Wait Until Dark is a 1967 American film directed by Terence Young and produced by Mel Ferrer. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a young blind woman having to fight criminals.
The screenplay is based on the 1966 play Wait Until Dark by Frederick Knott.
Plot[]
Susy Hendrix is a recently blinded woman. She became blind because of a car accident. She lives with her husband Sam, who is a photographer, in an apartment in New York and, occasionally she receives help from Gloria, a preteen neighbor.
One day a doll full with heroin is hidden in her apartment by a drug trafficker called Lisa. That drug trafficker is later killed by her ruthless partner Harry Roat Jr. for having betrayed him by intending to take the drugs and "go into business for herself." After that he frames it on two other criminals who once worked with Lisa, Mike Talman and Carlino, in order to force them to work for him in his quest of finding the doll in the apartment.
They give in to the coercion in order to avoid being convicted of murder and begin under his orders and guidance to manipulate, lie and terrorize Susie in the hopes of finding the doll while also making sure that Sam is away on a phony assignment. They are convinced that she will be an easy prey for their manipulation for the mere reason that she is blind.
However, in time, Susy, who doesn't know anything about what is going on, becomes aware of everything by noticing strange details and holes in their scheme, and then realizes that they will kill her once they have the doll. She therefore will have to fight for her life and only Gloria can help her. Through her she finds out, that she has it, because she wanted to play with it and asks her to warn the police about what is going on, which she does after evading the criminals.
When the criminal trio realize that she knows they are not who they seem, Carlino and Mike Tallman try to kill Harry Roat Jr. for his actions only to be killed by him, who foresaw this move. After that Harry Roat Jr. faces and terrorizes Suzie in person, dousing the floor with gasoline and threatening to set the apartment on fire. A fight to death begins, in which she manages to kill him in the nick of time. After that Gloria returns with Sam and the police and Susy realizes then that the nightmare is over.
List of deaths[]
| Name | Cause of Death | Killer | On Screen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lisa | Implied strangulation | Harry Roat Jr. | No | |
| Carlino | Run over by a car | Harry Roat Jr. | Yes | |
| Mike Tallman | Knifed from behind | Harry Roat Jr. | Yes | |
| Harry Roat Jr. | Knifed in the stomach | Susy Hendrix | Yes | Self-defence |
Cast[]
- Audrey Hepburn as Susy Hendrix
- Alan Arkin as Harry Roat Jr.
- Richard Crenna as Mike Talman
- Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Sam Hendrix
- Jack Weston as Carlino
- Samantha Jones as Lisa
- Julie Herrod as Gloria
Production[]
The movie was filmed in part in Montreal, Canada, and New York City, though the interiors were shot in Burbank, California. In order to interpret her role as accurately as possible, Audrey Hepburn spent weeks in a rehabilitation center for blind people. She also wore contact lenses to give her eyes a cloudy look.
Reception[]
The movie was successful in the box office and was one of the most popular movies of that year.
