07/12/2005 10:58 AM
Posted by VeggieSteph

Wait Until Dark starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin

Wait Until Dark is a 1967 thriller that ages well, has a great plot, and ends with a serious bang. It effectively builds up tension and when it ends– BAM! Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin are perfect for their roles. (I have a hard time thinking of him as anything but the goofy chief of police in So I Married an Ax Murderer, so this was an eye opener for me.)

I grabbed this on my TIVO after seeing one of those “AFIs scariest moments in movies shows.” The last scene ranked pretty high, and no wonder. It's a doozy.



The story is fresh, despite the age of the film. Three goons are in search of a doll filled with heroin, which was passed off to a stranger to get it through customs. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to recover, since it is in the apartment of Audrey Hepburn. After the first few minutes, the tension begins to build while Audrey continues on in her daily chores, the whole time the audience knowing that the goons will be back, and it will get ugly. For a while, they play her sympathies, and she has no idea that she could be in danger. It works, and your stomach is in knots thinking about how terrifying it is for this woman to simply be newly blind, and then, having to fear for her safety while she has no idea.She’s a smart lady, and the last few scenes are nail biting, even if you’ve seen 100s of thrillers like I have. Audrey Hepburn is believable as a blind person (she spent some time learning to read braille, and they fitted her with contacts to tone down her eyes, because they thought they were too expressive for a blind person). Alan Arkin is downright creepy as the murderous goon (One of the great trivia bits from IMDB.com is that they had an impossible time casting his role. No one wanted to be the guy who terrorizes a blind woman, much less Audrey Hepburn). Great casting, great dialogue, great tension.

I recommend this one if you love thrillers, and you don't think you'll be turned off by the age of the film. Another great one with a similar plot is Blind Terror (aka See No Evil) starring Mia Farrow and released in 1971.