Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)

A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

John Mortimer (screenplay), Penelope Mortimer (screenplay)

Stars:

Keir Dullea, Carol Lynley, Laurence Olivier

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Laurence Olivier	...	Superintendent Newhouse
Carol Lynley	...	Ann Lake
Keir Dullea	...	Steven Lake
Martita Hunt	...	Ada Ford
Anna Massey	...	Elvira
Clive Revill	...	Andrews
Finlay Currie	...	Doll Maker
Lucie Mannheim	...	Cook
The Zombies	...	The Zombies
Noël Coward	...	Wilson
Adrienne Corri	...	Dorothy
Megs Jenkins	...	Sister
Delphi Lawrence	...	1st Mother
Jill Melford	...	Teacher
Suzanne Neve	...	2nd Mother

Storyline

Ann Lake has recently settled in England with her daughter, Bunny. When she goes to retrieve her daughter after the girl's first day at school, no one has any record of Bunny having been registered. When even the police can find no trace that the girl ever existed, they wonder if the child was only a fantasy of Ann's. When Ann's brother backs up the police's suspicions, she appears to be a mentally-disturbed individual. Are they right?

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Plot Keywords:

investigation | abduction | disappearance | reel to reel tape recorder | mother daughter relationship | 

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Taglines:

A conspiracy of madness

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Genres:

Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 October 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bunny Lake ist verschwunden

Filming Locations:

Warwick House Street, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wheel Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Columbia Pictures wanted Producer and Director Otto Preminger to cast Jane Fonda as Ann Lake, who was eager to play the role, but Preminger insisted upon using Carol Lynley.

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Goofs

Steven uses the fuel from the oil lamp to light the doll's hair on fire; but he should have burnt his hand when pulling off what should have been a very hot glass chimney from the top of the lamp.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Steven: She may be a few minutes late. Will you please wait for her?
Mover: Yes sir.
Mover: Thank you.

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Crazy Credits

The end credits begin with a cut out of Bunny's doll, before a hand replaces the cut out with black paper, and the credits begin to roll.

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Connections

Referenced in Flightplan (2005)

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Soundtracks

Nothing's Changed
Written by Chris White
Performed by The Zombies
Played on the television in the pub

User Reviews

Compelling, uneven, but definitely worth a look.

The vast range of responses to and assessments of this movie here are a tribute to what an odd film this is in many ways. And it's difficult to comment on some of its oddest features (chiefly the performances of Dullea and Lynley) without giving away aspects of the plot that it's best you don't know when seeing the movie. I guess it's safe to say that I found both of these performances underwhelming but adequate. To be fair, both of them come off better by the end of the film than they do in its first third. Your take on Lynley's character will definitely evolve as the film progresses, which must in some degree be to her credit.

But by far the most compelling reason to see the film is Olivier's rich and understated performance from the period post-Archie Rice but pre-Othello. It takes a while for his character to appear, but once he arrives, he is unquestionably the center of the film, at the true heart of what's good about it. (The last 20 minutes of the film, maligned elsewhere in these IMDB comments, would probably have benefited greatly from a little more of his presence.)

His every moment onscreen is fascinating and worthwhile, and the script gives him some fine moments of verbal eccentricity which he delivers with variety and brilliance -- we leave this film wanting to know even more about his character, because he just seems so interesting beneath the surface.

Also a plus is that occupying nearly every small part in this film is a truly fine British character actor, with the old dotty schoolmistress Miss Ford (Anna Massey, I believe) a standout. But everyone, from the various employees of the little girl's school to Olivier's sidekick to the fellow manning the shipping counter, are fabulously well-played. And then of course, there's Noel Coward....who gives a truly perverse performance in what amounts to only three scenes.

The combination of black & white photography and widescreen, while not all that uncommon, would soon be all but extinct by the time this film was made (at least until our more recent era, when it's made a conspicuous comeback), but it makes for a very effective look and feel to the movie, often dark and noirish, with somes an almost documentary-like grittiness, but always very well-composed and a large part of the film's success. On television, it's nearly impossible to see it in widescreen, and in fact the TV print isn't even pan-and-scan -- it's just stationary and incomplete, so over and over again we hear people talking whom we KNOW are on camera, but they're invisible to us. No attempt was made in the TV transfer to even bother to scan. It's definitely true that the film is less effective without the widescreen component, but it's still watchable, because you can clearly tell what you're NOT seeing, if that makes any sense at all!

One final note: I originally tracked this film down over a decade ago because of the interesting score by composer Paul Glass, totally unknown to me except for this film. Way back when, the soundtrack (on vinyl) for this film was kind of rare, and I had a copy and really loved the music. In the context of the film, the score alternates oddly between working quite well and being inappropriate or irritating. Sometimes (during the scene in the doll hospital for example) you can understand what the logic was behind the musical choice, but it's intrusive and simply not working. The score also adopts the unfortunate "in-joke" of having some variant of the main title melody (which is quite lovely and fitting for the film, featuring recorder, strings, woodwinds and what seems to be a soprano sax to good effect to create the "child's world" motive to open the first 15 minutes of the film) ALWAYS be present as source music. For example, when we see Noel Coward in his apartment, a radio or phonograph is playing some kind of muzak version of the theme. There's another scene in a bar where the main title theme is playing jazzily. This sort of thing rarely works, and it's particularly egregious in this film. (John Williams once lampooned the practice in his score for THE LONG GOODBYE). But a few blunders aside, Glass manages to do a great job balancing the really expressive simplicity of his rather pastoral tune with some really fine dissonant, percussive, atonal cues. The score sounds like nobody else in particular, yet is very distinctive, which I mean as a compliment to the mysterious Mr. Glass.

All in all, an interesting enough effort, with a really well-written screenplay. One can imagine it looked great on paper when it was offered to Olivier, though perhaps the film turned out a little less successfully than might have been hoped for. But it's definitely worth seeing.