Wait Until Dark
Encyclopedia
Frederick Knott
Frederick Major Paull Knott was an English playwright, best known for writing the London-based stage thriller Dial M for Murder, which was later filmed in Hollywood by Alfred Hitchcock....
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Synopsis
Susy Hendrix (Lee Remick) is a blindBlindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
housewife who becomes the target of three con-men searching for the heroin hidden in a doll, which her husband Sam innocently transported from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
as a favor to a woman who has since been murdered. "Roat" leads his companions into thinking they are going to be rich and will get the heroin soon enough, but in the end he murders all of his partners after they outlive their usefulness.
The trio try to convince Susy that her husband has been accused of drug smuggling, and the only way to protect him is to give them the doll. Little do the men know that Susy gave the doll to Gloria, a little girl in the upstairs apartment.
One of the men plays a man named Sergeant Carlino, a strange police sergeant/detective, while another plays Mike, a supposed old friend of her husband dropping by for a visit. Susy relies on "Mike", and he eventually begins to feel sympathetic for her.
'Roat" plays both Mr. Roat and his "son" Roat Jr. Roat Junior ransacks her room and steals from her. He threatens Susy and her husband's well being, so she calls the police, or thinks she's getting the police. Of course, the con-men knew this would happen and send over "Sergeant Carlino".
Susy is incredibly clever, and with the help of Gloria, she realizes the true identity of the men and plans to defeat them.
The stage lights are turned off for the final scene, when Susy turns off all the lights so that "Roat" can't see her. "Roat" threatens Susy and tries to kill her. She ultimately kills "Roat", while Gloria goes to the police.
At the end of the play, Sam bursts in with the police to find that she has already taken care of Roat, and he sees Mike was also killed in her apartment. The police go to help Susy, but Gloria yells at them, saying she can do it on her own, and helps Susy get up. The final image of the play is Susy and Sam embracing by the stairs.
Performances
After seven previews, the BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production, directed by Arthur Penn
Arthur Penn
Arthur Hiller Penn was an American film director and producer with a career as a theater director as well. Penn amassed a critically acclaimed body of work throughout the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
, opened on February 2, 1966 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 243 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan, named for actress Ethel Barrymore....
. Within the next eleven months, it transferred to the Shubert
Shubert Theatre (Broadway)
The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 225 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States.Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts, it was named after Sam S. Shubert, the second oldest of the three brothers of the theatrical producing family...
, the George Abbott
Adelphi Theater
The Adelphi Theatre , originally named the Craig Theatre, opened on December 24, 1928. The Adelphi was located at 152 West 54th Street in New York City, with 1,434 seats. The theater was taken over by the Federal Theater Project in 1934 and renamed the Adelphi...
, and the Music Box Theatre
Music Box Theatre
The Music Box Theater is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan.The once most aptly named theater on Broadway, the intimate Music Box was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed by composer Irving Berlin and producer Sam H. Harris specifically to...
s before it ended its run of 374 performances. The cast included Lee Remick
Lee Remick
Lee Ann Remick was an American film and television actress. Among her best-known films are Anatomy of a Murder , Days of Wine and Roses , and The Omen .-Early life:...
, Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....
, and Mitchell Ryan
Mitchell Ryan
Mitchell Ryan is an American actor most recently known for playing Edward Montgomery on the sitcom Dharma & Greg. He also worked with his on-screen wife from Dharma & Greg, Susan Sullivan, in the short-lived series Julie Farr, M.D..Ryan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Louisville,...
. Remick was nominated for the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Actress in a Play.
The West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production with Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
was far more successful, running nearly two years.
After 11 previews, a revival directed by Leonard Foglia
Leonard Foglia
Leonard Foglia is an American theatre director, librettist, and novelist.Foglia made his Broadway debut as the assistant director of The Heidi Chronicles in 1989...
opened on April 5, 1998 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
The Brooks Atkinson Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 256 West 47th Street in Manhattan.Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, it was constructed as the Mansfield Theatre by the Chanin brothers in 1926. After 1933, the theatre fell into relative disuse until 1945, when Michael Myerberg...
, where it ran for 97 performances. The cast included Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987...
, Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
, and Stephen Lang
Stephen Lang (actor)
Stephen Lang is an American actor and playwright. He started in theatre on Broadway but is well known for his film portrayals of Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals and George Pickett in Gettysburg , as well as for his 2009 roles as Colonel Miles Quaritch in Avatar and as Texan lawman Charles...
.
A 2003 London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
revival, followed by a UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
tour, featured Susie Amy
Susie Amy
Susie Amy is an English model and actress most famous for her role as Chardonnay Lane-Pascoe in the first two series of Footballers' Wives.-Biography:...
, Derren Nesbitt
Derren Nesbitt
Derren Nesbitt is an English actor. Possibly his best known role was as SS Major von Hapen in Where Eagles Dare.In 2008 he was writing a book on "biblical myths and falsehoods".-Acting career:...
, and Michael Melia
Michael Melia
Michael Melia is an established British actor best known for his work on television.Melia was born in Berkshire and attended St. Mary's College, Twickenham, the oldest Roman Catholic college in England. Before taking up acting he was a teacher. At one stage he ran a bar in Spain and thought about...
. The setting was changed to Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
.
A production of the play took place at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010. It was performed at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is an organisation dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and advancement in surgical practice, through its interest in education, training and examinations, its liaison with external medical bodies and representation of the modern surgical workforce...
by students of Oxford University.
Film adaptation
Warner Bros.-Seven ArtsWarner Bros.-Seven Arts
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was formed in 1967 and became defunct in 1970, when Seven Arts Productions acquired Jack Warner's controlling interest in Warner Bros. for $32 million and merged with it. The deal also included Warner Bros. Records, Reprise Records and the B&W Looney Tunes library...
purchased the film rights in 1966 soon after the play's Broadway premiere; the film, directed by Terence Young with a screenplay by Robert Carrington and Jane Howard-Carrington and a score by Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
, premiered on October 26, 1967. It starred Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
, Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
, Richard Crenna
Richard Crenna
Richard Donald Crenna was an American motion picture, television, and radio actor and occasional television director. He starred in such motion pictures as The Sand Pebbles, Wait Until Dark, Body Heat, the first three Rambo movies, Hot Shots! Part Deux, and The Flamingo Kid...
, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Jack Weston and was produced by Hepburn's then-husband Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer was an American actor, film director and film producer.-Early life:Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Catalan and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer , was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St....
.
In an effort to duplicate the suspense on screen, movie theaters dimmed their lights to their legal limits, then turned off one
by one until each light on-screen was shattered, resulting in the theater being plunged into complete darkness.
Hepburn was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actress, and Zimbalist was nominated for a Globe in the supporting category.
The film ranked tenth on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments for its climactic scene.
A 1982 HBO television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
starred Katharine Ross
Katharine Ross
Katharine Juliet Ross is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, which won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and her role...
and Stacy Keach
Stacy Keach
Stacy Keach is an American actor and narrator. He is most famous for his dramatic roles; however, he has done narration work in educational programming on PBS and the Discovery Channel, as well as some comedy and musical...
.