Wait Until Dark [Blu-ray]

Director: Terence Young Terence Young

Overview

Wait Until Dark is an innovative, highly entertaining and suspenseful thriller about a blind housewife, Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn). Independent and resourceful, Susy is learning to cope with her blindness, which resulted from a recent accident. She is aided by her difficult, slightly unreliable young neighbor Gloria (Julie Herrod) with whom she has an exasperated but lovingly maternal relationship. Susy's life is changed as she is terrorized by a group of criminals who believe she has hidden a baby doll used by them to smuggle heroin into the country. Unknown to Susy, her photographer husband Sam (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) took the doll as a favor for a woman he met on an international plane flight and unwittingly brought the doll to the couple's New York apartment when the woman became afraid of the customs officials. Alone in her apartment and cut-off from the outside world, Susy must fight for her life against a gang of ruthless criminals, led by the violent, psychotic Roat (Alan Arkin). The tension builds as Roat, aided by his gang, impersonates police officers and friends of her husband in order to win Susy's confidence, gaining access to her apartment to look for the doll. The climax of the film, a violent physical confrontation between Susie and Roat in her dark kitchen, is one of the most memorable and frightening scenes in screen history. All performances are outstanding, particularly those of Audrey Hepburn who plays a vulnerable, but self-reliant woman, and Alan Arkin, in perhaps his best role, as the ruthless, manipulative Roat.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/24/2017
UPC:	0888574451400
Original Release:	1967
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:48:00
Sales rank:	1,429

Special Features

Take a look in the Dark as Alan Arkin and producer Mel Ferrer reminisce about the making of the film; Theatrical trailer; Warning trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Audrey Hepburn	Susy Hendrix
Alan Arkin	Harry Roat
Richard Crenna	Mike Talman
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.	Sam Hendrix
Jack Weston	Carlino
Samantha Jones	Lisa
Julie Herrod	Gloria
Frank O'Brien	Shatner
Gary Morgan	Boy
Jean Del Val	The Old Man
Efrem Zimbalist	Actor
Robby Benson	Boy Tossing Ball
Henry Mancini	Composer

Technical Credits

Jane-Howard Carrington

Frederick Knott

Terence Young	Director
Jane-Howard Carrington	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Mel Ferrer	Producer
Frederick Knott	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Few films have been imitated more often than this 1967 thriller, a dazzling tour de force for Oscar-nominated Audrey Hepburn and very likely the best film directed by Terence Young outside the James Bond series. Based on a hit Broadway play by Frederick Knott (who also wrote Dial M for Murder), Wait Until Dark stars Hepburn as Suzy Hendrix, a blind woman trapped in her New York apartment by a psychotic criminal (Alan Arkin) and his accomplices (Richard Crenna and Jack Weston). They believe Hepburn is concealing a doll stuffed with high-grade heroin, which they mean to get by any means necessary. A claustrophobic cat-and-mouse game ensues, with the terrorized Hepburn trying to stay one jump ahead of the crooks until her absent husband (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) returns. She is absolutely terrific in this part, exhibiting fear and vulnerability for much of the film but projecting strength and determination when demonstrations of those qualities serve the plot. In her hands the helpless blind woman isn’t simply a stock melodrama type; she’s a fully developed character that engenders audience sympathy from the get-go. Arkin’s role is actually the flashier one, but his performance also is finely tuned for maximum effectiveness. Young’s directing is expert in every way: The pacing is extremely precise, accelerating at exactly the right moments; the lighting and camera placements perfectly establish mood and capture the limited physical action; and his direction of the actors plays to their individual strengths without sacrificing credibility. A succession of knockoffs, each more lackluster than the last, have eroded Wait Until Dark’s novelty value, but the film’s quality and effectiveness is still readily apparent.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Wait Until Dark is a memorably suspenseful thriller, even more so considering that the film's action rarely leaves its one-apartment setting. Much like the work of Alfred Hitchcock -- most notably 1948's Rope -- Dark is a desolate, brutal film. Best-known for his work on early James Bond films, director Terence Young subtly builds tension until the pulse-racing climax. Much of the menace is courtesy of Alan Arkin's stellar performance. In one of his first screen roles, Arkin is so compellingly amoral that he almost steals the movie from his more illustrious co-star, Audrey Hepburn. Still, the lovely Hepburn holds her own, bringing depth and compassion to the role of the blind woman being terrorized by Arkin's smarmy villain. She was nominated for her fifth Academy Award for her performance as the innocent-yet-determined victim.

All Movie Guide