Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

JohnHowardReid Associate producer: Martin C. Shute. Producer: Otto Preminger. (Available on an excellent Sony DVD).A Wheel (Otto Preminger) Production for Columbia. Released 28 February 1966 (U.K.), October 1965 (U.S.A.). Registered: August 1965. "X" certificate. 9,635 feet. 107 minutes.New York opening simultaneously at the Victoria, Beekman, and 34th Street East: 3 October 1965. Australian release: 26 November 1965. NOTES: In his autobiography, Preminger has virtually nothing to say about Bunny Lake. He doesn't even mention the fact that he was lucky not to get bad reviews in New York. Bosley Crowther's negative write-up in The N. Y. Times was not published because of the New York newspaper strike. It's an ill wind. . . Aside from Leonard Mosley in The Daily Express - "Flat-footed" - British critics were reasonably kind. In fact, some of us, including me, praised the movie, but our combined verdict on its sterling entertainment qualities made little impression on the late 1965's TV-doting public. Olivier was rarely a great box-office lure (except of course with the carriage trade and the corduroy set). The film boasted no offsetting publicity and/or super-stars. All told, Columbia was lucky to make a profit.COMMENT: It's a shame that Preminger was later to dismiss this film and virtually expunge it from his memory. True, from a box-office point of view it was certainly unsuccessful. But we critics enjoyed the movie even if nobody else did. Bearing all the hallmarks of an Otto Preminger production — long takes, admirably fluid camera movement and stand-out performances, both good (Dullea, Olivier, Hunt, Massey, Currie) and bad (Lynley, Coward) — this psychological thriller rates as first-class entertainment. Admittedly, the script is full of holes, but the existence or non- existence of Bunny Lake is intriguing enough to guarantee edge-of- the-seat excitement. Tension is effectively conveyed through sharp editing, shrewd dialogue exchanges and the elaborate deployment of extras against natural backgrounds. Preminger uses the wide Panavision aperture most astutely and as a result the film cannot be seen to advantage on full screen TV. The sensitive and well-informed Dilys Powell remarked in the Sunday Times: "Towering over the story (is) the police superintendent of Laurence Olivier, a performance almost self-effacing, but still massive, hinting force behind the official mask." Alexander Walker in The Evening Standard agreed that Olivier was the man to watch! My sentiments too!

writers_reign It's strange and disappointing to find a writer like John Mortimer guilty of sloppiness. The plot is an uneasy hybrid of So Long At The Fair - Jean Simmons travels to Paris with her bother who promptly disappears leaving no record he was ever there - and Gaslight - a man attempts to drive his wife mad in which four-year old Bunny Lake disappears from a Nursery school on her very first day yet no one - staff, pupils, parents, deny ever seeing her. Mortimer's sloppiness manifests itself in several ways; 1) The audience does not see the child, what we see is the mother, Ann (Carol Lynley) looking for a member of staff having deposited her daughter in the First Day Room. There is absolutely no logical reason why we should not see the child other than the fact that one of the plot points is that the child is the figment of a disturbed mothers' imagination and this lends it credence; 2) Lynley tells the cook where the child is and the cook agrees to tell the relevant staff (although it's highly unlikely that a caring mother WOULD leave a child unattended for no real reason let alone a viable one, especially when both mother and child have just arrived in the country; 3) unrealistically, within minutes of Ann leaving the nursery the cook quits her job on the flimsiest pretense so is not there to confirm Ann's story. 4) towards the end of the film Ann finds a receipt from a doll's hospital where the doll is undergoing restoration and dashes off to the hospital which is apparently located in the West End. Her cab is caught in traffic and the driver explains that this is 'theatre' traffic and tells Ann she will be better walking. She leaves the cab and proceeds on foot; hardly has she entered the shop - after business hours but the door is conveniently open - than her brother, who she left in Hampstead, pulls up outside the shop, in a now traffic-free road. Extreme sloppiness. Finally, no attempt is made to explain just why Ann's brother, who is holding down a responsible job, is suddenly revealed as psychotic. If you can take stuff like this in your stride you may well enjoy this.

thinglike Bunny Lake is missing is an unusual film. The kind of movie the English used to excel in. No Car chases.No romance.No murders.Stylishly filmed.Dark brooding atmosphere.The film is elevated by Lawrence Olivier and Noel Coward. His scene with Lynley, where he tries to seduce her must rate as one of the most uncomfortable and creepy scenes on film.Her reactions in this scene are not believable and frankly, pretty bad acting and scripting.I think casting her for this role was a mistake.It was a pretty ordinary performance by her.In some scenes she is very good and believable, and in other scenes she is terrible. A really good actress would have elevated this movie quite a bit. Keir Dullea , playing her brother was the real star here. Slightly over the top acting, but it kinda worked. It is really like 2 movies. Everything changes at the doll hospital scene.Before this it is interesting, mysterious and fairly slow paced. From then on the pace accelerates. The storyline goes to a weird place, and even some of the main characters totally change their character and behavior. It becomes more than a bit psychedelic in the second part. Another strange scene is the one in the pub with Olivier and Lynley.The 1965 Zombies UK pop group appear on the TV and do about 3 very forgettable Zombie songs while the scene is on. Why ? The big mistake in the film was that police were told to look for a young blonde child with an American accent. When she turns up, she has a very British accent. Oops ! It's worth a watch, but could have been so much better.

SnoopyStyle Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) is an American recently settled in London. She comes to pick up her daughter Bunny after her first day and finds her missing. Nobody seems to know anything about her. Her brother magazine reporter Steven Lake (Keir Dullea) is the only one who knows her. Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) investigates but soon wonders if she has made the whole thing up.This movie starts off with such a powerful compelling sequence as Ann Lake try to find her daughter at the school. It's a nightmare that is close to heart for every parent. However as it goes on, I found the movie to be uneven. Olivier is able to hold the various pieces together but I found the brother to be unreal. Director Otto Preminger made a very interesting movie that I found some parts to be more compelling than others. Overall, I found the good parts to be so great that the less good parts aren't that bothersome.