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Wait Until Dark (1967)
In this suspenseful, Hitchcock-like, classic claustrophobic
crime thriller by director Terence Young - the female-in-jeopardy
film told about the deadly search for drugs, unknowingly stashed
in a rag doll; there were a number of shocking, scary moments, mostly in the nail-biting conclusion:
- in the film's opening, a plane arrived
from Montreal, Canada at JFK Airport; nervous heroin-smuggler Lisa
(Samantha Jones) (with a rag doll stuffed with heroin) passed off
the doll to a fellow passenger: professional photographer Sam Hendrix
(Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), the husband of a vulnerable blind woman named
Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn); Lisa was intimidated by the sight
of her psychotic and violent husband Harry Roat (Alan Arkin), after
she had hidden and smuggled heroin inside the doll into New York
City from Montreal, Canada
- the doll (with drugs inside) was temporarily in
the possession of Susy's helpful upstairs neighbor girl Gloria
(Julie Herrod), before Susy later hid it inside her own ground-level
Greenwich Village apartment
- Lisa's two partners-in-crime were handsome
and amiable two bit con-man/hustler Mike Talman (Richard Crenna) and
his ex-cop
partner Carlino (Jack Weston); they entered Susy's apartment where
they expected to meet Lisa, but instead they found Roat, who offered
them $2,000 dollars each to find the doll somewhere in the apartment;
then they made the gruesome and shocking
discovery of Lisa's corpse hanging in a plastic garment bag in
Susy's closet, after she had been murdered
for her perceived double-cross by Roat; Roat
then framed and blackmailed Talman and as Lisa's killers (their
fingerprints were all over the apartment), unless they located
the missing heroin
- Suzy was quickly victimized by the three criminals
during their relentless search for the rag-doll; they used
every elaborate scheme and manipulative tactic they could think
of (trick voices, multiple false identities or disguises, fake
phone calls, etc.) to dupe and con the helpless Susy into revealing
the doll's whereabouts (as "evidence" in a fictitious
infidelity case implicating Susy's naive husband Sam with the murdered
woman who originally owned the doll).
- Roat anticipated that he would be double-crossed
by Talman and Carlino and so he murdered both of them; he ran over
Carlino and then stabbed Talman in the back as he stood in Susy's
doorway, before taking on the challenge of confronting Susy himself
- in the final battle of wits inside Susy's claustrophobic
apartment after Susy had smashed most of the light bulbs, she
was confronted by Roat one-on-one, who coldly described how he
had eliminated his partners, and how he wanted her to give up
the doll. He put on plastic gloves, then stroked her face with
a sheer nylon cloth:
Roat: Did you know they wanted to kill me? I
did. I knew it even before they did. They were awful amateurs,
and that's why you saw through them.
Susy: l saw through you, too.
Roat: No, not all the way, Susy. Even now, not all the way. The
lovely thing was the way l let them set it all up. All that silliness
of meeting in the parking lot, the whole thing. They had comic-book
minds, so we did it their way, right until the end. And then
topsy-turvy - me topsy and them turvy.
- when he suggested taking her to the bedroom (to rape
or kill her?), she asked if he was looking at her: "Mr. Roat,
are you looking at me?"- when he said he
was, she tossed a vase full of flammable photographic hypo solution
into his face
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she extinguished one of the last lights in the room,
as he confronted her. Using all of her tactile skills, Susy retaliated
by threatening to ignite his soaked body with a match; During the
tense and chilling match-up between them, however, the cunning
psychopath discovered the light in the refrigerator to illuminate
the room (and put a towel in the door to prevent it from closing)
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finally, Susy decided to hand over the doll - stashed
in the bottom of her kitchen wastebasket, while she grabbed a long
kitchen butcher knife for protection. Roat slashed open the doll
and removed heroin packets, and then again suggested taking her to
the bedroom; as he marched her across the room, she stabbed him in
the abdomen; she retreated back to the living room where she found
that her outer door was blocked
Roat's Jump-Scare Leap From the Dark With Knife
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Dragging Himself Toward Susy With His Knife
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Susy Unable to Escape - Hiding Behind Refrigerator Door
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- there was the exciting and
extremely-scary jump-out-of-your-seat (or shock-leap) moment when
the villainous, wounded and crazed Roat lunged with a knife from
the dark bedroom hallway toward blind Susy. She screamed as he grabbed
at her left ankle. He dragged himself across the floor using the
knife blade, stalking her. She outwitted him by hiding behind the
refrigerator door and pulling its plug, plunging her apartment into complete
darkness. Would she survive his attack?
- in the film's denouement, Susy's husband Sam found her collapsed
behind the refrigerator door - she slowly emerged alive
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Mike Talman's Discovery of Asphyxiated Lisa (Samantha Jones)
in Susy's Closet Garment Bag
Villainous Roat (Alan Arkin)
Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn)
Terrorizing Susy With Fire
Susy: "Try lighting a match now, Mr. Roat!"
Roat Stabbed in the Abdomen
Susy Finding Outer Door Blocked
Susy Found In Film's Ending By Husband Sam Behind Refrigerator
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