Wait Until Dark DVD: Review By slysnide

On February 2nd 1966, Fredrick Knott's play "Wait Until Dark" featuring Robert Duvall opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater where it ran for 374 performances, and the following year Warner Brothers-Seven Arts purchased the film rights. The director's chair was then handed over to the famed James Bond Director Terrance Young, of "Dr. No" (1962) & "From Russia With Love" (1963).

In the leading role of the recently blind woman Susy Hendrix whom was left home alone for a day was the infamous Audrey Hepburn. Unbeknownst to her, Susy's husband Sam (Efram Zimbalist Jr.) illegally transported a doll stuffed with heroin across the Canadian border to their apartment in Greenwich Village Manhattan New York as a favor to a friend. During the course of the day and well into the night, a trio of criminals caught up in the search for the drug stuffed doll harass Susy in separate character performances as a way to take advantage of Susy's blindness.

The ringleader is Henry Roat, played creepily & perfectly by Alan Arkin. Wearing gloves and careful not to touch anything in Susy's apartment while she's away in the morning, he blackmails two other crooks Mike Talman (Richard Crenna) & George Carlino (Jack Weston) who'd carelessly searched the place without gloves, thus leaving fingerprints everywhere. Roat proposes that if they assist him in locating the doll by putting up several charades to coax Susy into handing it over rather than carelessly leaving trace evidence all over the apartment in a fruitless search for it, that he'd be able to ensure that they'd never be suspected or arrested for breaking & entering, drug possession, and ultimately, a possible murder charge if they have to kill Susy to positively cover their tracks.

Throughout the rest of the film, Mike Talman takes advantage of Susy's naivety by posing as a friend of Sam's to get into the apartment while Carlino pretends to be a police detective who warns her about possible drug charges that could be brought against Sam unless the doll is surrendered. Mike's defense of Susy from Carlino's outrageous claims builds further trust between the two of them while Roat portrays three separate people including himself whilst masterminding the whole thing. These make for very suspenseful sequences, and comical ones as the night wares on.

What the trio don't know however is that Susy's skills as a blind woman allow her to partially see through parts of the charade while her 12yr old neighbor Gloria (Julie Herrod) further assists her in uncovering the charades in cunning spur of the moment plans. With these two helpful elements on Susy's side, the tension builds as the defenseless Susy has no way of fending off the three criminals if it does indeed come to that. The catch of course being that she trusts Mike undoubtedly while we know otherwise from the beginning of the film.

The best feature is the vicious and sadistic Roat, whose black clothing with round sunglasses and cane make him truly sick, and perverse as he sits back casually concocting his mass charades, which are ultimately just a massive build up to his unleashing of the monstrous villain within. That type of villain coupled with the blind and naive Susy makes the tension & anticipation even better. And the film never lets up, despite getting a bit slow in the middle parts in which the tension is still intact.

The fact that the whole film takes place within the apartment, the hallway outside of it, and the front sidewalk & parking lot makes the film really claustrophobic with the exception of the opening scene at the airport. Especially as the night wares on and the threat becomes more real & violent. It was like the stage play with its limited scope and single angle shots of particular rooms so as if not to show a studio audience a few feet away. But it was a real apartment. And with the benefit of it being a movie, we are able to constantly be familiarizing ourselves with the apartment rather than a constantly changing stage play set, thus allowing it to get even creepier as you know your surroundings even better than Susy does. That and the inclusion of some A-List stars makes this a film not to be forgotten.

Also, adding the effect of pitch black darkness in the thrilling climax forces you to identify with Susy Hendrix 100% in the infamous final duel with Roat. The MOMENT of which everyone who's seen this film knows of still thrills audiences today, and it's truly the payoff scare to the 98 minute build up to it. Just as effective in the stage play, but with the actual apartment set it works even better as your scope isn't limited to a single stage, but other areas of the apartment as well.

Within many years after its release on October 26th 1967, the film's popularity continues to grow. It even made 10th place on Bravo's list of the "100 Scariest Movie Moments" which first aired in 2004. And in 2001 it ranked 55th on AFI's "100 Years: 100 Thrills." If that's not enough to get you seeing this film, then I don't know what else is. Oh, and Quentin Tarantino played the perverse Henry Roat in a 1998 revival play. He too fit the mannerisms of Roat just like Alan Arkin did in what I consider to be Alan's best performance, which bests his Best Supporting Actor Oscar winning role in "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006). So is that enough for you? Or have you already seen this?