Associate producer: Martin C. Shute. Producer: Otto Preminger. (Available on an excellent Sony DVD).
A Wheel (Otto Preminger) Production for Columbia. Released 28 February 1966 (U.K.), October 1965 (U.S.A.). Registered: August 1965. "X" certificate. 9,635 feet. 107 minutes.
New York opening simultaneously at the Victoria, Beekman, and 34th Street East: 3 October 1965. Australian release: 26 November 1965.
NOTES: In his autobiography, Preminger has virtually nothing to say about Bunny Lake. He doesn't even mention the fact that he was lucky not to get bad reviews in New York. Bosley Crowther's negative write-up in The N. Y. Times was not published because of the New York newspaper strike. It's an ill wind. . .
Aside from Leonard Mosley in The Daily Express - "Flat-footed" - British critics were reasonably kind. In fact, some of us, including me, praised the movie, but our combined verdict on its sterling entertainment qualities made little impression on the late 1965's TV-doting public.
Olivier was rarely a great box-office lure (except of course with the carriage trade and the corduroy set). The film boasted no offsetting publicity and/or super-stars. All told, Columbia was lucky to make a profit.
COMMENT: It's a shame that Preminger was later to dismiss this film and virtually expunge it from his memory. True, from a box-office point of view it was certainly unsuccessful. But we critics enjoyed the movie even if nobody else did.
Bearing all the hallmarks of an Otto Preminger production — long takes, admirably fluid camera movement and stand-out performances, both good (Dullea, Olivier, Hunt, Massey, Currie) and bad (Lynley, Coward) — this psychological thriller rates as first-class entertainment.
Admittedly, the script is full of holes, but the existence or non- existence of Bunny Lake is intriguing enough to guarantee edge-of- the-seat excitement.
Tension is effectively conveyed through sharp editing, shrewd dialogue exchanges and the elaborate deployment of extras against natural backgrounds.
Preminger uses the wide Panavision aperture most astutely and as a result the film cannot be seen to advantage on full screen TV.
The sensitive and well-informed Dilys Powell remarked in the Sunday Times: "Towering over the story (is) the police superintendent of Laurence Olivier, a performance almost self-effacing, but still massive, hinting force behind the official mask." Alexander Walker in The Evening Standard agreed that Olivier was the man to watch!
My sentiments too!
A Wheel (Otto Preminger) Production for Columbia. Released 28 February 1966 (U.K.), October 1965 (U.S.A.). Registered: August 1965. "X" certificate. 9,635 feet. 107 minutes.
New York opening simultaneously at the Victoria, Beekman, and 34th Street East: 3 October 1965. Australian release: 26 November 1965.
NOTES: In his autobiography, Preminger has virtually nothing to say about Bunny Lake. He doesn't even mention the fact that he was lucky not to get bad reviews in New York. Bosley Crowther's negative write-up in The N. Y. Times was not published because of the New York newspaper strike. It's an ill wind. . .
Aside from Leonard Mosley in The Daily Express - "Flat-footed" - British critics were reasonably kind. In fact, some of us, including me, praised the movie, but our combined verdict on its sterling entertainment qualities made little impression on the late 1965's TV-doting public.
Olivier was rarely a great box-office lure (except of course with the carriage trade and the corduroy set). The film boasted no offsetting publicity and/or super-stars. All told, Columbia was lucky to make a profit.
COMMENT: It's a shame that Preminger was later to dismiss this film and virtually expunge it from his memory. True, from a box-office point of view it was certainly unsuccessful. But we critics enjoyed the movie even if nobody else did.
Bearing all the hallmarks of an Otto Preminger production — long takes, admirably fluid camera movement and stand-out performances, both good (Dullea, Olivier, Hunt, Massey, Currie) and bad (Lynley, Coward) — this psychological thriller rates as first-class entertainment.
Admittedly, the script is full of holes, but the existence or non- existence of Bunny Lake is intriguing enough to guarantee edge-of- the-seat excitement.
Tension is effectively conveyed through sharp editing, shrewd dialogue exchanges and the elaborate deployment of extras against natural backgrounds.
Preminger uses the wide Panavision aperture most astutely and as a result the film cannot be seen to advantage on full screen TV.
The sensitive and well-informed Dilys Powell remarked in the Sunday Times: "Towering over the story (is) the police superintendent of Laurence Olivier, a performance almost self-effacing, but still massive, hinting force behind the official mask." Alexander Walker in The Evening Standard agreed that Olivier was the man to watch!
My sentiments too!