On my journey through the untold world of classic movies, I decided to venture into the genre of suspense, since it is Halloween season. Being quite the light-weight when it comes to scary movies, I found myself dreading watching Wait Until Dark. Because one of my favorite actors, Audrey Hepburn, nominated for best actress academy award, plays in the movie, I decided to stick it out and watch it.

Although the acting was incredible, don’t expect the jump-in-your-face horror of today’s movies. True to suspense, Wait Until Dark opens with eerie, creepy music, which is prominent throughout the entire movie. The opening scene shows a man and a woman stuffing heroin into a porcelain doll. The doll, which causes the main conflict in the story, is handed off to an innocent by-stander who has no knowledge that it contains large amounts of heroin. The race to get the doll begins.

Blind housewife Audrey Hepburn is also unaware of the drugs in the doll, which was handed off to her husband. Add two ex-convicts and a nasty, drug dealer (Alan Arkin) and there’s the plot. Though Hepburn portrays a blind woman, her keen senses and clever mind guide her in her fight to stay alive. Because Hepburn is in her house, she begins to turn the game around by turning off all the lights so the man attacking her cannot see her. She creates new rules in the game of cat and mouse.

Wait Until Dark has the potential of being a decent movie. Maybe I was waiting for a jump-out fright fest. Maybe I was impatient with the dragging plot. Whatever the reason, I was unimpressed with the movie, although the acting was exceptional. Audrey Hepburn was, and always will be, brilliant.

Wait Until Dark is still a thriller, even though it is not like the suspense movies of our time. Take into consideration the year it was made–1967. Wait Until Dark was the Panic Room of its time.

Wait Until Dark gets two out of five stars. I was disappointed in the plot, but not in the acting. Audrey Hepburn was flawless and played an ideal version of a blind woman. I could have only asked for a better plot with quicker actions. If readers like Wait Until Dark, they might also like any Alfred Hitchcock movie–The Birds, Psycho or Vertigo. These movies are sure to satisfy even the bravest scary movie fans.