Bunny Lake Is Missing

For years I had heard about how wonderful this film was, a masterpiece that had been unfairly obscured. I read Evelyn Piper's novel, and enjoyed it very much. I was very excited to see that it would finally be coming out on video. I can't recall a film that didn't live up to its expectations so dramatically. The mystery is completely lacking-- the culprit is obvious from the beginning. (And emphasized with a few "cuckoos" from a clock while he's speaking, in multiple scenes, in case you're an idiot.) It's horribly paced, the kid doesn't even go missing until the end of the first act. The idea about the kid not existing doesn't work at all-- when you have one person insisting something with no evidence, like the book, it's potentially nutty; when you have two (like the film) they are either telling the truth or one is trying to pull something on the other. (Oops, I just gave it away.) The music is about the most incongruous I've ever heard in a film. Several characters are completely useless and redundant, except to throw a possible suspect in the mix. And to top it all off, the film takes a preposterous turn in its final third, and the last 20 minutes or so are completely ridiculous. I'm kind of sad they used a great mystery story for no reason than to play out a bunch of "shocking" themes that don't even rise from the story organically. ("Here's the skull of the Marquis de Sade"? PLEASE, Mary.) It seems like Preminger was walking a very fine line between a standard narrative and an art film, and not particularly successfully. There are some interesting aspects to the movies, but the end result is practically incoherent. I suspect he may have seen this as a comedy, although child abduction isn't exactly ripe for a laugh. (But as an elderly acquaintance from those days of Hollywood told me, "Otto could ruin anything.") On the plus side, the cinematography is nice, although the film was obviously made on-the- cheap-- Ms. Lynley is horribly dubbed for a number of lines, presumably because of ambient noise. The acting is pretty good, but the script doesn't give any of the characters much to work with. I think this film rates so highly because it's obscure, and has been difficult to see until now. With the DVD release, maybe its rating will actually begin to reflect what a disorganized mess it is. Remember, sometimes films bomb and the box office and fade into obscurity because they deserve to. Recommmended if you want to see how to destroy a good mystery.

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Trailer—Bunny Lake Is Missing

Bunny Lake Is Missing

Inconsistent and sometimes quite dull as a Director Preminger helms this audacious 60's genre trend of Hammer and Hitchcock, that of the Psychological Thriller. He seems to be right on the pulse of the better of these things when it collapses in the Third Act with missteps of overwrought childhood game silliness. These things are best left to the psyche not acted out on the playground for here it loses all sense of tension. But leading up to the conclusion there is plenty of stimulation both visually and from the unending parade of offbeat and creepy Characters. Things are kept centered by some fine Acting all around and a pastiche of unsettling situations. It's a rewarding Movie if the ending is anti-climatic and uneven.

Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) is an American recently settled in London. She comes to pick up her daughter Bunny after her first day and finds her missing. Nobody seems to know anything about her. Her brother magazine reporter Steven Lake (Keir Dullea) is the only one who knows her. Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) investigates but soon wonders if she has made the whole thing up. This movie starts off with such a powerful compelling sequence as Ann Lake try to find her daughter at the school. It's a nightmare that is close to heart for every parent. However as it goes on, I found the movie to be uneven. Olivier is able to hold the various pieces together but I found the brother to be unreal. Director Otto Preminger made a very interesting movie that I found some parts to be more compelling than others. Overall, I found the good parts to be so great that the less good parts aren't that bothersome.

Enjoyed this film directed by Otto Preminger which features a great actor Laurence Olivier, (Supt. Newhouse) who plays the role as a British Police Supertendent who investigates a little girl named Bunny Lake who is missing. Carol Lynley, (Ann Lake) and Keir Dullea, (Stephen Lake) are a brother and sister and Ann has a little girl which is illegitimate and they have just arrived in England from the United States and have entered her in a British private school and she cannot be found anywhere. Supt. Newhouse does everything he can to find out just what happened to Bunny Lake and begins to think that Ann Lake is not missing at all and is just an imaginary person that Ann has created. This film was not a big success when it first opened in theaters's in the Year 1965 but over the years it has become a great cult film and it is a very great entertaining film. Enjoy.

This gem of a movie directed with uncharacteristic subtlety by Otto Preminger and based on the novel by Evelyn Piper is really a clever and very involving movie. Set in England, Carol Lynley plays a young American single mother who drops her daughter off at school and finds that she's no where to be found when she comes back to collect her. Does the child exist? Nobody seems to recall her and as Lynley searches all over London looking for her the tension becomes palpable. Laurence Olivier gives an un-showy performance as the police inspector who seems to be the only person who believes Lynley. Preminger assembles one of his typically eclectic supporting casts: Noel Coward, Keir Dullea, Martita Hunt, and, on TV in one scene, The Zombies. Seeing oddballs Lynley & Dullea share the screen is a treat. The excellent titles are by Saul Bass.

Carol Lynley just died, so I decided to watch one of her movies. Otto Preminger's disturbing "Bunny Lake Is Missing" grips you up to the very end. The movie plays with the audience every step of the way, all the while addressing previously taboo topics. No surprise there, since Otto Preminger often pushed the limits of what was considered "appropriate" to show in movies. Basically, this is a movie that you have to see to believe. You're not likely to forget it anytime soon (and not just because of some REAL shockers along the way). In addition to Lynley - a gorgeous woman if there ever was one - it also stars Laurence Olivier, Keir Dullea (Dave in "2001: A Space Odyssey"), Noël Coward (a playwright/composer/actor/director/singer), Adrienne Corri (Mrs. Alexander in "A Clockwork Orange") and The Zombies.