Watch Wait Until Dark For Free

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I saw this movie on vacation when I was about 13. It was a night I'll never forget. My brother sat next to me, and literally screamed during the movies climactic scene. I don't know what I did, but being younger than him, I was a bit unnerved.This was one of the scariest movies made in the 60's. It seemed relatively low budget, but that sometimes only adds to the fear factor.

It's hard to say whether Audrey Hepburn truly pulls off being blind in this movie, but this is a strong cast, and seriously creepy story. Alan Arkin is fantastic as the ruthless drug dealer who schemes with a couple of characters played by Richard Crenna and Jack Weston to trick Hepburn into letting them into her home, in search of a doll that was used to smuggle heroin and which ended up in her husband's possession. The film is not 100% convincing and you'll probably find yourself pointing out a few plot holes, but it's convincing enough, and I liked how taut the story-telling was. What could be more eerie than thinking you're alone in your apartment, but have three men with you in the room? We feel for this vulnerable blind woman and pull for her as she begins to figure out what's happening by paying attention to her other senses (and getting some help from a neighbor girl), and there is real tension as she does. You'll have to suspend disbelief a little bit to enjoy it, but it's certainly worth watching.

Terence Young's Wait until Dark, based on Frederick Knott's gimmicky stage play, is as an exceptional suspense drama - a perfect example of how mood, atmosphere, music, and direction can overcome plot contrivances.The plot lurks around Suzy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn, in a superior performance), a recently blinded NYC housewife whose husband Sam is determined to make "the world's champion blind lady" out of her. Although she can handle most of her daily chores alone, she still requires some help from Gloria, the dorky pre-teen girl who lives upstairs. Unbeknownst to her, Sam has accidentally played into the hands of heroin-smuggling mole who plants a dope-loaded doll in his possession. 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 the doll. Two of them are merely petty con-men, but their employer Harry Roat (Alan Arkin who is unbelievably creepy) is a sinister monster. From there on, the movie ruthlessly tightens the screws of tension, all leading up to the nail-biting climax, as Roat and Suzy come face to face in her pitch-dark apartment.The film makes little effort to overcome its origins as a play, as the majority of the action takes place in Suzy's apartment. Though some of the more contrived elements of Knott's play are still intact here, Terence Young's presentation of Suzy's cloistered surroundings trumps the script's far-fetched tendencies as he manages to create a paradoxical environment of civilization devoid of human life. 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). Terence 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, 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.Once seen, Wait until Dark will never be forgotten. But be wary if you watch it alone. In fact, watch it with someone who likes to scream!

I remember being show this movie on Halloween by my 6th grade teacher. we all dimmed the lights and all my other classmates were looking around at each other. We had NO idea what kind of movie we would be watching and we were all anticipated about getting to watch a movie in class.When the credits rolled I believe it was me and all my table mates that were quaking in fright after all that we had witnesses. However, I think I may be the only one who remembers it all vividly. Even to this day I'm still shocked that that movie was presented to us yet at the same time I was glad to see it. If it weren't for my 6th grade teacher I probably wouldn't have ever thought of seeing it.The acting in this movie is great and Audrey Hepburn does a wonderful job playing a blind woman. I bet that's a very hard role to play without screwing up at one point if you can see perfectly well.The shadows and the quiet yet eerie soundtrack will make you shudder at times. However, even if you're not into Thriller, Crime of Horror, your eyes will always be glued to the screen.