Netflixed Bunny Lake Is Missing

“Bunny Lake Is Missing” (Otto Preminger)

Certain films are nearly great.

Director Otto Preminger’s dark film portrays the horror that befalls Ann (Carol Lynley), a single mom recently transplanted to London who shows up one day at her daughter’s nursery school to find she’s completely disappeared. Nobody seems to know the girl’s whereabouts, nor that she even exists, which leads the police (with Sir Laurence Olivier in the role of chief) to believe Ann is delusional. Can she convince everyone that she’s not insane? [Netflix Bunny Lake Is Missing]

Bunny Lake is Missing swerves on the edge of being a great, taut thriller, but doesn’t quite make it. Otto Preminger quickly disowned the film, I guess he only did it for the money. Fancy that.

I quite enjoyed watching the film, yet certain scenes were eye-rolling. Also the hysterical woman paradigm slightly over-played. I can understand why there is a remake in the works, since society was a wee bit more innocent about child-snatching in 1965, necessitating certain elisions in plot, and yet, I would not be surprised if the remake is too maudlin to be interesting.

The Zombies play on a state-of-the-art 23 inch television, at a local pub. Here’s a low-quality trailer on YouTube:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFX0iK0l7nI

And maybe I’m crazy, but the final crazed conclusion, the main characters eyeballs were so dilated, I’d swear they were dosed on something. 1965 “Swinging London“? Hmmm, wonder what substance it could be?