1967 Directed by Terence Young
After a flight back home, Sam Hendrix returns with a doll he innocently acquired along the way. As it turns out, the doll is actually stuffed with heroin, and a group of criminals led by the ruthless Roat has followed Hendrix back to his place to retrieve it. When Hendrix leaves for business, the crooks make their move -- and find his blind wife, Susy, alone in the apartment. Soon, a life-threatening game begins between Susy and the thugs.
Sola en la oscuridad, Wacht tot het donker wordt, В очакване на мрака, Um Clarão nas Trevas, Seule dans la nuit, Fanget af mørket, Yksin pimeässä, Perimene mehri na nyhtosei, Várj, míg sötét lesz, Gli occhi della notte, Kuraku naru made matte, Nattens ögon, 暗くなるまで待って, Sola en la foscor, Čekej do tmy, Fanget af Mørket, Warte, bis es dunkel ist, Περίμενε Μέχρι Να Νυχτώσει, Espera la oscuridad, تا تاریکی صبر کن, בודדה באפלה, 어두워질 때까지, Palauk iki sutems, Doczekać zmroku, Așteaptă până la întuneric, Дождись темноты, Čakaj, kým sa zotmie, Karanlığa Kadar Bekle, Дочекайся темряви, 盲女惊魂记, 盲女驚魂記
USANR
Brazile 14
Portugale 14
Germany18
Italy
FranceU
Japan
South Korea
UK
Hungary16
UK12
Netherlands12
Brazil
France
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
Portugal
South Korea
UK
USA
Terence Young's WAIT UNTIL DARK is one of the greatest home invasion movies ever made. A smartly-engineered, claustrophobic, tense and chilling nailbiter. Audrey Hepburn delivers some of her best work and Alan Arkin gives an absolutely frightening performance here.
Whenever Alan Arkin starts fucking with Audrey Hepburn with that piece of cloth I feel like I’m gonna throw up
Pure, unaltered thrill. An absolute knockout that constantly pushes itself one step further than the audience.
A jaw dropping, bone chilling and nerve racking ball of excitement and tension that never ceases to amaze or haunt. Following a ruthless yet vulnerable woman whose blindness rarely stops her firm ability to control the situation is strangely believable and utterly compelling. There’s always a mysterious, eerie sensation yet everything manages to feel dramatically calculated.
Something about the essence of the narrative feels like a game of cat and mouse. This nonstop battle between two unstoppable forces who manage to outsmart each other at every possible turn. It isn’t a traditional “good guy bad guy” story as the villains have a clear motive…
I still do not understand the reaction Gloria had, throwing shit on the ground. It's so bizarre, out of nowhere, and cruel that I can't wrap my head around it. It doesn't even seem to be a character moment--she doesn't return to that level of histrionics at all. It's just this shocking, rude moment of wanton cruelty. And really, there's a lot about this film that doesn't get well explained or that doesn't quite make sense, but.
But wow, is it tense.
The use of darkness is inevitable but well played. The cat-and-mouse going on is also cleverly staged, down to Suzy's suspicions. The foreshadowing--the fridge, for instance (oh, that's the purpose of Gloria's freakout, duh)--is wonderfully depicted as well (except Gloria's freakish freakout). It all builds up to a glorious final showdown in shadow, and even if the ending is a bit cheezy, it's still a lot of fun getting there.
December count: 45/100.
I don't know how I managed to miss this classic for so many years; maybe it's because the description I'd always gotten was "Alan Arkin terrorizes blind Audrey Hepburn in her home," which sounds grueling and not open to a lot of nuance. There's a lot more to the story than I'd realized, and while it's unmistakably a stage story, given how limited it is to a single set, director Terence Young does a solid job of creating a sense of the space, and using it to claustrophobic ends. The winners here, though, are the plotting—this is one of those "all the dominoes set up in the first act, now wait for them to fall" kinds of stories—and the performances.…
Action!: Terence Young - The Many Stages Of A Real "M"
Well, color me surprise. This actually lived up to all the hype people have been building up through their reviews here. When that happens, it's usually not a certainty and it can go either way.
It's basically like a much more compacted and suspenseful version of "Hush", but instead of a burglar trying to break into a deaf's house in the middle of nowhere with her inside alone, the movie is about one sadistic Alan Arkin (who resembles Ted Raimi) and two con artists trying to fool this blind woman (Audrey Hepburn in a well deserved Oscar-nominated role) into giving them an object of great value.
The way Young…
A dialogue-driven psychological nightmare, Wait Until Dark, directed by James Bond introducer Terence Young, is a gritty stage play adaptation that does marvelous wonders with its one-location setting. Each line of its nail-biting screenplay gradually builds up raucous intensity, toying with the audience's nerves until it's almost unbearable. While the film was originally intended to be shown in color, I found that watching it in black and white delivers a far more atmospheric experience than it originally would be. The grimy color print, which is the only DVD edition currently available, gives the film the creepy atmosphere that it needs, but turning the picture setting completely to black and white makes the film all the…
There’s a lot in this that’s just straight up silly. The generally great Alan Arkin as a bad dude who tries on funny voices and costumes comes off more like an aggrandized Peter Sellers’ performance for most of it and the runaround that the baddies try to pull on our blind girl Hepburn is hilariously dense and extremely stupid. For the first hour my engagement level was pretty low.
But then, finally, Hepburn’s Susy - who has been impossibly doe-eyed, uncomplicated and naive throughout the first half - starts to reveal just how smart she is as a character, and her team-up with the child neighbor saved me from my boredom.
Girl and woman against the male wolves at the…
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Film #24 of "Scavenger Hunt #3" Challenge!
Task #21 : A film featuring a blind person!
letterboxd.com/naughty/list/scavenger-hunt-3/
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The outstanding performances by Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin and Richard Crenna was undeniably the strength of this film! It was their seasoned well honed acting chops that made this overly complex plotline to the point of feeling contrived easier to swallow!
While Audrey Hepburn took most of the bows and may I say rightly so, I found Alan Arkin's standout performance to be absolutely chilling! During the last act my throat was tighter than a girdle on the fat lady circus attraction at an all you can eat buffet!
"I cannot negotiate in an atmosphere of mistrust."
AKA: Coincidences: The Movie.
Sometimes I try not to dwell on how hot I thought Alan Arkin was in this when I first watched it as a teenager, then I realize it might explain a lot about me. Maybe even too much? This is knowledge I have to carry with me throughout my life, and I think I'm fine with that.
P.S. Efrem Zimbalist Jr.'s character has always been and will always be the worst. When he forces Audrey Hepburn to walk toward him at the end after everything she's been through?! She's traumatized, man! Go help your wife!
I went to Cedar Point yesterday and rode like 10 mammoth roller coasters because there was hardly any wait time and that’s basically like 10 near death experiences in one day so today I have been a disaster, like I feel like I partied for 3 days straight and slept for 30 minutes. Totally worth it but damn am I feeling “not 18 anymore” harder than I ever have!
So I decided to pop this in thinking I would probably get 20 minutes into it and be ready to sleep because all I’ve wanted to do all day is sleep but WRONG because I forgot how insanely and beautifully tense this is! I don’t know if I’ve watched it since…
