One of the most UNDERRATED films of ALL TIME....
Quite why it's not the classic it deserves to be is beyond me. I find this to be a great thriller from start to finish. Up there with some of Hitchcock's best films.
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MovieChat Forums > Bunny Lake Is Missing (1966) Discussion > One of the most UNDERRATED films of ALL ...
I wouldn't go that far, but I watched it on DVD from Netflix and was definitely impressed.
I think one problem is that it is essential to see this movie uninterrupted, in widescreen, and with little or no foreknowledge of the plot. TV showings over the years have violated all of these conditions. Fortunately, I missed it on TV and thus was able to see it fresh.
<Quite why it's not the classic it deserves to be is beyond me.>
Maybe because the characters were annoying & Olivier was wasted in this. Really, the material was beneath his acting talent.
<I find this to be a great thriller from start to finish. Up there with some of Hitchcock's best films.>
No. The relationship between brother & sister & the brother's fixation on her was too......well, had that "ick" factor. He should've been whacked over the head with that shovel. Instead, they're playing kid games to catch him emotionally off guard. Ugh.
<Maybe because the characters were annoying & Olivier was wasted in this. Really, the material was beneath his acting talent.>
So just because Olivier is in a movie we are supposed to bow to him and expect him to outhamlet Hamlet?
<No. The relationship between brother & sister & the brother's fixation on her was too......well, had that "ick" factor. He should've been whacked over the head with that shovel. Instead, they're playing kid games to catch him emotionally off guard. Ugh>
Oh yes, because as we know Hitcock's best thrillers never had "ick" factors at all. Norman Bates keeping his mother's corpse and dressing up like her is by no means icky.
Today's young audiences of course would have liked a more generic "cat and mouse" chase between Ann and her brother. Then a surprise shock ending where he is "dead" then gets up for a final scare only to be shot down by the police. Enjoy the remake I guess...
<So just because Olivier is in a movie we are supposed to bow to him and expect him to outhamlet Hamlet??
Nope. But he could do better than this part called for. Any character actor could have done it.
<Oh yes, because as we know Hitcock's best thrillers never had "ick" factors at all. Norman Bates keeping his mother's corpse and dressing up like her is by no means icky>
You know what I meant, so ditch the sarcasm. Hitch was a perv anyway. Comparing the mother/son oddities in a classic horror movie to this brother/sister whatever his hangup with her was, is like comparing apples & oranges. Playing child games with him like they did as kids to pacify him was almost laughable, watching him get so into it like an overgrown 8 yr. old. Handling an over-the-top whacko in a movie can depend a lot on how well the plot is written, & how well it's directed. Maybe that's why Psyco is regarded as a classic, & Bunny Lake is Missing isn't.
<Today's young audiences of course would have liked a more generic "cat and mouse" chase between Ann and her brother. Then a surprise shock ending where he is "dead" then gets up for a final scare only to be shot down by the police. Enjoy the remake I guess...?
That's their problem. I don't fall into that "today's young audience" category. I sure as hell don't care to see a remake. I'm usually against remakes of most movies anyway. If they made a remake of this (and why would they?), they would just throw in some gratuitous violence crap for those who like that.....like the guy trying to rape his own sister. Hardly an improvement.
So you rate movies based on how other people perceive them and how the general public rates them as "classics"? Okay then, fair enough. If you can't put general public opinion aside and see the beauty of Otto's direction in Bunny, which was so ahead of its time, so be it.
Any character actor could have done it.
Any character actor bring the warmth, intelligence and humour that Laurence Olivier brings to this role?! You don't understand the part clearly. Newhouse isn't just the police detective he's also the only rational thinking adult in the film. And when you cast Olivier in that role you are introducing a deeper thematic context to the film.
. Playing child games with him like they did as kids to pacify him was almost laughable, watching him get so into it like an overgrown 8 yr. old.
She wants to save her child but she doesn't want to hurt and kill her brother. You didn't understand that?!
"Ça va by me, madame...Ça va by me!" - The Red Shoes
I agree entirely, I'm not quite sure why so many people seem to think it's "boring"? I'd hardly call an emotionally retarded, incestuous, child thieving lunatic BORING.
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I've seen lots and lots of movies and am no longer impressed with twist endings but I loved how this movie plays with your mind. There were times I actually thought Bunny didn't exist but I never even began to suspect what actually took place in the end, plus I found the whole atmosphere very creepy and surreal.
I'll always love the sad boy with blue hairshare
I see it as subversive in a delicious sort of way, and unexpected from Preminger of all people. The women in the film are the ones who are under suspicion of being mad as a type of default state of womanhood. The screen writer's deserve the most credit of course, but I hope that goes without saying.
This film is a great example of how a women must prove their sanity while a man's sanity is a given in a patriarchy. A recent and exemplary example is the USA's latest Supreme Court Congressional hearings.
I am referring to the "melt down " line that Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) so pointedly told Ms. Sotomayor during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Woman and toddlers have meltdowns, uncontrollable emotions, the bloody flux, etc.
I also think that the two leads extraordinary good looks added to the bizarre atmosphere of the picture. Beautiful people have wonderful things projected upon them all the time whether they deserve them or not.
I enjoyed reading this thread and I especially liked your debate in defending this film. I have found Olivier performances, many times, to be less than stellar. I disliked his Hamlet which he also directed (I think this is correct, but I may be in error). I think he grew to be a much better actor as he aged but I believe that his performances were often hammy and stilted. I know this is personal taste. I did not enjoy his performance as Heathcliff or as Mr. Darcy,two huge roles which milions I am sure loved.
I know that he and Vivian Leigh were major superstars for their era. I did however, think he was brilliant in "Marathon Man", a much later film. I just went to the dentist and thought I should say "Is it safe" but refrained.
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
Piewackett1 says > The women in the film are the ones who are under suspicion of being mad as a type of default state of womanhood.That's an interesting take on things but the majority of characters were women so they were the ones under suspicion. The landlord was not depicted as a stable, well-adjusted person and he was a man.
I think there were clues throughout the movie that the brother was involved. He seemed especially calm when he heard the child was missing then he tries to get his sister to accept she may never see the child again but that's okay because whoever took her must care about her.
He also let a lot of things 'slip' that made his sister look bad. These were an attempt to plant the seeds of doubt. I had no idea it would end the way it did though. I was thinking he'd sold or given the child away to someone for the sake of his job. That's because he seemed calculated not crazy.
That's one of the problems I have with the movie. To keep the audience guessing the character of Steven is inconsistent. If he behaved in the beginning of the movie the way he does in the end there's no way he could have pulled off all that he did. He was the one talking his sister off the ledge (so to speak) but later she was able to coaxed him into doing what she wanted.
The explanation provided for Steven's actions seem like an afterthought. If he felt the way he did I doubt it would have taken four years for him to resent Bunny. That would have happened early on when she was first born; not four years later. Wouldn't Ann have noticed his attitude towards her?
Also, the fact he took the doll to the toy hospital and got a ticket seems to point to it being a last minute, spur of the moment, decision to eliminate Bunny. All that time aboard ship, it would have been easier to throw her overboard or arrange some other accident than to pull off this elaborate ruse.
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I find this to be a great thriller from start to finish. Up there with some of Hitchcock's best films.
It actually goes into areas Hitchcock only suggested. It takes the premises of Psycho or Shadow of a Doubt and explodes them.
Quite why it's not the classic it deserves to be is beyond me.
Probably because it's too disturbing and scary to be called "a classic".
I find this to be a great thriller from start to finish.
It's something else than a thriller. It's the closest Preminger came to making an avant-garde film. This and Angel Face.
"Ça va by me, madame...Ça va by me!" - The Red Shoes
No.
nowhere near Hitchcock's greatest
This movie is friggin terrible; belabored, inert, padded and overextended, with ten thousand plot holes.
It's a very good film, but once people make comparison to Hitchcock, the accolades lose credibility. This film stands well on its own, but it Hitchcock's shadow it withers a bit.
share"But once people make comparisons to Hitchcock, the accolades lose credibility".
Far as I`m concerned, it would fit easily in the top 6 of Hitchcock`s filmography. It`s darker, bolder and creepier than anything Hitch ever crafted.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
The ending revelation was giving me a "Psycho" vibe (I also feel that both endings have a overplayed quality to them and also a degree of silliness). The first two thirds or so was also bringing to mind "Séance on a Wet Afternoon" partially because of the kidnapping plot but also due to the fact that both films have a great sense of atmosphere and mystery surrounding the events playing out within. All three are very good films, I think Séance has the best ending of the three.
I feel Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man" is a much darker film than Bunny though (even with the added on epilogue) and "Frenzy" more creepy and disturbing (not a film I like much though, but there's a lot to admire). Not sure what boldness you speak of in Bunny though (incest subtext maybe?).
Yeah the incest stuff - and the generally more immediate air of perversion it's got allover it (Preminger used to be a rather risque director back in those days - after all, he also crafted a surprisingly frank yarn about heroin dependency in 1955). And I also agree about Seance On The Wet Afternoon; actually, out of these three excellent films, I would probably leave Psycho on position three. But that's me.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan