MovieChat Forums > Bunny Lake Is Missing (1966) Discussion > Great movie until we figured out who did...

Great movie until we figured out who did it. Spoilers

posted 11 years ago by mariposa-9
9 replies | jump to latest

The moment I saw Keir Dullea's character burn the doll, I thought "nooo". They were so good up until that point. The acting so sharp, the film so riveting, but they took the easy way out, and lost a bit of plausibility for me, i.e, how could an obviously unstable man be so convincingly normal in the earlier scenes. I guess they just ran out of good ideas. Thus, the final climax, supposed to be suspenseful, held very little suspense for me.

[–] bastasch8647 11 years ago

Granted the climax was just a little too drawn out.

However, I think the revelation(s) starting with the doll repair shop and ending at the climax gave the film its surrealistic core. It's not just that Dullea is crazy ... it's that poor Lynley has been holding the relationship together for many years, maybe decades. But even with her intimate knowledge of her brother's insanity, Linley still cannot guess what he is ultimately capable of - or that he has become insanely jealous of the attention that she lavishes on her daughter/his niece. The climax represents her desperate struggle to "reach" her brother - by using an insane game which matches his level of pathology and regression - which is the film's corrupt center.

Re: running out of ideas, I presume that the screenplay was follwing the book ...? I haven't read it so I can't say for sure.

[–] mariposa-9 11 years ago

Your comments illustrate my point. Lynley, or even the audience should have been clued in to the fact that this guy could be involved. That is, if she was aware that he was insane. I assumed that his psychotic urges had been repressed. Or were they? Either way, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 11 years ago

Lynley, or even the audience should have been clued in to the fact that this guy could be involved.

His 'madness' seemed to have been confined to imaginary play until Anne was placed in the hospital at which point she realised his capabilities. It's easy to be blind with those we love.

I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.

[–] Dduw-Bendithia 10 years ago

Agreed the ending kinda spoilt the movie for me.

Don't Bitch, Just Moan!

[–] brefane 10 years ago

Actually there were clues; Dullea tells people about the imaginary playmate named Bunny that his sister had as a child which seemingly was an attempt to make his sister seem unstable in the eyes of others. Also, he had access to the flat in order to remove all of Bunny's belongings. In addition, the relationship between brother and sister had definite hints of incest so much so that I began to suspect that he was Bunny's father especially since the information told to the police regarding Bunny's father was sketchy and unconvincing. I do agree that he was ultimately depicted as so delusional that it's hard to believe that he was able to keep it together for so long and have an apparently good job The prolonged climax is ridiculous because Lynley had plenty of opportunity to just knocked him over the head with any number of things handy in order to save her child instead of playing all those games and even allowing herself to be blindfolded!

[–] deRider84 9 years ago

I can't agree with the first part of your title. Until we find out who did it, the film is just an endless succession of talking heads delivering stilted and predictable dialogue, with not a single setpiece or any interesting imagery at all to liven things up. And everyone, including the mother, is just so leisurely about the situation. There is never any real urgency or momentum. And then the big reveal and the ending... my word, that was some of the most terrifyingly silly nonsense I've ever seen. Makes Hitchcock's ludicrous attempts at psycho-analysis seem genuinely scientific by comparison...

[–] gshows-1 9 years ago

I thought it was a very good movie as it was. I wondered if Lynley was the homocidal maniac and her brother was protecting her.

[–] Eric-62-2 8 years ago

The thing about the ending that I hated so much is that it just dragged on and on and on with no let-up. Honestly, not so much as one "meanwhile back at the ranch" cut back to Olivier and Revill finally adding things up and at least letting the audience know they're on the way? But noooooo, Preminger had to just drag the whole scenes of child game reversion and Dullea gone psycho for ten solid minutes. That is one of the worst examples of directorial narcissism I've ever seen where a director falls in love so much with an idea and wants to show how allegedly brilliant he is that he throws all forms of rational storytelling in filmmaking out the window.

[–] liscarkat (18460) 3 years ago

"everyone, including the mother, is just so leisurely about the situation."

Did this person even see the movie? The mother (Lynley) was hysterical much of the time.