MovieChat Forums > Wait Until Dark (1967) Discussion > 'And Susy, I Just Want You To Know That....

'And Susy, I Just Want You To Know That...'SPOILERS

posted 16 years ago by ecarle
29 replies | jump to latest

Perhaps one benefit of being a bit older is that I can report to you on seeing "Wait Until Dark" first run. Well, maybe second. Packed house. They chattered a lot in the early, talky stages, but as the suspense tightened, everybody started to get silent, then to murmur, then to mumble in ever-growing suspense.

Everybody knows that the big scream comes at the climax when "dead" Alan Arkin makes his big leap at Audrey Hepburn -- there was nothing but screaming from that point til the shot of the police car racing up, and that screaming shook the theater.

But an almost equally big scream...of an entirely different nature...came when "nice guy crook" Richard Crenna took his leave of Audrey in the doorway.

Crenna thinks that his portly-partner-in-crime, Jack Weston, has knocked off the SuperEvil Arkin ("We flipped a coin. I lost," Crenna tells Hepburn.)

WE know that Arkin has tenderized Weston to death with a back-and-forth four-wall tire sedan murder weapon.

So we're pretty scared. And (back then), we're figuring: You know, Crenna might get killed out there on the street if Arkin is coming back.

Then Crenna -- having told Audrey (Susy) that everything's going to be alright and Big Bad Arkin (Roat) is dead -- pauses for a farewell close-up in the doorway:

"And Susy, I just want you to know that..."

Crenna gasps. His body jolts and shudders. His eyes glaze and go dead, and then...so does he, falling into the apartment as the Epitome of Evil (Arkin) appears behind him and pulls the knife out of his victim's back with grisly effort.

I wanna tell you.

The audience reaction was roughly this:

Awww...(Crenna's a nice guy, talking nice to her like that.)
Huh? (Why'd he stop talking?)
Wha? (Why does he LOOK like that?)
Wait a second, oh no, oh no, oh no...(he's dead!)

And as Crenna pitched forward dead and Arkin's face filled the screen from the shadows, the SCREAMS began. Everywhere, top of the lungs, getting worse as Arkin removed the knife from Crenna's back and secured the door with his special lock and chain.

The screams took FOREVER to die down from this scene, and things just got super-tense from there, as Arkin tortured Hepburn and Hepburn fought back.

The rather gore-free final ten minutes of "Wait Until Dark," from Crenna's death to the climactic blackout, were nothing but yelling and gasping and cheering (when Audrey stabbed Alan) and then screaming.

One of the best nights in a movie theater I ever spent in my life.
P.S. I was just a kid.

[–] mercutio-8 16 years ago

One of my older brothers felt the same way!

He saw "Wait Until Dark" when he was a teenager, and said that from that point on, the audience was WILD with fright... to the point where girls were hugging their boyfriends or trying to climb out of the balcony!

He said that Richard Crenna's murder had the same effect in '67 as when "Jaws" reared its head at Roy Scheider for the first time in '75!

In the early 1980s, I went to a revival house where they were showing "Wait Until Dark" on a double bill with "Rosemary's Baby".

And yes, ecarle, when Richard Crenna says good bye to Audrey Hepburn, suddenly stiffens, the audience yelped!

[–] zephyra1 16 years ago

My dad reported a similar experience when he saw this movie in its first run. As far as I know, it's the only thriller he's ever seen.

Tag, I'm it.

[–] JaxArcher 16 years ago

Ecarle, that was probably the first time on this site that I actually read a long post. Why? Because I loved the way you described everything! It was like reading a book. Haha, i was in suspense just reading your post lol. Well, you're lucky you got to see it in the theaters, I just finished watching it for the first time ever (i'm 20) and i absolutely loved it!

It's hard to sing and walk down the stairs at the same time...that's why slinkys don't sing.

[–] ecarle 16 years ago

I'm old, but not that old (Roger Ebert is a lot older), and I do announce it here to younger posters. I suppose I'm a "teacher peer," except I'm not a teacher. I think movies can be discussed by people from 17 to 77 at pretty much the same level of discourse. We all speak the language of film.

I've always wished somebody could give me a play by play on seeing "Psycho" in a theater circa 1960. I missed that one. So my "Wait Until Dark" memory is for later generations who missed THAT one in theaters.

[–] socorso 14 years ago

Hey, ecarle..! We chatted on another post, another movie a while ago. Can't remember which one.
Anyway... I did thoroughly enjoy your post here.
Just finished watching WUD on TCM.

My recollection...
I grew up near a family drive-in. My parents had seen the movie by themselves first (when it was first released), and my mom took my brother and I, after plenty of begging, the next day. (We grew up on Hitchcock.) I don't remember much of the movie ( I was ten), but, I remember having to go to the bathroom near the end. My mother didn't want me to miss the ending, but, she was afraid I'd wet myself.....! (I did neither.)

I, too, would love love love to go back in time and experience Psycho in the theater with those first audiences.

I had a dream-come-true experience last summer. I saw/heard Psycho with the soundtrack performed live by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. It was unbelievable. I'd always wanted to hear Herrmann's Psycho score performed live. These concerts (with movie) are becoming increasingly popular.
One source.. http://www.bernardherrmann.org/

Thanks, ecarle.

[–] ecarle 13 years ago

Very belatedly...you're welcome. And thanks for your memories.

[–] EvasiveApollo03 12 years ago

I didn't jump so much, more like an "Oh damn" reaction when he stopped and fell.

[–] madetwolastforever 12 years ago

I gasped, and my mouth may have stayed open until the end of the movie. :-)

[–] maccaby 12 years ago

My mother sneaked into Psycho without paying, in 1960. It was the first (and only) time she ever did that. She couldn't sleep at all that night, couldn't shower without telling her roommate she was going to shower, and making sure her roommate wasn't going to be leaving-- and giving her a chance to pee, because my mother would be locking the door. She had to go out and by a see-through shower curtain.

She could not stay in a motel for years, and couldn't stay in a hotel without requesting a room several floors up, and even then, she would shower only when it was light out.

This went on for years, and she was sure it was punishment for sneaking into a movie.

[–] ecarle 9 years ago

I've read a viewer's confession that when she snuck into Psycho as a little girl, when Mother came into the bathroom and attacked Janet Leigh in the shower...she felt like HER mother had sought her out in the theater to punish her.

Weird.

[–] InherentlyYours 9 years ago

I don't get the afraid- to- take- a shower syndrome. Because a person was stabbed in a film scene, everybody was fearful of showers?

[–] Ironman54 9 years ago

Not everyone but a helluva lot of people were, no lie. I couldn't help but pull the 'sneak in to the bathroom with a kitchen knife and make the high violin sound' on my then gf.
I felt really bad afterwards because she was frightened out of her mind - I worried that I had damaged her she was so shaken.

[–] ecarle 7 years ago

A lot of people messed up a lot of people this way.

And someone mimicked the OTHER famous murder in Psycho...to scare a "semi-famous' person:

Burt Ward played Robin on the old Batman series of the 60's and he was quite famous for a coupla years.

He picked up some woman who took him back to her apartment and went upstairs. When he went upstairs to follow her..out she ran with the knife, yelling something about Psycho.

And it was evidently...said Ward...for REAL. Real knife. He had to really run for his life.

[–] Mixalidis 7 years ago

I guessed correctly he was to be killed few moments before it happened.

[–] ecarle 7 years ago

I guessed correctly he was to be killed few moments before it happened.

---

Yes, I'm willing to bet that a lot of people did.

In my case, I was very tense, and I was SURE he would get killed, but I was figuring he would be killed either out in the hallway, or out on the dark street by Roat.

A lot of people gasped and screamed in surprise when Crenna got it in the doorway but, sure...I'll bet you were not alone in sensing "its about to happen."

Thus do different people get different sensations from the viewing of a movie.

[–] KutWrite (1220) 5 years ago

It was like that when I saw it too, in college.

I still go back from time to time, as I did tonight, and watch the final 20 min. or so. I paused it mid-leap. Whoever did that jump was quite athletic. I expect it and still wince a little. I think it's that discordant piano-string swipe.

I agree about Crenna's demise. Only thing, it wasn't obvious to me or the crowd that Carlino got run over. When Talman (great name) says "Roat's dead," it reinforces what we wanted to see. That made the shock greater when Talman stops talking and Roat pushes him down the stairs.

The cat & mouse is great,too, even though as a photographer I knew "hypo" is just a salt solution that "fixes" film and photographic paper. It still would have shocked Roat to get a face-full of it. His glasses saved him from real discomfort.

The best thing for me about this film is that everyone is smart, except maybe Carlino... and Sam. That's what escalates the tension so well.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

I still go back from time to time, as I did tonight, and watch the final 20 min. or so.

--

That is the truly classic "final run" of the movie. Though Arkin gets to say some fun lines in Act One, Act Two and the "con job" is pretty much a slog -- but it is all building up to the final showdown between Arkin and Hepburn. Modernly with DVDs, you can skip the entire first two acts and just enjoy reliving the terror of that final 20 minutes.

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I paused it mid-leap. Whoever did that jump was quite athletic.

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Yes, he was..a helluva distance to cover in the leap AND he has to believably "just miss" his victim and land by her feet.

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I expect it and still wince a little. I think it's that discordant piano-string swipe.

--

People were screaming hard, but you could STILL hear that piano-string swipe(great phrase) and then the overpowering music as Hepburn tried to get away and Arkin crawled towards her(using his knife to pull himself along the floor!) could still be heard even admidst the screaming. Watching the movie at home alone, the screams are gone(well not in the memory) and the music takes over entirely. One of Henry Mancini's best scores -- evidently the early "piano" stuff made his musicians physically ill to hear.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

I agree about Crenna's demise.

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Just one of the great thriller moments, to me. The audience screams here, but it is not the sharp big blast of the "dead man jumps moment" --- it is more like a building terror (Oh, no, now Mike's dead, Carlino's dead -- she's ALONE with this monster.) And then Roat locks the door with a chain so Suzy can't escape -- and can't see the chain, of course.

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Only thing, it wasn't obvious to me or the crowd that Carlino got run over.

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Hmm...well the stunt man being chased by the car to the fence is not recognizable as Jack Weston. After cut, he is replaced by a dummy and I must admit..it doesn't really look like the dummy is being properly "squished" by the car. But no...I figured Carlino was dead. Funny: Carlino "won the coin toss" to "get to kill" Roat -- and ends up being Arkin's first victim. Might have Mike Talman been sharper and avoided death?

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When Talman (great name) says "Roat's dead," it reinforces what we wanted to see. That made the shock greater when Talman stops talking and Roat pushes him down the stairs.

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Yes. I also like how Talman's corpse remains in the apartment for the duration of the movie --no doubt played by a human body double for Richard Crenna(not a dummy) ...Suzy almost trips over the body at one point and the cops look it over when they break in at the end("Don't waste your time," says one to the other; Talman's been dead awhile.)

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[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

The cat & mouse is great,too, even though as a photographer I knew "hypo" is just a salt solution that "fixes" film and photographic paper.

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Interesting -- I always figured it was "burning chemicals." As an "audience movie," this is the first move that Suzy makes against Roat that gets big applause when Roat is in pain -- the audience just HATES this guy.

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It still would have shocked Roat to get a face-full of it. His glasses saved him from real discomfort.

--

And eventually his glasses come off - and he has eyes of rage.

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The best thing for me about this film is that everyone is smart, except maybe Carlino... and Sam. That's what escalates the tension so well.

--

Yes, it is truly an "old time thriller" in that it takes a lot of time to establish everybody as real people with real plans and counter-plans, all the horror action at the end is somewhat of the "Freddy Krueger" school of mayhem but enacted by smart, top level A-list movie stars.

[–] KutWrite (1220) 3 years ago

Fine description.

Pretty much mirrors mine... I was in college.

[–] ElizabethJoestar (929) 3 years ago

Thank you for writing this down. I felt like I was there. I envy your experience. The only similar experience I have ever had in a movie theater was during AVENGERS: ENDGAME where everyone lost their minds and cheered during the final battle.

What gets me is that this movie still gets that dramatic a response. I know someone who attended a screening of WAIT UNTIL DARK with an audience of about 30-40 people in 2017, and she said everyone there shrieked during the jump. Here and now, even in the cynical 21st century!

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Thank you for writing this down. I felt like I was there. I envy your experience. The only similar experience I have ever had in a movie theater was during AVENGERS: ENDGAME where everyone lost their minds and cheered during the final battle.

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The "magic of the movies" -- in a theater, with a crowd -- has managed to stretch across the decades.

But this: I don't recall too many OTHER movies from 1967 playing so spectacularly well with a crowd as Wait Until Dark. Thrillers that really get the crowd involved, and yelling, and cheering, and screaming -- hard to do; big financial rewards when they ARE made.

This little side-bar remains true, weird, and to me -- impressive:

The first time I saw Wait Until Dark was in 1968. The packed house was first shown a Western -- The Scalphunters with Burt Lancaster -- which was OK, but WUD was the "main event" and that's where all the screaming was.

The second time I saw Wait Until Dark was in 1970. It was often "tacked on" to current movies because it was so famous and popular. I saw it at THE SAME THEATER as in 1968, and again with a Western first (Chisum with John Wayne) and...AGAIN..the crowd yelled and cheered and screamed at Wait Until Dark with exactly the same intensity as when I saw it in 1968.

I got the same experience -- twice in a row, two years apart -- at the same theater.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

What gets me is that this movie still gets that dramatic a response. I know someone who attended a screening of WAIT UNTIL DARK with an audience of about 30-40 people in 2017, and she said everyone there shrieked during the jump. Here and now, even in the cynical 21st century!

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Well, that jump is one of the classic "jump scares" in movie history. Before this one, the detective getting it at the top of the stairs in Psycho got a similar scream; later movies like Jaws and Carrie and Alien made sure to have jump scares as well.

But that one in Wait Until Dark is so spectacular, I think, because everybody thinks that Arkin IS dead, everybody is so HAPPY that Arkin is dead and then - out he FLIES, with knife raised and just barely missing Hepburn and then that close up of his hand gripping her ankle -- its the "scream that keeps on giving" all the way to the black-out at the end of the scene.

[–] KutWrite (1220) 3 years ago

Revisiting this as I'm watching films to get in the mood for writing.

Remember, this film was first done as a play. I think some of the same actors were in it. Now imagine the jump scares, etc when seen on a stage.

Powerful writing, as I aspire to.

[–] ElizabethJoestar (929) 3 years ago

As a writer, I too get a lot of inspiration from this movie. It's just so tight and full of great characters. I mostly write fantasy, but it's still a master lesson in building suspense.

On-stage, I'm sure those scenes are so much more intimate-- and considering how intense they are in the movie, I can only imagine the impact in a live theater setting!

PS The only actor carried over from the play was Julie Herrod (Gloria). I think this was her only film and she retired from acting soon after.

[–] KutWrite (1220) 3 years ago

Good comment.

I agree.

My first novel is being edited right now. I hope it comes out even approaching this classy film/play.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Best of luck with that novel. Is it a thriller like Wait Until Dark?

[–] KutWrite (1220) 3 years ago

No, it's more of an action-adventure story. I did finish the draft and first revision. My editor just returned it for the final revision.

Hopefully published by the end of the year. Watch for it in Amazon as an e-book.

The title is PIPELINE.

I'm partway into the first draft of a sci-fi novel. It's a thinly disguised sequel to "Forbidden Planet."

[–] liscarkat (16483) 2 years ago

I can attest to the tension in the theater when this movie was first shown in '67. From the moment Crenna gets shanked by Arkin, the hysteria built. My heart was beating fast. Then, when Arkin leaps out of the dark, everybody in the place screamed or gasped. I jumped off my seat and almost fell on the floor.