| Audrey
Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna , Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Jack
Weston , Samantha Jones
Wait Until Dark is an
innovative, highly entertaining and suspenseful thriller about a
blind housewife, Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn). Independent and
resourceful, Susy is learning to cope with her blindness, which
resulted from a recent accident. She is aided by her difficult,
slightly unreliable young neighbor Gloria (Julie Herrod) with whom
she has an exasperated but lovingly maternal relationship. Susy's
life is changed as she is terrorized by a group of criminals who
believe she has hidden a baby doll used by them to smuggle heroin
into the country. Unknown to Susy, her photographer husband Sam
(Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) took the doll as a favor for a woman he met
on an international plane flight and unwittingly brought the doll
to the couple's New York apartment when the woman became afraid
of the customs officials. Alone in her apartment and cut-off from
the outside world, Susy must fight for her life against a gang of
ruthless criminals, led by the violent, psychotic Roat (Alan Arkin).
The tension builds as Roat, aided by his gang, impersonates police
officers and friends of her husband in order to win Susy's confidence,
gaining access to her apartment to look for the doll. The climax
of the film, a violent physical confrontation between Susie and
Roat in her dark kitchen, is one of the most memorable and frightening
scenes in screen history. All performances are outstanding, particularly
those of Audrey Hepburn who plays a vulnerable, but self-reliant
woman, and Alan Arkin, in perhaps his best role, as the ruthless,
manipulative Roat. |