CS Film Club II

Since I got my original choice done early this time, I decided to give another movie from my list this round a go:

Wait Until Dark (1967)

Wait Until Dark is a movie I admit I wasn't very aware of before, but upon hearing the premise, it became one I had to seek out. A blind woman unknowingly in possession of a doll stuffed with heroin and a group of criminals hatch a scheme to break into her house under her nose to get it back? Yes, please! Initial impressions to the summary gave me some Don't Breathe vibes, but Wait Until Dark ultimately takes a more slow-burn approach, which...winds up kind of being both good and bad. Good, in the sense that the film proves very capable of establishing tension and a gradually mounting sense of dread...yet bad (sort of) in the sense that it spends way too long getting to the good stuff. The film is based on a play with the same title and premise, and it's easy to see that influence, given the largely one location-set nature of the plot. The way that this trio of criminals, led by Alan Arkin in an honestly very strong performance, essentially have to craft this elaborate con job on Audrey Hepburn's main character to gain entry to her apartment in the first place (one that involves more than a few false identities) is interesting at first. But the longer this con job goes on, the more tedious it and the movie start to feel, to a degree. I understand that if they just barged in and tied her up, then it'd just be a Short Film, but this whole set up of the criminals finally getting to the doll starts to feel a little stretched out after a certain point. Fortunately, though, once the bad guys finally DO make their move after Hepburn's character catches on, the movie starts to pay off. The Third Act is a pretty brilliantly-staged set piece that utilizes suspense really quite well, in part thanks to the direction of Terence Young. But also because of Alan Arkin and Audrey Hepburn, both of whom turn it up to the nth degree in this stretch and help sell the tension even more.

Ultimately, I do wish Wait Until Dark and Terence Young had utilized that skill on display in the Third Act throughout the rest of the movie, but as a whole, this is still a pretty interesting and fun thriller that I'm glad I watched.