Product: Bunny Lake is Missing (1965)
Rating: 3.0
A Mother's Nightmare
For fans of psychological horror movies, this could be considered a worthwhile movie experience. It's directed with skill by Otto Preminger and features an interesting cast (Noel Coward steals the movie in just a few minutes ... what a creepy, funny role).The premise is interesting enough: a mother's little girl has vanished from school during the first day, and before long it seems that there's more here than meets the eye. This is the kind of mysterious story that begins to get my gray matter moving, trying to figure out what might happen next-- or how I would write the ending to the film. Things get more curious as the story unfolds. We begin to suspect people, we begin to wonder about certain things. It's as if the viewer is a sleuth trying to figure out what's going on.There are some memorable elements, particularly the enchanting-yet-sinister doll hospital establishment that Carol Lynley enters after closing time.But the problem with this film is that the buildup is so good and appetizing that the climax has to be a real winner ... and it isn't, truly. So I'm left mildly disappointed with the story, and yet impressed with the style and the mysteriousness of the movie.