Wait until dark is a 1967 movie adaptation of the homonymous play by Frederick Knott; it stars Audrey Hepburn as the protagonist. The premises is quite simple: a carrier that is transporting heroin wants to start selling it on her own and hands the doll (the MacGuffin inside which the drugs are hidden) to an innocent bystander. The man, a photographer, then takes the doll home where he lives with his blind wife. At this point the “drug-lord” has the carrier killed and hires two con artists to discover where the doll is (since it seems that it got lost inside the photographer’s house) taking advantage of the woman’s blindness.
The fact that it was originally intended for theater results in most of the action taking place inside a single room (similarly to what had happened with other movies such as a classic Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf or a more recent Sunset Limited). It is however fairly evident that the script was written for a play: from how the dialogues are written and start in medias res to the pauses that create a more dramatic suspense, the story unveils itself primarily through conversations.
The movie uses the fact that the main character is blind to enhance some of the emotions it wants to deliver upon the audience. Sounds are much more meaningful and impactful and this comes from some of the observations the blind woman makes. The strength of the movie, paradoxically enough, relies on the ability to depend on other senses. The mixture of black screen intertwined with sounds and dynamic scenes is certainly worth mentioning.
I don’t recall ever having spent time with a blind person, so my judgment on the matter is fairly limited, but in my opinion Audrey Hepburn delivers a spectacular performance. Her movements, the way she stares without staring and how her eyes are always in a fixed position, had me fooled no questions asked.
One last thing that I would like to add concerns the meta-theatrical aspect of the movie: the actors that are interpreting the role of con-artists are therefore interpreting themselves the role of someone else. It would be interesting to see what a theatre performance would be like.
I would give this movie a 6 out of 10 PitchBlack eyes.