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‘Wait Until Dark’: Terence Young’s Terrifyingly Effective Suspense Thriller with Brilliant Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin

Frederick Knott, the esteemed English playwright, might have written only three plays in his career, but this means that two-thirds of his complete opus ended up in the classics category, in no small part due to successful and highly praised film adaptations. Dial M for Murder premiered at the Westminster Theatre in London in 1952, only for it to be made into an expert crime mystery thriller by Alfred Hitchcock two years later, while Wait Until Dark , another complex and dark play in the vein of Hitchcock’s interests directed by Arthur Penn (who would helm Bonnie and Clyde the very next year), saw the light of day in early 1966 on Broadway, where it instantly attracted the attention of both the audience and Warner Brothers, determined to turn it into a feature film starring none other than Hollywood’s sweetheart Audrey Hepburn in a much darker, insidious story than her filmography had ever witnessed. Warner Brothers soon acquired the rights to the play and, even though Lee Remick, the actress that starred in Penn’s play, did a marvelous job by all standards, it seems that Hepburn was the first and only choice for the lead role since the very beginning. Still remembering the nasty rumors that she had stolen the part of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady from Julie Andrews a couple of years prior, Hepburn urged Warner Bros. to announce the project early and make it clear to the public that Remick was never a potential choice for the lead role. Since Hepburn and her then-husband, producer Mel Ferrer, who joined her on the project, were good friends with English director Terence Young (the director of three of the first four James Bond movies), whom Hepburn had allegedly met more than two decades earlier while she treated him as a nurse in the Netherlands during the Second World War, they lobbied hard for him to get the gig, even though Jack Warner initially wanted Carol Reed in the director’s seat.

An ingeniously crafted suspenseful thriller telling a story of a blind woman (Hepburn) engaging in a battle of wits and psychological strength with a group of greedy, unscrupulous criminals (led by inspired Alan Arkin’s chief mastermind) determined to find a heroin-stuffed doll lying somewhere in the blind lady’s New York City apartment, Wait Until Dark premiered just before Halloween in 1967 to critical acclaim and box office success (17,5 million dollars earned on a 3-million-dollar budget), with Hepburn getting her fifth Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination, which she ultimately lost to Katharine Hepburn for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? . Frederick Knott and Arthur Penn’s play was very successful, ending its Broadway run only after a total of 374 performances, but it wouldn’t be unfair to argue Terence Young’s cinematic version reached even more impressive heights, as Wait Until Dark , the motion picture, is still loved and equally chilling even after exactly half a century of homages and plain imitations. Occasional, often discussed but still largely insignificant, plot glitch aside, Wait Until Dark remains a bright example of how to effectively build up tension and resolve a story in a nerve-wracking climax that compelled the audience to shriek consumed by total darkness. It’s rather interesting to note that Warner decided to market the film, much like Hitchcock would have probably done, by using a simple yet highly effective warning to all future audiences that the lights in the theaters would be toned down during the ending sequence, promising a fully immersive experience of pure horror. It might sound like a funny promotional tool, but be sure to know this must have had a profound influence on the more than satisfying box office results.

Wait Until Dark was adapted to film by screenwriters Robert and Jane-Howard Carrington and shot by the Academy Award-winning cinematographer Charles Lang ( A Farewell to Arms , Sabrina , Some Like It Hot , How the West Was Won ). One of the key aspects of this particular film was its unforgettable, haunting musical score , composed by Henry Mancini, the musician fondly remembered for his light pop and comedy compositions. Luckily for us, the composer of Moon River and the Pink Panther theme, just like Audrey Hepburn, wanted to do something entirely different at this stage of his career, and he sure did: the score of Wait Until Dark is constantly unsettling and occasionally terrifying. Besides Hepburn and her diabolical on-screen nemesis Arkin, the film features several great supporting roles from Richard Crenna, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and Jack Weston. But it’s Hepburn and Arkin’s dynamics that ultimately steal the show, with his flamboyant, never quite over the top performance as the embodiment of pure evil and her passionate, fully dedicated interpretation of a seemingly helpless woman in ultimate peril finding the inner strength to come out victorious in the end. To what lengths Hepburn went to do her job properly can be seen in the interesting fact she spent a lot of time training for the role of a blind woman at the Lighthouse for the Blind in New York, where she was accompanied by the director himself, who later claimed “Audrey was miles faster than [him],” “quickly able to find her way, blindfolded, around the Lighthouse rooms and corridors.”

The importance of Wait Until Dark lies on two different levels. First and foremost, it’s an incredibly effective thriller which can easily be called a horror film, more than suspenseful enough to keep you alarmed at all times, with one of the most compelling finales ever seen in cinema. Even the great Stephen King, the master of darkness, stated he considered this film to be the scariest movie of all time, additionally praising Alan Arkin’s role as perhaps “the greatest evocation of screen villainy ever.” Secondly, Wait Until Dark , the second film Audrey Hepburn shot in 1967 (after Two for the Road ), was the last project she did before a decade-long pause. The semi-retirement, a decision which she reached perhaps encouraged by the emotional turmoil of her separation with Mel Ferrer the following year and a well-known, publicly-stated desire to spend more time with her family, lasted until 1976, when she made a come-back in Robin and Marian alongside Sean Connery. With all trivialities aside, for us, Wait Until Dark is one of the very best thrillers of the decade, and definitely among the top “Hitchcock without Hitchcock directing” movies of all time.

A monumentally important screenplay. Dear every screenwriter/filmmaker, read Robert Carrington & Jane-Howard Hammerstein’s screenplay for Wait Until Dark [ PDF ]. (NOTE: For educational and research purposes only ). The DVD/Blu-ray of the film is available at Amazon and other online retailers. Absolutely our highest recommendation.

  Wait Until Dark is the best Hitchcock movie that Alfred Hitchcock didn’t direct. With a cast led by a cool brunette—Suzy Hendrix, played by Audrey Hepburn, who’d been tapped by Hitch to play just that type eight years earlier for his ill-fated No Bail for the Judge —the film is often mistakenly attributed to Hitch. Projecting his own pompousness on the director, critic Rex Reed huffed and puffed that “If Hitchcock could only laugh at himself, this is the movie he’d make.” It’s easy to see why. — Joel Gunz, Wait Until Dark: Audrey Hepburn’s Non-Hitchcock Hitchcock Film

  The following is an excerpt from The Dissolve , written by Noel Murray, ‘The elegant, rare career of Audrey Hepburn.’

Audrey Hepburn stopped making movies right around the time the “New Hollywood” started gearing up, though not because she didn’t have any interest in the more daring kinds of films being made, and not because the younger generation of producers and directors didn’t want her. The dissolution of Hepburn’s marriage to Ferrer, and her subsequent re-marriage to Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti—with whom she had a second child, Luca—occupied her time at the end of the 1960s. She weighed every offer against whether she’d rather make that movie or be with her family, and each time, family won out. Her Wait Until Dark director Terence Young was quoted as saying of Hepburn’s decision-making process: “First of all you spend a year or so convincing her to accept even the principle that she might make another movie in her life. Then you have to persuade her to read a script. Then you have to make her understand that it is a good script. Then you have to persuade her that she will not be totally destroying her son’s life by spending six or eight weeks on a film set. After that, if you are really lucky, she might start talking about the costumes. More probably she’ll just say she has to get back to her family and cooking the pasta for dinner, but thank you for thinking of her.” Hepburn’s official final film before entering semi-retirement was Wait Until Dark , Terence Young’s lean, nerve-racking adaptation of Frederick Knott’s popular stage play about a newly blind woman, Susy, trying to outwit a trio of drug-dealing thugs (played in the film by Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, and Jack Weston). Young keeps the action fairly stage-bound, setting almost the entire movie in Susy’s small basement apartment. But Hepburn does remarkable work in that tight, cluttered space—so remarkable that she earned her fifth and final Best Actress Oscar nomination. She plays Susy with a sympathetic mix of pluckiness and self-pity, and she lets the audience experience both Susy’s intelligence and her anxiety, as she figures out why and how her three dangerous visitors are lying to her. If Hepburn had a 1960s type, it was characters who’d already experienced a deep hurt, and had become skilled at sniffing out the garbage that men tried to foist on her. — Noel Murray, The elegant, rare career of Audrey Hepburn

TAKE A LOOK IN THE DARK

Take a Look in the Dark featurette: Alan Arkin and producer (and husband of Audrey Hepburn at the time of production) Mel Ferrer look back at the production of the film, working with Audrey, and the film’s response. It’s particularly great to hear Arkin’s thoughts on his performance as he loves and hates the role, loved playing a sleazy drug-addled maniac but hated tormented such a nice person like Hepburn on set. — High-Def Digest

HENRY MANCINI

Henry Mancini was one of the most versatile talents in contemporary music. The Mancini name is synonymous with great motion picture and television music, fine recordings and international concert performances. During his lifetime, Mancini was nominated for 72 Grammy Awards, winning 20. He was nominated for 18 Academy Awards winning four, honored with a Golden Globe Award and nominated for two Emmy Awards. Mancini created many memorable film scores including Breakfast at Tiffany’s , The Pink Panther , Days of Wine and Roses , Hatari! , Charade , Victor/Victoria , 10 , Darling Lili , Arabesque , Wait Until Dark and The Glass Menagerie . Mancini recorded over 90 albums with styles varying from big band to jazz to classical to pop, eight of which were certified gold by The Recording Industry Association of America.

CHARLES LANG

Charles Bryant Lang, Jr., A.S.C., one of Hollywood’s most famous cinematographers, labored long and hard in the Golden Age of Hollywood, receiving credit on more than 150 feature films. His style is most closely associated with his romantic black-and-white technique, awash with translucent light, which emerged in the 1930s with such films as A Farewell to Arms , Desire , and Angel . Yet, like all the cinematographers of his era, he worked on films from all genres, in all visual styles. Cinematographers, like all Hollywood employees during the 1930s and 1940s, were signed to long-term, binding contracts. Thus the bulk of their work was associated with one studio. Charles B. Lang toiled for Paramount Pictures from 1929 to 1951, almost the complete length of the Golden Age of the Hollywood studio system. As such he fulfilled his promise as a cinematographer early on, since Paramount, then under the influence of Ernst Lubitsch and Josef von Sternberg, was the home of great photographers of black-and-white cinema. But as required by changing studio personnel and dictates, Lang adapted to the harsher film noir style of the 1940s. The Big Heat , directed by Fritz Lang in 1953, remains one of the most important examples of the late film noir period. It creates a beauty in the American suburbs and contrasts the jagged edges of the changing American urbanscape. Finally there have been his color films. Here Lang moved outdoors to film such Westerns as Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and One-Eyed Jacks . The quality of Lang’s work was recognized by his peers. He was among the most honored of Hollywood’s cameramen. As part of the Hollywood system from 1922 to 1973, Lang worked on many a mediocre film. But his name on the credits of any film usually guaranteed an interesting visual effort. His greatest work created a complexity of visual delight that students of film will continue to appreciate far off into the future. — IEC

  Here are several photos taken behind-the-scenes during production of Terence Young’s Wait Until Dark . Photographed by Howell Conant & Bud Fraker © Warner Bros. Intended for editorial use only. All material for educational and noncommercial purposes only. A special thanks to Josh Merritt .

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Review: A classic talent in ‘Wait Until Dark’

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The suspense is laboriously built up in the Geffen Playhouse production of “Wait Until Dark,” a freshly adapted version of Frederick Knott’s 1966 play that gave rise a year later to the movie with Audrey Hepburn as a blind Greenwich Village pixie beset by nefarious shadows.

But when the tension finally gets going late in the second half, it rips, momentarily reviving not just a dusty property but a theatrical genre.

Alison Pill plays Susan, the young, victimized woman who lost her sight in a car accident and now must fend off some thuggish con men who have descended on her while her husband is away. A phenomenal stage actress who has captivated TV audiences with her work on HBO (“The Newsroom,” “In Treatment”), Pill makes even the clumsiest, exposition-laden moments worth watching.

There’s a grace to her portrayal even when she’s stumbling around her character’s basement apartment (crisply conjured by set designer Craig Siebels). She imparts to her lines, no matter how banal, a subliminal music. The very air around her seems to adjust itself to her luminous presence.

PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Times

In short, she possesses that quality that is as hard to define as it is impossible to miss: theatrical style.

The production, directed by Matt Shakman, the founder and artistic director of Black Dahlia Theatre, needs every ounce of Pill’s magic. It’s not that the staging doesn’t establish the right note of cozy foreboding. Elizabeth Harper’s lighting injects mystery into these modest living quarters, and the constant pitter-patter of rain (the work of sound designer and composer Jonathan Snipes is first rate) snugly ensures trouble.

But not everyone in the cast is as capable as Pill of distracting us from the script’s awkwardness. The complicated plot, involving the whereabouts of a doll stuffed with something extremely valuable and no doubt illegal, is shot through with implausibilities. (Even Susan’s blindness, explained in a joke about her doctors being able to fix everything but her headlights, seems contrived.)

The men surrounding Susan are neither drawn nor played with the same level of conviction. Rod McLachlan layers in a little too much bumbling in his handling of Carlino, the phony police sergeant who is the brawn of this criminal operation. As Roat, the screwy mastermind, Adam Stein turns in a daring performance that still feels like a series of flamboyant gestures. Mather Zickel’s Mike, an unexpected visitor who becomes Susan’s self-appointed protector, gives us a strong, good-looking and suspiciously earnest outline but not much more.

PHOTOS: Hollywood stars on stage

Beyond Pill, the standout member of the cast is Brighid Fleming, who plays Gloria, the bratty young neighbor paid by Susan’s husband, Sam (Matt McTighe, overdoing the sternness), to look after his wife when he’s away. Gloria is almost too weird not to be true. Fleming’s characterization has the provocative sharpness that’s needed to revivify this kind of genre material.

Stage thrillers have gone the way of poodle skirts and egg creams, but there’s something charming about being scared together with fellow audience members at a live event. The danger is enhanced by the sight of an actor stabbing into the dark with a kitchen knife. What if a performer slips — or goes berserk? Film and TV provide the safeguard of a completed work. Theater, unfolding before us in real time, can slip its moorings.

A 1998 Broadway revival of “Wait Until Dark,” starring Quentin Tarantino and Marisa Tomei, convinced me that this drama was beyond resuscitation. The retooled version of the script by Jeffrey Hatcher ameliorates some of the problems in Knott’s original but doesn’t render them invisible.

The period has been pushed back to 1944, which makes the preference for brass knuckles and switchblades over firearms a little more credible. The doll, which was stuffed with heroin in the original, now contains a more vintage choice for this kind of fiction, diamonds. (A stage mishap at the opening-night performance, however, made it seem as though the crooks were chasing shadows: The doll was empty.)

But the play is still rather talky, the intermission kills momentum, and the too-clever-by-half machinations of plot (venetian blind signals, all manner of telephone shenanigans, routine double-crossings) can’t help shriveling under the glare of scrutiny.

The dramatic premise, of a vulnerable woman discovering unexpected resources that allow her to turn the tables on her assailants, is still the main draw. The road to the goosepimply climax, even with Hatcher’s streamlining, is cumbersome, the dramaturgy as outdated as when the work was first written. But what a gripping finish. If endings were all, Knott’s play would be a classic.

The real reason to see “Wait Until Dark,” however, is Pill, one of those rare contemporary performers you could easily imagine starring in a classic black-and-white Hollywood film. As transfixing when terrorized as when fighting back, she brings fresh vitality to this overcooked fable.

‘Wait Until Dark’

Where: Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave. L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Nov. 17.

Tickets: $37 to $77

Contact: (310) 208-5454 or https://www.geffenplayhouse.com

Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

charles.mcnulty@latimes

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Charles McNulty is the theater critic of the Los Angeles Times. He received his doctorate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the Yale School of Drama.

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Screen Rant

Wait until dark.

108 Minutes

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Terence Young

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

Terence Young

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

Not Rated

108 Minutes

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Audrey hepburn.

Susy Hendrix

Richard Crenna

Mike Talman

Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

Sam Hendrix

Jack Weston

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Wait Until Dark Review

26 Oct 1967

107 minutes

Wait Until Dark

An outstanding thriller based on a stageplay (by Frederick Knott) that fits so much better on the screen because, as well as the expansive, cinema is really good at claustrophobia. The genius of the concept is to pitch its trio of villains, chasing a drug haul concealed in a doll placed on the heroine’s now absent husband, against a blind woman. Not only is it the obvious vulnerability of the situation, it’s the chance for manipulation as the hoods claims to be variously friends of sightless Susie’s husband and the police on his trail.

Audrey Hepburn is cast to perfection as Susie, she is so frail and delicate, and flawlessly portrays the idea of women trapped in the prison cell of her own head. She pulls us in, charging us to protect her when there is nothing we can do. A devilish Alan Arkin leads Richard Crenna and Jack Weston as the nefarious thugs plying the con game, without knowing that their quarry (stashed in the house by a now dead colleague) is not there. It’s a dilemma without a solution, another twist in this nightmare game.

Bond alumnus Terrence Young plays some equally cruel visual tricks to torment the audience. He keeps his camera so tight into the action, the space feels to be shrinking; the film barely leaves the apartment keeping the tension wracked tight as a wire coil. There is some magnificent subtlety as Susie searches rooms to find out if she is alone, tortuous sequences played nearly silently. Yet, none of these brilliantly orchestrated scenes have anything on the finale, when Susie turns tables on her captors by smashing all the light-bulbs and plunging them all into blindness. The one place she has the advantage.

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Movies | 16 05 2021

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Wait Until Dark

A recently blinded woman is terrorized by a trio of thugs while they search for a heroin-stuffed doll they believe is in her apartment. A recently blinded woman is terrorized by a trio of thugs while they search for a heroin-stuffed doll they believe is in her apartment. A recently blinded woman is terrorized by a trio of thugs while they search for a heroin-stuffed doll they believe is in her apartment.

• Terence Young
• Frederick Knott
• Robert Carrington
• Jane-Howard Hammerstein
• Audrey Hepburn
• Richard Crenna
• 235 User reviews
• 83 Critic reviews
• 81 Metascore
• 6 nominations total

Top cast 14

• Susy Hendrix

• Mike Talman

• Sam Hendrix

• Boy Tossing Ball
• (uncredited)

• The Old Man

• French-Canadian Radio Speaker

• Teenage Boy on Street

• BG with Dog
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia In an interview, Alan Arkin talked about the Oscar nominations he received for his early major film roles ( The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966) and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968) ). When asked if he was surprised that he was overlooked for Wait Until Dark, his second movie, he replied: "You don't get nominated for being mean to Audrey Hepburn !"
• Goofs When the two men first enter Susy's apartment, the second one says "What are you calling for? She said she wasn't here." But his lips don't move.

Susy Hendrix : Gloria?

Gloria : Yeah?

Susy Hendrix : How would you like to do something difficult and terribly dangerous?

Gloria : I'd love it!

• Crazy credits The end credits show each character with the performer's credit; Alan Arkin is shown three times, including once in each disguise.
• Connections Featured in Terror in the Aisles (1984)
• Soundtracks Wait Until Dark Music by Henry Mancini Lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans Performed by Sue Raney

User reviews 235

• May 15, 2000
• How long is Wait Until Dark? Powered by Alexa
• October 26, 1967 (Canada)
• United States
• Warte, bis es dunkel ist
• 5 St. Luke's Place, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (the Hendrix apartment)
• Warner Bros.
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $3,000,000 (estimated)

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• Runtime 1 hour 48 minutes

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Review: wait until dark.

Terence Young’s presentation of Suzy’s cloistered surroundings trumps the script’s far-fetched tendencies.

Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark , a gimmicky stage play about a blind woman terrorized by crooks, was brought to the screen in 1967 and was accompanied by an even more outlandish gimmick. When the lights go out at the end of the film, so did the lights in the movie theaters. As it turned out, the venue managers needn’t have been so zealous in unleashing such William Castle-esque tricks on their gleefully squealing audiences. Terence Young’s tense cinematic adaptation so ruthlessly tightens the screws of tension that one could be forgiven for not noticing an earthquake, much less dimmed house lights. Audrey Hepburn was awarded her fifth Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Suzy Hendrix, a recently blinded NYC housewife whose husband is determined to make “the world’s champion blind lady” out of her. It doesn’t take long for Suzy to get herself in trouble when a group of con men grease their way into her apartment in an elaborate plot to locate a doll stuffed with small bags of heroin. Two are merely petty thieves, but their employer Harry Roat (Alan Arkin) is a sinister monster.

Though some of the more contrived elements of Knott’s play are still intact here, Young’s presentation of Suzy’s cloistered surroundings trumps the script’s far-fetched tendencies. Like similar psychological thrillers ruminating on the theme of urban isolation and loneliness (namely The Tenant and The Seventh Victim ), Wait Until Dark manages to create a paradoxical environment of civilization devoid of human life. The apartment building Suzy lives in is perpetually empty; Suzy’s husband, Sam (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), leaves her on her own for most of the day, and the dorky young girl upstairs is apparently motherless most of the time. Also, Young makes the smart decision of setting his thriller inside a basement apartment, the cave-like arches of which have the unsettling effect of positioning Hepburn in a nondescript underground (the windows only look out on the feet of passersby, emphasizing Suzy’s disconnect from her neighborhood).

It also doesn’t help that her meticulously ordered apartment is systematically thrown into disarray as the film goes on, causing her to increasingly bump into furniture and lose her balance. Once Suzy starts to catch on to the elaborate ruse and is caught calling the police by the con men, she concocts stories about children prank-calling her to say cruel things. (One gets the sense that she’s culling these deceptions from real-life past experiences.) Young’s remarkable ability to create a believable oppressive locality in Wait Until Dark obscures plot holes and irrationalities right up to the film’s extended final showdown. By the time Suzy realizes she’s completely and hopelessly alone in her apartment (she’s sent the dorky Lisa off on a futile mission to locate Sam at Asbury Park), the cumulative effect of Hepburn’s palpable desolation and Arkin’s ruthlessness (combined with Henry Mancini’s overpoweringly harrowing score) bring the film to a justly celebrated climactic bacchanalia, complete with one of suspense cinema’s first and most effective shock leaps. Watch it with someone who likes to scream.

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Wait Until Dark (1967)

Directed by terence young.

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Description by Wikipedia

Wait Until Dark is a 1967 psychological thriller film directed by Terence Young and produced by Mel Ferrer. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a young blind woman, Alan Arkin as a violent criminal searching for some drugs, and Richard Crenna as another criminal, supported by Jack Weston, Julie Herrod, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr.. The screenplay by Robert Carrington and Jane-Howard Carrington is based on the stage play of the same name by Frederick Knott. Audrey Hepburn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1968, losing to Katharine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Zimbalist was nominated for a Golden Globe in the supporting category. The film is ranked #55 on AFI's 2001 100 Years…100 Thrills list, and its climax is ranked tenth on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

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Wait Until Dark Reviews

Terence Young's claustrophobic thriller is as tense as can be thanks to a terrifying performance from Alan Arkin.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 13, 2024

Audrey Hepburn may have "cripped" up for her Oscar nominated role, but Suzy is still a great character. It's Arkin who steals the show as the slick villain, though, and that iconic jump scare remains every bit as effective now as it was in 1967.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 8, 2024

The action is kept fluid and the suspense tight.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 30, 2022

It starts slowly but gathers pace with a compelling momentum that builds to a climax of great tension. Fine entertainment, but if you have a nervous disposition, keep away.

Full Review | Mar 4, 2022

...a fairly timeless thriller that still ranks as one of the very best examples of the genre...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 20, 2020

While the conclusion is shocking (fulfilling the title as well as Susy's attempts to level the playing field), it's Arkin's performance that really leaves an impression.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 27, 2020

I am absorbed by the presence of Audrey Hepburn and by a Hitchcockian plot as sharp as a serrated knife. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 23, 2020

This 1967 thriller draws its effectiveness less from the intelligence of the direction (by Terence Young) than from the unbridled sadism of the concept.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2019

It has, in the form of Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin, two of the very best performances in the genre's history.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Dec 6, 2016

Nail-biting until the end.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Feb 27, 2012

This superb drama filled with spell-binding tension has not lost an iota of its considerable impact, even 40 years after it was made. Audrey Hepburn is mesmerising as the blind woman whose quick thinking is more illuminating than the brightest of lights

Full Review | Apr 11, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 26, 2007

Audrey Hepburn received her fifth (and last) Oscar nomination for effectively playing a blind woman in this well-executed thriller based on the Broadway smash hit; equally good are the villains, played by the young Alan Arkin and Richard Crenna.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Apr 6, 2007

Os furos bvios do roteiro acabam sendo compensados pela direo tensa de Young, pela eficiente montagem e, principalmente, pelas atuaes de todo o elenco (mas Hepburn e Arkin merecem destaque).

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 21, 2006

A classic and unforgettable thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 25, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 7, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 23, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 19, 2004

Superior thriller with one dynamite shock scene.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 8, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 29, 2004

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• TV Listings
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Wait Until Dark Reviews

• 81   Metascore
• 1 hr 48 mins
• Drama, Suspense
• Watchlist Where to Watch

A blind woman inadvertently comes into possession of a doll stuffed with heroin and is targeted by three criminals who want to get their hands on the drugs. However, she proves to be more resourceful than the deadly trio expect.

A real edge-of-your-seat thriller adapted from a Broadway stage hit written by Frederick Knott, author of DIAL M FOR MURDER. Hepburn, a blind Manhattan housewife, is terrorized by a trio of vicious killers (Crenna, Arkin, and Weston) who are after a fortune in heroin that has been hidden in a toy doll her husband, Zimbalist, gave to her. What follows is an excruciatingly suspenseful battle of wits between the blind Hepburn and her sadistic tormentors. Expertly directed by veteran British helmsman Young (Arthur Penn had directed the stage version), WAIT UNTIL DARK is an exciting, original chiller. Hepburn turns in a strong, realistic performance as the terrorized blind woman--a role she researched diligently with the help of two young blind women from the Lighthouse for the Blind school. For weeks the actress (and director Young) wore a special shade over her eyes and learned how to use a cane properly, feel the texture of different objects, and listen carefully to distinguish the quality and distance of sounds. The film was a tremendous success at the box office, and for added effect, some theater owners turned the house lights off completely during the final 15 minutes.

Wait Until Dark [1967]: 50 Years Later, Still As Effective

Wait until dark [1967]: a masterwork of restrained craftsmanship that effortlessly lives up to its legacy..

An ingeniously plotted, masterly crafted & excellently performed psychological horror-thriller, Wait Until Dark slowly but steadily builds its momentum, expertly utilizes the available resources to ratchet up the tension as plot progresses and ultimately concludes with a memorable finale that brims with a sense of spine-chilling suspense & nail-biting terror.

The story of Wait Until Dark concerns a recently blinded woman who’s terrorized by a trio of thugs as they search for an old-fashioned doll that’s stuffed with smuggled drugs and which they believe is somewhere in her apartment. Still learning to cope with her visual impairment and with no one to rely on but a little girl upstairs, she plays a deadly game of survival.

Directed by Terence Young, the story is handled with restraint as the director takes his time to set up the premise and acquaints the audience with the relevant characters in a skillful manner before raising the stakes and escalating the suspense. Every moment is cleverly imagined, every twist is smartly placed, and all the characters are embedded with full-fledged arcs.

Majority of the plot takes place inside the apartment and the production design team does well to fill the limited space with props that play an essential role in the final outcome, not to mention that the isolated setting also brings the claustrophobic element into play. Camerawork is fluid, lighting is apt, Editing provides a tightly-knitted structure to the whole narrative while music is at its finest during the climax.

Coming to the performances, Wait Until Dark features a stellar cast in Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Krenna, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. & Jack Weston, and everyone plays their part convincingly but it’s Hepburn who steals the limelight with her blind lady rendition that ranks amongst her finest acts. Arkin is legitimately creepy in his role, Krenna plays his part with a gentle demeanour while Weston does well with what he’s given.

On an overall scale, Wait Until Dark is a first-rate example of its genre and scores high marks in all departments of filmmaking. Brilliantly directed, deftly written, smoothly photographed, immaculately edited, swiftly paced, fittingly scored & outstandingly performed, especially by Audrey Hepburn, it is a masterwork of restrained craftsmanship that refuses to age even after 50 years, and is one Hollywood classic that effortlessly lives up to its legacy. Highly recommended.

Cinema is my life capsule. Horror is my refuge. Jurassic Park is first love. Lord of the Rings is perfection. Spielberg is GOAT. Cameron is King. In Nolan I trust. Pixar makes my heart sing. Reviewing films is a force of habit. Letterboxd is home. Blog is where I'm currently inactive. HoF just happened to came along.

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