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.
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.