Wait Until Dark.....1982

Wait Until Dark (1982). Warner/HBO. This is a video of a stage production at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. According to one of the database comments, it was shown on HBO during the ‘80s. I had my first cable TV with HBO in 1984 but never saw this. It has more or less disappeared since then. The database has only 44 ratings and two user reviews from people who haven’t seen it for years. The play by Frederick Knott (who also wrote “Dial ‘M’ For Murder) which opened on Broadway in 1966 is the source for the well-known movie from 1967 starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin. The dialog for the movie was completely rewritten and pared down considerably but the story is the same. Sam Hendrix, a professional photographer, is returning by plane to his NYC apartment from Montreal. He is asked by a woman on the plane to keep a child’s doll for her to pick up later. The next day he can’t find the doll. His wife, Suzy, had been recently blinded in a car accident. While Sam is away again, three con men try to trick Suzy into turning over the doll which contains smuggled drugs. One of the men is Harry Roat Jr., a psycho killer working for drug dealers. The finale is a tense life and death confrontation between Suzy and Roat in the Hendrix’s dark apartment. In this stage show, Katharine Ross plays Suzy and Stacy Keach is Roat. It is good to see and hear the full play and character interpretations that are different from the movie. The play and the film are two different creatures. Watching this was quite an enjoyable experience.

This film was downloaded from a valuable site called www.rarefilmm.com . It was recommended to me by timshelboy a little over a month ago and I have neglected so far to thank him for it. So I heartily do so now.

I could only find one still picture – in black &white - from the Malibu staging.

Stacy Keach and Katharine Ross