's magnificent cinematography. There's something undeniably perverse about the behaviours of many of the story's characters and this not only complicates the investigation but also increases the number of potential suspects.After arriving in London from the United States, single mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) takes her 4-year-old daughter, Bunny, to be enrolled at a local nursery. With no staff members available to receive the new pupil, Ann enters the kitchen and informs the grumpy German cook that she's leaving the child in the building's "First Day Room" and rushes off to meet the removal men who are waiting to move her possessions into the apartment that she's due to share with her journalist brother, Steven (Keir Dullea). Later that day, when she goes back to the "Little People's Garden School" she's horrified to discover that Bunny has disappeared and none of the staff seem very helpful or indeed, willing to take any responsibility. Ann turns to Steven for help and after he carries out a search of the building, they decide to call the police.Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) is assigned to the case and discovers that no-one at the nursery remembers seeing the little girl and the cook has quit her job. Furthermore,when one of his detectives goes with Steven to his apartment to get a photograph of the missing girl, they find that all Bunny's belongings have mysteriously disappeared. This leads Newhouse to question whether Bunny actually exists and when he's informed that, as a child, Ann had an imaginary playmate, also called Bunny, he starts to have doubts about Ann's mental state.Ann feels frustrated about not being able to prove that Bunny exists until she remembers that she has a receipt for one of the girl's dolls which she'd taken to a nearby shop for repair. When she succeeds in collecting the doll, things suddenly become more sinister in a way that shocks her but eventually enables the mystery surrounding Bunny's disappearance to be solved.The eccentricities of the characters in this movie, provide a great deal of interest for its audience as well as providing the actors with some colourful roles that they're able to exploit to the full. Ada Ford (Marita Hunt) is the retired co-founder of the nursery who lives (seemingly as a recluse) in an attic room where she spends her time researching and writing about her rather unhealthy interest in children's nightmares. Ann's creepy landlord Horatio Wilson (Noel Coward) is an alcoholic, masochist and radio broadcaster who, despite being gay, still hits on her and tries to impress her with his "melodious voice". Superintendent Newhouse is thoughtful, reserved and methodical in his work and also recognises that Ann and Steven's relationship seems more like that of a married couple rather than that of a typical brother and sister. The acting performances are all of the highest calibre and enormously enjoyable to watch."Bunny Lake Is Missing" didn't receive the critical or commercial success it deserved at the time of its initial release but has achieved greater recognition since. It certainly does well at evoking the period in which it's set and in this connection, the three songs contributed by "The Zombies" are both important and great to hear again.

SnoopyStyle Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) is an American recently settled in London. She comes to pick up her daughter Bunny after her first day and finds her missing. Nobody seems to know anything about her. Her brother magazine reporter Steven Lake (Keir Dullea) is the only one who knows her. Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) investigates but soon wonders if she has made the whole thing up.This movie starts off with such a powerful compelling sequence as Ann Lake try to find her daughter at the school. It's a nightmare that is close to heart for every parent. However as it goes on, I found the movie to be uneven. Olivier is able to hold the various pieces together but I found the brother to be unreal. Director Otto Preminger made a very interesting movie that I found some parts to be more compelling than others. Overall, I found the good parts to be so great that the less good parts aren't that bothersome.

Jellybeansucker It's film making, is what this odd little number, as some have called it, is really about. Great film making that could teach many how to do it. The use of black and white photography is delicious, which by the mid 60s had reached a really high art. There is a large clutch of really well shot black and white movies of the 50s and 60s which are all in competition with each other on the cinematography front, ranging from jazzy to arty to just plain classy, as BLIM is. This is a good example of Otto Prem's talent in the craft.Then the theme or subject, and this film's was of the latest trend of the day in psychological thrillers, missing children, with the obviously dark tone that comes with it. Very similar in tone and theme and time of release to Séance On A Wet Afternoon, BLIM provides a much better thriller experience, IMO and delivers just as much mystery.The cast has an ace in landing Lawrence Oilvier and of course it means class just oozes from the screen here. Olivier, the classy photography, the detached air of the narrative, the thoughtful screenplay, the trendy 60s London setting, and not least the Zombies soundtrack including a clever pub TV showing of them, means the film is as much art piece as thriller, but it does end in a proper thriller way in much darkness and its villain looks like Norman Bates' urbane cousin from uptown.So yes BLIM undoubtedly owes its soul to Psycho but it does do a great job of doing it all its own way. This is a very English, understated, classy little minor Psycho, if you like. I love it, it has credibility flaws if you want to be harsh on it, but the atmosphere it creates is top rate, as is the quietly classy style it has. Very of its time, and if you love anything to do with 60s London then add this one to your collection.

LeonLouisRicci Inconsistent and sometimes quite dull as a Director Preminger helms this audacious 60's genre trend of Hammer and Hitchcock, that of the Psychological Thriller. He seems to be right on the pulse of the better of these things when it collapses in the Third Act with missteps of overwrought childhood game silliness. These things are best left to the psyche not acted out on the playground for here it loses all sense of tension. But leading up to the conclusion there is plenty of stimulation both visually and from the unending parade of offbeat and creepy Characters.Things are kept centered by some fine Acting all around and a pastiche of unsettling situations. It's a rewarding Movie if the ending is anti-climatic and uneven.