Wait Until Dark (1967) : A fun and enjoyable home invasion thriller
Wait Until Dark (1967) is a fun and enjoyable thriller or more in the tune of a home invasion film. Most of the film takes place in a single home. It has an intriguing plot with great usage of cinema magic with a magnificent performance by Audrey Hepburn. The film is directed by Terence Young and written by Robert Carrington and Jane-Howard Carrington. It is based on a play by the same name by Frederick Knott.
The plot is simple where a doll that contains drugs gets in the hands of an innocent blind woman named Susy Hendrix (played by Audrey Hepburn) and how a psychotic man named Harry Roat (played by Alan Arkin) and two other goons wants to retrieve the said doll and goes to many means to get it. A girl named Lisa is the one who extracts the doll from Canada to the U.S. and upon arriving she sees a strange man and being worried she hands the doll over to a fellow passenger named Sam Hendrix who happens to be the husband of Susy and is a professional photographer. She tells to keep the doll and will retrieve later. This in turn leads the doll to the house of Susy.
Later when she is alone the three men try to stage an act of play where they play different characters like how one goon plays a so called “friend” of the husband from the marines and another plays a cop and how Harry Roat disguises himself to be a man that has a connection with the doll. This stage play eventually convinces Susy but as she gets help from her 14-year-old helper who lives upstairs (named Gloria) she suspects these men of some wrongdoing hence she tries to survive and hide the doll.
The film has great performances from both Audrey Hepburn as the blind woman. The convincing nature of her performance and the way she pleads in innocence and how she uses her surroundings to fight back are all joyful to watch. Her face expressions are such that she never makes us feel the loss of authenticity and it shows the experience of a great actress. I had read that she got nominated for best actress award for the academy. Maybe that could be disagreeable but nonetheless it is a great performance by a great performer.
Alan Arkin is the other performer that needs mention and his performance as this psychotic man out for the parcel of drugs with his combed down hairline and small rounded glasses and a dark coat makes his presence felt. His terrifying presence could be attributed to the body language and modulation of his speech. And Alan Arkin imbues this throughout the film.
The story and screenplay are engaging and mostly fun. It has great cinematography too. Using the atmosphere and objects of its surroundings to illuminate or otherwise darken the frame are great tools to tell the story. It also has elements of jump scares and horror like elements that maybe put off currently, but I feel still has some quality to it now. But there are some qualms of illogical issues with the film that could maybe turn off some people (like I did) but that still didn’t stop making me watch the film because of the other great elements that it possess it is a film that is fun, enjoyable with enjoyable characters and great premise.
If you like a good home invasion film that takes place mostly in a single location and if you have the mind to take off some illogical notions, then this film will seduce with an affecting performance by Audrey Hepburn.