Excellent movie. Just excellent. It proves that you don’t need multi-million dollar CGI to make an audience cling to the edge of their seat. You just need a great story, great actors and a great director. If you haven’t seen Wait Until Dark I highly recommend you put it on your Netflix cue or go rent it, you won’t be disappointed.
Speaking of which, I wonder what the budget for this movie was? Couldn’t have been much. The sets were minimal and the wardrobe/makeup were minimal as well. Such a small budget and the resultant film is a classic, probably going to keep audiences on the edge of their seats for years to come. Great film.
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Great film and one of the classics, despite its somewhat artificial story. I’ve seen that one many times, the first times when I was maybe 12 or 13, and I still remember every detail. Great acting!
Besides that, it’s got Audrey Hepburn (my world lights up every time she walks into a scene) in it … and a great Mancini score.
A bit of music trivia: As far as I recall, the tapes were thought to have been lost for ages … until the score was suddenly reissued by “Score Monthly” in, what, 2007 (too lazy to check)? This first ever CD release was remixed from the original 1/2” three-track scoring session masters recorded at Warner Bros at the time.
It’s funny that despite a decidedly creepy Alan Arkin and atmosphere, there are quite a few much lighter elements in the music. It has it’s quiet and eerie moments for sure, but if you heard just the score without knowing the film, you would have a hard time imagining that it could fit perfectly in there. Actually, if you know Mancini’s recordings a bit, a lot of what can be found on this movie score (electric flourishes) foreshadowed what he developed on his later 70s RCA albums.
BTW: The same year this score was produced, Mancini also put out a wonderful big band jazz (mostly) album entitled Mancini ’67. On that you can find some of the great West Coast jazz greats like Jack Sheldon (tr), Pete Candoli (tr), Jimmy Rowles (p) and Larry Bunker on vibes. Plus a whole bunch of excellent reed players.
Hope I haven’t derailed this post too much.
I get like that once in a while.
No problem! You’re absolutely right, the soundtrack was amazing. It played as much a part in making the movie superb as the actors did. Well, almost as much ;). I had also forgotten about the lighter parts of the movie. The tension and suspense is broken up very nicely by light humor.
I had forgotten all about that movie…ah, Hitchcock. He was the master.