Recently watched the 1967 film Wait Until Dark, directed by Terrance Young. It's an incredible 1960s triller starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin.
Walking into the film relatively blind (no pun intended) I didn't know that the story was based on a stage play, but you don't have to watch to many films to tell which films are stage plays (the way scenes break, and the use of common or repeat scene locations...in this case, an exterior and interior of an apartment...and an airport intro) help confirm stage source material.
The play written by Frederick Knott with a 1966 stage debut. This play (like Knott's other successes Dial M for Murder and Write Me A Murder) maintains relevancy in it's story that allows for it to hit the stage again (whether small local stages, or in the case of Wait Until Dark which has hit Broadway again in 1998 with Marisa Tomei, Quientin Terrintino and Stephen Lang).
All this to say, I watch this film and would love to see someone else try to take this story on with some contemporary touches (story and filming).
In the widest perspective, the film is a thriller in which a blind woman Susy Hendrix (a role which won Audrey her last Oscar nomination), is harassed by a group of criminals trying to get her to reveal to location of a heroin-filled doll smuggled in from Canada (which she truly knows nothing about).
The suspense aspect of a group of men grifting a blind woman in her own home is suspenseful, and I think could capture a modern audience. You could cast this movie ten thousand ways to create a different product.
Just a thought Hollywood, independent film crowd, whomever. It wouldn't be an expensive production, but there is a lot you could to to recapture this story
1 comment:
This is a wonderful movie, one that's held up surprisingly well over the years.
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