Submitted by filmfactsman  (Sep 03, 2005)Sit forward and get some scares!
An excellent suspense drama. It's the sort of well made mystery-horror story that hooks you immediately, places you on a roller-coaster of driving suspense and scares the daylights out of you at the end. Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn), blind from a recent accident, is visited by three men who have contrived to get her husband out of town overnight, leaving her alone in their Greenwich Village apartment. The trio is looking for a doll filled with a fortune in heroin which they believe is hidden, unknown to her, in her apartment. One hardly notices that the action rarely moves from the interior of the house--especially when the lights go out. By a series of plot twists and camera effects, the audience is able to live the experience being menaced by the unknown as if it were as blind as Susy. Consequently, the shock and suspense of the climax hits the audience just as hard as it does her.
Audrey is superb as "The World's Champion Blind Lady" (receiving her fifth and final Academy Award nomination). The sweetness with which she plays the poignant role, the quickness in which she changes and the skill in which she manifests terror attract sympathy and anxiety to her and give her genuine solidity in the final scenes. Alan Arkin (in only his second major screen role) is wonderfully devilish in his evilness and charm as one of the three hoods who invade her home and menace her. Another fine score by Henry Mancini (his fourth for a Hepburn film). However, we could have done without the closing title song!
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