pietclausen It has been many years since I saw this film, probably in 1968. I remember it was a very suspenseful and tense movie which I thoroughly absorbed. If I could have rated it in those years I would probably have given it 8 out of 10.I watched this movie again today and what I enjoyed most was seeing very well known actors in their twilight years today, as young adults in this movie. I had not recalled that known actors starred in this film, other than Audrey Hepburn with her outstanding portrayal as the blind woman, who passed away a number of years ago. Because I did remember part of the plot, I found the beginning a bit drawn out this time around. The story today would also be totally absurd, cumbersome and aged. Nevertheless it is still an enjoyable and good movie for which I give it a rating of 7 in this day and age.

Pjtaylor-96-138044 This enigmatic thriller's greatest strength lies in its ominous, suspenseful tone - helped immensely by its excellent, slightly off-key soundtrack and instantly gripping opening - which Young wisely knows when to push to the foreground or pull to the back while never letting it truly relent. It's interesting how the audience is able to not only know the intentions of the criminals but also understand the blind protagonist's perspective too. This means that the various reveals in 'Wait Until Dark (1967)' aren't shocking to us but they are to her, which is a move that shouldn't have worked yet strangely does incredibly well. It's in the way in which we see her come to understand the situation that we realise how terrifying it truly must be. The horror comes from how phenomenally we are put in the shoes of the protagonist, how vulnerable we feel when we relate to her and. Then, it transforms slightly when she starts to embrace her relatively newfound world of literal darkness and fight back against those who would take advantage of her. It's when we start to see how determined and resourceful she truly is that the chills turn to thrills and pure excitement, but a hint of dread always remains. This leads into the feature's fantastically tense finale that uses its unique slant extremely well and finishes the piece on a high note. There's never true safety, and no safety nets, and its because our lead has to find her own way out of the situation that it ends up so satisfying. 8/10

mbrachman I'll mention my objections, then why I love this movie anyway.1) New York City, specifically Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan: A van is able to park on a near-deserted street in the middle of the Village- it is used by the three villains in the movie. Nearby, they also have a sedan parked in an equally untrafficked parking lot. In New York City, in one of the most crowded areas of Manhattan. A girl approaches a man, offering Girl Scout cookies, and the sidewalk is otherwise deserted. Does this Friday night Greenwich Village exist in some alternate universe?A 12-year-old girl, whose parents have split up and is living with her neglectful mother, is ostensibly precocious and streetwise, as one would expect such a New York City latchkey girl to be. Yet apparently she is unfamiliar with vans (never mind vans' ubiquity as delivery and cab vehicles in the city) and refers to one she sees a "a kind of squatty truck." Really?2) Stupid behavior by ostensibly smart adults. A blind woman and her husband live in an apartment in the Village- not just an apartment, but a basement (also called a "garden" apartment by savvy real estate agents) apartment, the kind most susceptible to break-ins. Yet they nonchalantly go about their business without locking the door to the apartment. Are we in New York City or Mayberry?A professional photographer, returning to New York from Canada, agrees to accept a doll from a woman, a perfect stranger, on the basis of a made-up story as both clear customs at JFK International Airport. Savvy, experienced New York City dwellers accept packages for safekeeping from strangers all the time, right?A pair of ostensibly streetwise veteran con artists wander into previously mentioned unlocked apartment, casually putting their fingerprints everywhere, on the basis of a typed note from previously mentioned doll-woman, who is their former partner in crime and whom they've been led to believe is the rightful tenant of said apartment, taking a full 10 minutes to realize that she has no typing/secretarial skills and that they've laid themselves open to being set up.3) The blind woman goes back to apartment while the three hoodlums are there, yet doesn't detect their presence.4) Timeline. Said blind woman was blinded in accident just over a year before the action in the film, yet in that time has met and married previously mentioned photographer, and they've established a pal-around routine as if they'd been together for years and she'd been blind for far longer.5) Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. To put it mildly, his presence in the film (mercifully brief; confined to a few scenes) is not an asset. He plays a thinly-altered variation of the steely-jawed, high-school-football-coach-spouting-rousing-clichés, all-American hero he played concurrently on the popular TV series "The FBI," a right-wing weekly propaganda outlet for J. Edgar Hoover and his PR department. The scenes between him and Hepburn as his wife are cringe-worthy "you can do it!" kitsch, a stereotype of the crusty-but-heart-of-gold man acting as savior to the ill and/or disabled (but typically still fully photogenic) woman. As always, Zimbalist's emotional and acting range are between A and A. Ugh. This guy's supposed to be a highly-sought-after art and professional photographer in Bohemian Greenwich Village? Ronald Reagan would have been just as convincing.6) Several murders take place on or offscreen in this neighborhood, yet do not bring the police nearby or arouse any interest of the (apparently invisible or non-existent) neighbors. But then, as I said before, this is one strangely underpopulated, nearly deserted New York City.OK, now I've gotten all that off my chest, I can discuss why I love this movie anyway. First of all, it is, outside of Hitchcock ("Rope," "Dial M for Murder," "Rear Window," the last of which shared with "Wait Until Dark" the same playwright, Frederick Knott), the best claustrophobic, within-one-small-apartment thriller in cinematic history (I'm referring to films where all or almost all of the action takes place within a tiny confined space). The pacing (aside from aforementioned, exposition-setting cringeworthy Zimbalist/Hepburn scenes) and the slow building of suspense to an unpredictable climax are simply superb.And the acting is, Zimbalist aside, outstanding. Richard Crenna as a veteran con artist does well stepping out of the nice-guy persona he had created on the TV sitcom "The Real McCoys," and Jack Weston as his oafish partner in crime Carlino is appropriately thuggish but still likable. Julie Herrod, repeating her Broadway performance, does a nice job as bratty-but-sympathetic Gloria, the tween-age girl helping the blind woman. Samantha Jones is skilled in her brief role as a glamorous and beautiful drug mule smuggling heroin across the Canada-U.S. border.Audrey Hepburn was not really exploring new acting territory (for her) as the frail and vulnerable innocent in danger (she played very similar roles in "Charade," "The Children's Hour," and, to a certain extent, in her lead debut, "Roman Holiday"), but her performance as blind woman Susy Hendrix at the mercy of three desperados is still a standout.But the biggest kudos has to go to Alan Arkin as chief bad guy Harry Roat, a.k.a. Harry Roat Sr., a.k.a. Harry Roat Jr., a cool, stiletto-toting hipster in shades and a black leather jacket who will scare the bejesus out of you. It is tribute to Arkin's range as a comedic and serious actor when you consider the three roles he played in two years' time: as the sympathetic but humorous executive officer of a Soviet submarine in the Cold War-confrontation comedy "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!" (1966), as the scary but entertaining sociopath Roat in "Wait Until Dark" (1967), and as the sweet, tragic, deaf watchmaker John Singer in "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" (1968).

sandnair87 Terence Young's Wait until Dark, based on Frederick Knott's gimmicky stage play, is as an exceptional suspense drama - a perfect example of how mood, atmosphere, music, and direction can overcome plot contrivances.The plot lurks around Suzy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn, in a superior performance), a recently blinded NYC housewife whose husband Sam is determined to make "the world's champion blind lady" out of her. Although she can handle most of her daily chores alone, she still requires some help from Gloria, the dorky pre-teen girl who lives upstairs. Unbeknownst to her, Sam has accidentally played into the hands of heroin-smuggling mole who plants a dope-loaded doll in his possession. It doesn't take long for Suzy to get herself in trouble when a group of con men grease their way into her apartment in an elaborate plot to locate the doll. Two of them are merely petty con-men, but their employer Harry Roat (Alan Arkin who is unbelievably creepy) is a sinister monster. From there on, the movie ruthlessly tightens the screws of tension, all leading up to the nail-biting climax, as Roat and Suzy come face to face in her pitch-dark apartment.The film makes little effort to overcome its origins as a play, as the majority of the action takes place in Suzy's apartment. Though some of the more contrived elements of Knott's play are still intact here, Terence Young's presentation of Suzy's cloistered surroundings trumps the script's far-fetched tendencies as he manages to create a paradoxical environment of civilization devoid of human life. Also, Young makes the smart decision of setting his thriller inside a basement apartment, the cave-like arches of which have the unsettling effect of positioning Hepburn in a nondescript underground (the windows only look out on the feet of passersby, emphasizing Suzy's disconnect from her neighborhood). Terence Young's remarkable ability to create a believable oppressive locality in Wait until Dark obscures plot holes and irrationalities right up to the film's extended final showdown. By the time Suzy realizes she's completely and hopelessly alone in her apartment, the cumulative effect of Hepburn's palpable desolation and Arkin's ruthlessness, combined with Henry Mancini's overpoweringly harrowing score, bring the film to a justly celebrated climactic bacchanalia, complete with one of suspense cinema's first and most effective shock leaps.Once seen, Wait until Dark will never be forgotten. But be wary if you watch it alone. In fact, watch it with someone who likes to scream!