Product: Bunny Lake is Missing (1965)
Rating: 3.0
Common Sense Is Missing
You know something is not right about this American brother (Keir Dullea) and sister (Carol Lynley) when they move into a 1960s London flat together. She cries endlessly, they comfort each other too lovingly, and she sits chatting on the bathtub while he's naked in it. But give Otto Preminger his due. The director has cleverly set up the plot and character twists and turns so that just how screwed up they actually are is almost believable. Of course, having an A-list supporting cast certainly helps.Clive Revill and top-billed Laurence Olivier are the cool detectives who investigate the sister's claim that her child is missing on its first day in school. Mind you, we nor anyone else has seen the little girl; indeed, given the couple's behavior, whether the child exists at all is doubtful. Anna Massey and the incomparable Maritita Hunt operate the school, and no less a personage than the chi-chi playwright Noel Coward shows up as a seedy busybody pervert who voiceovers for the BBC. The casting director gets a gold star for this one.Preminger is incapable of making a dull movie. His thriller is only slightly dated and has enough suspense and narrative thrust to mitigate the red herrings and occasional overacting. The jazzy score, the widescreen black-and-white cinematography, even the evocative Saul Bass titles (oddly rendered here in small screen), are first rate. The surprise ending only makes sense if you have not been paying attention. A remake is rumored, so try to catch this first DVD transfer to see how they change it. They always do, you know.