Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)

Ann Lake and her brother Steven are moving into a new house, with Ann and her daughter Bunny having just moved to England from the US. The day of the move is quite hectic, as Ann also has to drop Bunny off for her first day of school. When Ann comes to collect Bunny, she is nowhere to be found. The Police are called in, but they more they investigate, the more it appears that Bunny Lake never existed.Intriguing, original drama, directed by Otto Preminger (director of Anatomy of a Murder, Laura and Exodus, among others). Great set-up with good build-up. Preminger does a great job at making you think in a certain direction, even though that direction is the lesser-trodden one. However, not brilliant. The middle section, while creating intrigue, lacks momentum. The ending feels quite clumsy, even though it does involve a great twist. There are also some jarring moments along the way, scenes where you think "This isn't necessary". The extensive Zombies coverage is the best example of this. I can only think that Preminger was trying to appeal to a younger audience.Laurence Olivier puts in a solid performance as Superintendent Newhouse (though one would expect that from him), giving the movie gravitas and credibility. Carol Lynley is okay as Ann Lake but I thought Keir Dullea, as Steven Lake, overacted a touch.Not a classic, but worth watching.

This one was predictable, silly by times and not especially entertaining. However, there are some very good actors here giving fine performances: Laurence Olivier as Superintendent NewhouseKeir Dullea (also in 2001: A Space Odyssey) as Steven LakeCarol Lynley as Ann Lakeand Noël Coward as Wilson the creepy landlord. I really didn't expect this movie to be any better than it is. I decided to watch it because one of my all-time favorite actors Laurence Olivier is in it.

Based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Merriam Model, this is a rather good psychological thriller which unfortunately loses much of its credibility towards the end. The plot concerns the disappearance of a four-year-old girl named Bunny Lake from the playschool Little People's Garden several days after she and her mother Ann moved from New York to London. As the investigation develops, it become clear that Bunny may never have existed at all. In this respect, the film is somewhat reminiscent of the earlier films "The Lady Vanishes" or "So Long at the Fair" but it is sadly not on the same level as either. The script by John and Penelope Mortimer is good for the most part. However, the last 10 to 15 minutes of the film are borderline hysterical and contain developments that happen not because they are logical but because it says so in the script, which is never a good thing. Otto Preminger's direction is good and he is able to maintain a decent level of tension for most of the film but it is never really as high as it should be. The film stars Laurence Olivier in an excellent performance as Superintendent Newhouse, who leads the investigation into Bunny's disappearance. Olivier plays the atypically down-to-earth role in a more understated fashion than is his wont. Newhouse is a silky smooth, fiercely intelligent and deeply methodical man who is more concerned with cold hard facts than gut instincts and intuition. As such, he comes to believe that Bunny may be a figment of her mother's imagination as he and his men are unable to locate any evidence that suggests that she existed. That would be a perfectly sensible conclusion under the circumstances but all that glisters is not gold. Carol Lynley is quite good as the understandably incredibly distraught Ann, though she is much more convincing when she has to cry than when she has to converse normally. I thought that that was a little odd since I generally find it to be the opposite when comes to second- rate actors. Lynley does fall into that category, I'm afraid, but she is certainly able to hold her own with Olivier in several scenes, particularly the one in the pub. Keir Dullea is perfectly fine as Ann's very loving and supportive elder brother Stephen but his performance does not really standout as much as I would have liked. I'd have preferred if a better actor had been cast instead, to be perfectly honest. Maybe someone like Donald Sutherland, who worked extensively in the UK in the mid 1960s. Noël Coward has less than ten minutes screen time but he nevertheless gives a wonderful performance as the Lakes' landlord Horatio Wilson, a self-described "poet, playwright and dropper of alcoholic bricks" who regularly reads poetry on the BBC. He is a lecherous old drunk who is into bondage, owns the Marquis de Sade's (alleged) skull and delights at the very thought of a policeman whipping him. I'm glad that he's not my landlord. Before his...hobbies were revealed, one policeman referred to him as a "degenerate" and I was more than a little worried that Wilson was going to be an example of the then common homophobic stereotype that all gay men were paedophiles. Thankfully, however, I was wrong on that score. Incidentally, Coward was not terribly convinced by Dullea's acting ability and he is rumoured to have quipped, "Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow." The film also features good performances from Martita Hunt as an extremely eccentric former teacher Miss Ford (whom I would have loved to have seen in a scene with Wilson), Clive Revill as Sgt. Andrews, Anna Massey as the playschool's administrator Miss Elvira Smollet and Lucie Mannheim as its obstreperous German cook. In his final film before his death in 1968, Finlay Currie is a one scene wonder as the kindly old doll maker.Overall, this is a pretty effective thriller for much of its running time but it eventually falls in on itself like a house of cards.

In my opinion, after having seen the film, many of the reviewers - who gave it over 4 stars - were far too generous. Maybe they're rabid fans of Olivier's. But, whatever the case, only those devoid of common sense didn't realize, even before his Inspector decided to check, that there would be some record of Lynley's trip to England and that Dullea was the culprit. However, my first guess was that he had some incestuous love for his sister, which would have been more interesting than the over-the-top whacky nut job he turned out to be. The maniacal mess doesn't deserve more than the 4 out of 10 stars, at best, as far as I'm concerned...