Bunny Lake Is Missing

Starring:Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, Martita Hunt, Anna Massey, Clive Revill, Lucie Mannheim, Finlay Currie, Rod Argent, Paul Atkinson, Colin Blunstone, Hugh Grundy, Chris White (IV), Noel Coward, Adrienne Corri, Megs Jenkins, Delphi Lawrence, Jill Melford, Suzanne Neve, Damaris Hayman
Director: Otto Preminger
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Bunny Lake is Missing
Dismaying missing child hoax
Common Sense Is Missing
Wonderfully dreary
Still swinging

Bunny Lake Is Missing
Starring: Laurence Olivier , Carol Lynley , Keir Dullea , Martita Hunt , and Anna Massey
Director: Otto Preminger
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0006J27XS
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Customer Reviews:

Bunny Lake is Missing.......2006-03-17

This is a classic movie from 1965 and I loved it then and I still think it is great.
Laurence Olivier's performance as the Scotland Yard Inspector is of course superb, but Noel Coward is great as the outrageous, lecherous landlord. "Bunny Lake is Missng" is one of those movies where you suspect everyone and it keeps you guessing until the end. I highly reccomend it and I hope that the upcoming remake is as good.

Dismaying missing child hoax.......2005-11-05

Otto Preminger deft direction and quality acting performances by the respected Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley and Keir Dullea helped make the psychologically gripping "Bunny Lake is Missing" a lesser known classic of intrigue.

A young and attractive Carol Lynley playing Ann Lake has recently arrived in England with her 4 year old daughter Bunny. She is moving into an apartment with her nurturing but domineering brother Steven played by Dullea. They've registered the young child for nursery school and Lynley arrives early and is told to leave the child in the day room assured that the school's cook will keep an eye on her.

When Lynley returns to retrieve Bunny we find out that she's disappeared without a trace. Pretty soon the chaotic school full of toddlers is turned upside down at the urging of the crass and obnoxious Dullea who eventually calls the police.

At this point we are treated to the entrance of Olivier playing police Superintendent Newhouse who in a cool level headed manner assumes control of the investigation. In his impeccable acting style Olivier interrogates all the main and peripheral characters in the film. He comes to the conclusion that the upset Lynley might be delusional and imagining the very existence of the child.

The plot thickens as we get to more intimately become acquainted with the characters. We soon realize that there are deeper psychological ramifictions permeating through disappearance of the child. Special mention should be made of the role played by the eminent Noel Coward who is very effective playing the annoying, scurrilous alcoholic writer Horation Wilson, the lecherous landlord of the Lake's apartment.

Common Sense Is Missing.......2005-06-23

You know something is not right about this American brother (Keir Dullea) and sister (Carol Lynley) when they move into a 1960s London flat together. She cries endlessly, they comfort each other too lovingly, and she sits chatting on the bathtub while he's naked in it. But give Otto Preminger his due. The director has cleverly set up the plot and character twists and turns so that just how screwed up they actually are is almost believable. Of course, having an A-list supporting cast certainly helps.

Clive Revill and top-billed Laurence Olivier are the cool detectives who investigate the sister's claim that her child is missing on its first day in school. Mind you, we nor anyone else has seen the little girl; indeed, given the couple's behavior, whether the child exists at all is doubtful. Anna Massey and the incomparable Maritita Hunt operate the school, and no less a personage than the chi-chi playwright Noel Coward shows up as a seedy busybody pervert who voiceovers for the BBC. The casting director gets a gold star for this one.

Preminger is incapable of making a dull movie. His thriller is only slightly dated and has enough suspense and narrative thrust to mitigate the red herrings and occasional overacting. The jazzy score, the widescreen black-and-white cinematography, even the evocative Saul Bass titles (oddly rendered here in small screen), are first rate. The surprise ending only makes sense if you have not been paying attention. A remake is rumored, so try to catch this first DVD transfer to see how they change it. They always do, you know.

Wonderfully dreary.......2005-06-04

If you're in the mood for such things, this movie might interest you, though it's truly a second or third rate thriller and rather aimless. It's a black and white film, set in London and would be a perfect entertainment on a rainy afternoon or evening. Anyway, that's what I like about it. It also has a great supporting cast of aging and aged British character actors. I'd also like to note the excellent score by Paul Glass. The main theme is so lovely and even haunting that I wish it were available on CD.

A very good Panavision print is presented on DVD in anamorphic widescreen, but strangely the main title sequence is in stardard letterboxing and will play as windowboxed on 16X9 TVs. It's about as odd as the film itself.

Still swinging.......2005-03-27

Otto Preminger's "Bunny Lake Is Missing," his last good film and one of the last major black-and-white films to get a wide release, still has a kick to it after 40 years. The story about an American mom in Britain gets going right from the start as Kier Dullea, seeing to two moving men, tell them to wait, as the person moving in might be late. That person turns out to be ingénue Carol Lynley, who is moving into a London flat but who first drops her four-year-old daughter off at a private nursery school. She's in a hurry to meet the movers so she leaves the child (who we haven't seen on the screen) in the care of a cook who, although demonstrating she has some issues with the school management, promises she'll look after the girl until the school opens.

When Lynley returns for the child, she's missing. Soon she rings Kier Dullea who in turn rings Scotland Yard. Arriving shortly at the school, one that no child deserves to be left at for even 15 minutes, is Superintendant Newhouse, played brilliantly by Sir Laurence Olivier.

And the search for the child (is there really one or has she been invented?) heats up, as Lynley and Dullea are involved in the hunt while becoming entangled with an array of eccentric Brits, including Noel Coward, who does a marvelous turn as an alcoholic playwright-mask collector who has a show on the BBC.

The picture is creaky in spots, and some of the dialog (shall one of the characters be addressed as "Miss" or "Mrs.") is quaint, as are some of the attitudes. But it's a nice museum piece--a glimpse back at the very moment when the sixties were heating up and the age of black and white was coming to an end.

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