{"id":14246,"date":"2016-09-19T23:43:25","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T03:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=14246"},"modified":"2016-09-19T23:43:25","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T03:43:25","slug":"br-bunny-lake-is-missing-1965","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=14246","title":{"rendered":"BR: Bunny Lake is Missing (1965)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BunnyLakeIsMissing_BR\"Film<\/strong>:\u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Twilight Time<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0November, 2014<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Suspense \/ Mystery<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0After a mother reports her child missing, the lack of evidence seems to suggest she may be telling an elaborate fib.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Audio commentary with screenwriter Lem Dobbs, film historian Julie Kirgo, and producer Nic Redman \/ Isolated Stereo Music Track \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a> and www.twilighttimemovies.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

After tackling a quartet of big budget, large cast productions in a row \u2013 the epic Exodus <\/a><\/strong>(1960), the lengthy Advise & Consent<\/strong> (1962), the regal The Cardinal<\/a><\/strong> (1963), and the star-studded WWII saga In Harm\u2019s Way<\/strong> (1965) \u2013 producer-director and industry brand name Otto Preminger made a move typical of drained, exhausted filmmakers in need of something creative, challenging, but manageable<\/em>, and that was a small film. A production with a modest cast, simple locations, and a story that was fairly linear and didn\u2019t involve explosions, tanks, musical numbers, or crowds of thousands in the desert.<\/p>\n

Scripted by then-married writing team John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey<\/strong>) and Penelope Mortimer (The Pumpkin Eater<\/strong>), this stark adaptation of Marryam Modell\u2019s novel was reportedly a project Preminger had wanted to make some time ago, and harks back to his Fox noir dramas in which characters are placed in desperate situations in tight, constraining environments, and most of the production is shot on location.<\/p>\n

Most of the director\u2019s fans will fell\u00a0Bunny Lake is Missing<\/strong>\u00a0as a gem often ignored by film fans because it\u2019s the antithesis of his prior quartet in scale and tone; this is essentially a two-person character piece in which a mother, Ann (Carol Lynley) tries to convince everyone from the children\u2019s school to the police that her vanished daughter is 100% real.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a game of who\u2019s telling the truth, who might be crazy, and whether the film that\u2019s unfolding is real, a dream, or as Twilight Time commentators allege, a dream akin to Alice in Wonderland, where Ann\u00a0has\u00a0tumbled down a deep rabbit hole and finds her world completely deranged to the point of being a candidate for a sanitarium.<\/p>\n

One can speculate\u00a0the presiding detective may have been a lesser part on paper, but once Laurence Olivier came on board, his delicate underplaying of a realist transformed the cop into the film\u2019s anchor: always reliable, ever-patient, and the arbitrator of who\u2019s crazy, who\u2019s a pervert, and who\u2019s a bit more than a dotty eccentric and shut-in.<\/p>\n

The richness of the characters and dialogue make the script of the best psychological thrillers of the sixties, and ensured stars Olivier and Lynley gave some of their finest work (especially Lynley, who\u2019s never been given such a tough role and constant screen time). Keir Dullea\u2019s always gotten a bad rap for his acting style, but he\u2019s rather well-suited in playing the peculiar brother Steve who initially allows people to believe he\u2019s Ann Lake\u2019s husband until the disappearance of Bunny mandates a clarification.<\/p>\n

Every role \u2013 major, minor, and virtually silent \u2013 is played by a veteran Brit, plus then-newcomer Anna Massey (Frenzy<\/strong>) as the school\u2019s low-level headmistress who doesn\u2019t seem to care about Bunny\u2019s disappearance nor take kindly to the irritating Americans who\u2019ve decided to make London their home. With the exception of the detective, everyone is quietly telling Ann and Steven to pack it in and just go home, especially now that they\u2019ve misplaced their possibly made-up child.<\/p>\n

Martita Hunt is delightful as the school\u2019s rambling co-founder, Finlay Currie has a small part as a \u2018doll surgeon,\u2019 and Noel Coward is just plain creepy as the landlord who exploit\u2019s Ann\u2019s traumatic mental\u00a0state by inviting himself for some tenant fondling. Clive Revill (Fathom<\/a><\/strong>) has a largely silent but memorable part as a supportive detective, and the TT commentators routinely point out many more actors and related collaborations and relations between cast, crew, filmmakers, locations, and subject matter. (This is also reportedly the film where Coward leaned over to Dullea and whispered ‘Kier Dullea, gone tomorrow,’ alluding to the Canadian actor’s perceived limited skill set.)<\/p>\n

The real star of the film is arguably not the cast but the fabulous collaboration between cinematographer Denys Coop (Billy Liar<\/strong>, Inserts<\/strong>) and Preminger, in rending one of the most beautiful B&W scope films of the period, with the director\u2019s penchant for precise blocking creating fluid long takes. The brilliance of the visuals \u2013 from lighting, camera operating, and focus pulling \u2013 is remarkable, especially since the pre-Seadicam camera regularly prowls and tracks down narrow corridors and stairwells, following groups of actors who break apart and rejoin.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s isn\u2019t a single misstep in the film\u2019s visual design, and as much as Preminger loved to live the part of a Prussian-styled, autocratic director with international brand recognition, he was a consummate technician in telling a story that yes, was edited in-camera, but always served the story and characters.<\/p>\n

Also fascinating is Paul Glass\u2019s score which is ostensibly a bittersweet lullaby that periodically degrades into dissonance, hinting at some unseen rot among the characters. There is one weird search montage that\u2019s weirdly scored with the full lullaby \u2013 a strange choice \u2013 but Bunny<\/strong> was among a handful of rare scores by this underrated & underused composer. (The RCA soundtrack album has gone in & out of print over the years, perhaps due to the three tracks by The Zombies, who appear in a broadcast airing in a local pub.)<\/p>\n

TT\u2019s disc sports a perfect transfer, and Glass\u2019 score also appears in an isolated stereo track. Supporting the film is another great conversational commentary by screenwriter Lem Dobbs, film historian Julie Kirgo, and producer Nic Redman, offering a wealth of production details, and another fine examination of Preminger as a great filmmaker who\u2019s downfall lay in trying to pick projects time for box office appeal.<\/p>\n

Many actors found him to be a genuine sonofabitch \u2013 Cardinal<\/strong>\u2019s Tom Tryon claimed he lost his lust for acting because of\u00a0Preminger\u2019s incessant bullying \u2013 and yet with a producer\u2019s touch, he packaged his projects like a pro, not unlike Alfred Hitchcock (who similarly lost his mojo after The Birds<\/strong>,\u00a0and took a while to recover with Frenzy<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The commentators also mention several similar-themed works that involve a missing figure no one\u2019s seen \u2013 So Long at the Fair<\/a> <\/strong>(1950), Breakdown<\/strong> (1997), Flightplan<\/strong> (2005), and TV\u2019s Dying Room Only<\/strong> (1973) \u2013 but Bunny Lake<\/strong> is among the best because its makers steer clear away from the ridiculous; the finales of this sub-genre may never fully satisfy, but the richness of the characters in Preminger\u2019s film make this a highpoint in missing character yarns.<\/p>\n

Marryam Modell\u2019s other best-known work is The Nanny <\/strong>(1965), starring Bette Davis. An attempt to remake\u00a0Bunny Lake<\/strong> with Reece Witherspoon was wisely shelved in 2007<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Otto Preminger would make just 5 films over the next 15 years: the sweaty racially charged Hurry Sundown<\/strong> (1967), the bizarre Skidoo<\/strong> (1968), Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon<\/strong> (1970), Such Good Friends<\/strong> (1971), the dreadful Rosebud<\/strong> (1975), and The Human Factor <\/strong>(1979).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2016 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a> —\u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After tackling a quartet of big budget, large cast productions in a row \u2013 the epic Exodus (1960), the lengthy Advise & Consent (1962), the regal The Cardinal (1963), and the star-studded WWII saga In Harm\u2019s Way (1965) \u2013 producer-director and industry brand name Otto Preminger made a move typical of drained, exhausted filmmakers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[4634,4638,2316,2912,4640,4636,1711,4637,4639,4641],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3HM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14246"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14267,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14246\/revisions\/14267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}