Imagine my pleasant surprise when I discovered that “Wait Until Dark” is going to air on TCM in less that two hours. For the uninitiated, “Wait Until Dark” is a 1967 suspense thriller starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin. It is based upon the 1966 stage production of the same name. As this trailer shows, it is essentially the story of a blind woman being terrorized by three not very nice men:
I am excited for the following reasons: first,. it will fill part of the gap of “What to watch on a Sunday night” left by “True Blood” coming to an end. Secondly, I simply have not seen the film in such a long time, but what I remember of the movie is the fright that it left me with – especially in the climatic sequences of the film.
The only question I had for myself was, that from the time I last saw the film, had I mis-remembered how good I thought it was? Of course that question would be answered when I re-watch the movie; but me being me, I decided to pre-empt my reaction and do some internet research on the movie. I ended up stumbling up a review written by Roger Ebert over 40 years ago. In an eloquence I could only dream of emulating, Mr. Ebert offered a very balanced opinion of the film – including some of the flaws in the narrative. In fact, they were flaws that I had not previously considered in previous screenings.
As I go into watching the film this evening, I will be seeing the film through an additional perspective. And I am really looking forward to it.
I love Audrey (who doesn’t?) but have not heard of this. How was it on a 2nd viewing ?
My 9-5 took over so I was forced to watch is rather passively. Audrey actually got nominated for an Oscar for her performance! It is indeed a very interesting but as Roger Ebert stated in the review it does require that you “go with it.” In other words in real life this may not be the way action would shake out. But it was a great claustrophobic piece (after all it was based on a play) so the terror when it takes place is that more impactful.