Wait Until Dark

When I first saw the trailer for the new thriller Don't Breathe, there was something that felt really familiar about it to me. It soon dawned on me that the film was a variation on the classic Audrey Hepburn thriller, Wait Until Dark, with a few alterations. Basically they made the three intruders a bit more sympathetic and the blind person a bit less sympathetic, but aside from that the set up is very similar. I thought it might be fun to compare the two. 

Susy Hendrix (played by Audrey Hepburn) is a blind woman who lives in a New York apartment with her photographer husband Sam (played by Efram Zimbalist Jr.). Despite her blindness, she is rather self-reliant and is able to get around both her apartment and neighborhood rather well. Sam has just returned from a business trip and was given a doll by a strange woman to carry in the airport under the guise that she was bringing it home for one of her daughters who was in the hospital and didn't want her other daughter to see it and planned to retrieve it later, but when they are separated Sam winds up taking it home with him. In the shuffle of unpacking, it gets lost in the apartment and both he and Suzy forget about it and when the woman calls Sam about the doll, he can't remember where it is. Two con men, Mike and Carlino (played by Richard Crenna and Jack Weston), show up at the apartment a couple days later along with another man, Harry Roat (played by Alan Arkin), with the objective of retrieving the doll. It turns out the doll was not a gift but rather stuffed full of heroin. Initially, they try to con Suzy into giving up the doll with Mike posing as an old college friend of Sam's, Carlino as a policeman and Roat poses as an old man and then his son. However, things take a darker turn when Suzy suspects their ruse and with the help of her upstairs neighbor, Gloria (played by Julie Herrod) confirms her suspicions. From there she needs to use every ounce of cunning she has to try and outwit the three strangers until help can arrive. 

Like most thrillers, this one probably doesn't stand up to a lot of scrutiny in terms of Suzy's actions throughout the film. But the strength of the performances, especially by Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin, carry us through the film. Suzy is probably a bit too trusting, especially for a New Yorker, but Hepburn makes it work by portraying Suzy as a warm but smart and capable woman. Her trusting nature is her flaw though and she doesn't realize the danger she's truly in until it's much too late. Arkin's performance as Harry Roat is one of the all time great movie villains. There is just something that is very unsettling about that character and Arkin plays him wonderfully. He's completely in control, smart and very dangerous. Suzy and Roat going head to head provides much of the movies suspense in the final act of the film.  

The film was directed by Terence Young and written by Robert Carrington and Jane Howard-Carrington, based on the stage play by Frederick Knott. The film at times does feel a bit stagey, since the bulk of the film takes place in that one apartment, but Terence Young is able to change up the shots and break away from the apartment set enough so that feeling doesn't overwhelm the film. Young also does a great job of slowly ratcheting up the suspense in the film from the beginning all the way to the heart stopping finale. 

Overall, Wait Until Dark has earned it's place as a classic thriller with two great performances anchoring the film. I originally checked out the film many years back because the premise intrigued me and I was a fan of both Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin. Knowing Alan Arkin mostly from his comedic roles, such as The In-Laws, seeing him play such a sadistic villain as Roat was an eye opener. It's a fantastic little thriller that I wholeheartedly recommend.