See No Evil; Wait Until Dark

Two new to DVD releases of visually impaired damsels in distress are, for the most part, a case of the blind leading the bland. A few years after scoring a huge success in Rosemary's Baby, Mia Farrow, still sporting her waif look, starred in the 1971 British thriller See No Evil as Sarah, a newly blind woman visiting her uncle's country manor estate for what turns out to be a rather fateful weekend. In fact, while she's enjoying an afternoon's outing, horseback riding with her boyfriend, a killer is busy slaughtering the occupants of the house--something Sarah is unaware of on her return. Only gradually does she guess the truth, ultimately realizing--to her horror--that the killer (glimpsed only as a pair of cowboy boots) is still in the house and intends to make her his next victim. Veteran director Richard Fleischer's thriller gets off to a good creepy start, but then quickly unravels as the lapses in logic and dangling plot threads begin to add up. Also, the film makes a dramatic mistake when the action moves from the tight confines of the manor house and grounds to the countryside, where Sarah meanders around as expendable characters are introduced. Lacking the innovative touches and energy that, say, Hitchcock would have brought to the film, this lukewarm effort also features a disappointing soundtrack from the generally reliable Elmer Bernstein (who sounds as if he too lost interest about halfway through). Presented in a crisp widescreen anamorphic digital transfer with undistinguished Dolby Digital mono sound, the disc contains no extras. Optional. In Wait Until Dark, Audrey Hepburn's last Hollywood film (which garnered her an Oscar nomination), she plays a blind woman who, after coming into unwitting possession of a doll stuffed with heroin, becomes the target for three hoods (Richard Crenna, Jack Weston, Alan Arkin) working together to create an elaborate charade to gain access to her apartment. Things eventually look grim for Hepburn, but when she douses the lights after dark, the tables are turned, and the bad guys are forced to fight on the blind woman's turf and terms. Based on Frederick Knott's (Dial M for Murder) play, the action in this 1967 film comes across as stagy, despite director Terence Young's efforts to open up the drama, and while Arkin (playing a psychotic thug who fondles a hidden switchblade he calls Geraldine) and Weston--usually comic actors--acquit themselves well in dramatic roles here, Hepburn's whimpering ultimately grates a bit. Boasting a good transfer, the disc also features a "making-of" featurette. Recommended, overall. (S. Rees)[Blu-ray Review—Feb. 7, 2017—Warner, 108 min., not rated, Blu-ray: $21.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1964's Wait Until Dark sports a fine transfer and a DTS-HD 2.0 soundtrack. Extras include the 2003 retrospective “Take a Look in the Dark” (9 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: this classic suspense flick makes a welcome debut on Blu-ray.]