In a previous post, I mentioned that Frederick Knott should be considered the Master of Literary Suspense. He only wrote three plays in his career. One was Dial M for Murder (1954), which became the most suspense filled Hitchcock picture. The other one to be made into a movie was Wait Until Dark (1967).
Like the Hitchcock picture, this one directed by Terence Young stayed close to the original play. Like all good movies made from good plays, the producers made sure all the action was contained in the same setting as that of the play. The only real deviation from the play comes at the beginning when we see the doll being packed with heroin and the girl handing over the doll to Sam before meeting Roat. This is important to see because we have some back story to go on. We know that the doll exists when Roat asks Mike and Carlino to find it for him.
The star of this picture, besides Alan Arkin as the evil Roat, is the normally elegant Audrey Hepburn. She is not elegant here as Susy, the self-proclaimed “world’s champion blind lady.” She looks much older in this movie than she does in some of her early roles. As she should since it had been almost 15 years since she played Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (1953). It had only been six years since she played Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), who is the definition of elegance. Although she might have aged some here, she is still a brilliant actress. She doesn’t need a little black dress or some witty lines from Billy Wilder to be great. She does it with skillful looks of fright and terror in her voice. She earned her fifth Academy Award nomination for best actress for her performance here.
Alan Arkin as Roat is also a standout here. In a script and play that only included five real characters, there had to be strong performances. Hepburn delivered as Susy. Arkin does the same as Roat. Roat is a suave bad guy. But unlike a lot of the suave ones, he does not mind getting his hands dirty and killing someone. This contrasts sharply with Knott’s Tony Wendice from Dial M, who was just as suave, but did not do the dirty work. Of course the situations were probably different in each case. Wendice wanted his wife killed, Roat just wanted a doll and had no care about who got in his way in the quest to get it.
The climax between Roat and Susy is what makes Wait Until Dark last today. Susy has finally caught on to what all these men walking around her house want. She has prepared to fight Roat, but still has the huge disadvantage of not being able to see. This of course enhances the suspense of the confrontation. We as the audience can see everything, but Susy can not. We scream to her that Roat is coming after her, but she can not hear us or see him. Ironically, the moment that gets most audiences to jump occurs when we believe Roat has died. He has been stabbed and left for dead in the dark. We are as blind as Susy to what is about to happen. He makes a final leap out of the darkness and onto Susy. This scene never fails to make at least a few people jump, even when they know it is coming.
Wait Until Dark is a little talked about movie today. This is odd as it includes one of the biggest stars in
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