Wait Until Dark
![Watch film Wait Until Dark — Wait Until Dark (1967) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WnDJ7tywTVI/sddefault.jpg)
Short description
Wait Until Dark centres on Susy Hendrix, a woman who has recently lost her sight, and the doll her photographer husband Sam brings home from a trip without knowing what is hidden inside it. The doll is packed with heroin, and the men who want it back track it to the couple's apartment. With Sam lured away on a pretext, Susy is left alone while three criminals work to recover the doll, first through deception, then through intimidation. What they underestimate is their target: Susy perceives what they are after, and she uses her blindness and the darkness of the apartment to even the odds.
Terence Young directed the film, which followed Triple Cross in his filmography and came in the same year as The Rover. Frederick Knott, whose stage play supplies the story, wrote the screenplay with Robert Carrington and Jane-Howard Hammerstein, and Mel Ferrer produced. Audrey Hepburn plays Susy, with Alan Arkin as the criminal Roat, Richard Crenna as Mike Talman, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Sam and Jack Weston as Carlino.
Made for about four million dollars, the film took roughly eleven million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.7 from over thirty-three thousand votes, and on TMDB 7.3 from several hundred. A critics' rating of 8.1 from twenty-five reviews places it above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- In his book "The Dance of Death" (1981), Stephen King called the film "Wait Until Dark" the scariest film of all time and expressed admiration for Alan Arkin’s performance.
- Audrey Hepburn and director Terence Young (1915-1994) visited a school for the blind together. Hepburn even learned Braille to a sufficient degree to convincingly portray on screen that she knew it, although, of course, that wasn't the case.
- This is the first and only horror film in Audrey Hepburn's career, although it is often referred to as a dramatic thriller. The actress wanted to try herself in a new genre for her, and she agreed to the role in this film.
- To attract audiences, the filmmakers released an advertisement: "During the last 8 minutes of the film, the lighting in the cinema will be reduced to the maximum permissible level to emphasize the exciting finale that will take place on the screen in almost complete darkness. Smokers are asked not to light up during this time. Newly arrived viewers will not be seated in available seats for these 8 minutes." Audiences flocked to see the film.
- Finding an actor for the role eventually played by Alan Arkin proved difficult – everyone refused to play the villain who terrorizes a blind girl, especially since Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) was playing her. Arkin later recounted that he got the role very easily – and precisely because other actors had turned it down.
- A film adaptation of the play of the same name (1966) by Frederick Knott (1916-2002), the screenwriter of the detective story "Dial M for Murder" (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954).
- The costume designer is not credited in the film titles. The fact is that Hepburn herself selected the costumes for her character in Parisian shops.
- During World War II, Audrey Hepburn, still a teenager, worked as a nurse in a hospital. After the Battle of Arnhem (September 1944), many wounded soldiers of the Allied forces were brought to the hospital. One of the wounded patients cared for by Hepburn was a British paratrooper, and future film director Terence Young (1915-1994).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
