User Reviews

I saw "Bunny Lake Is Missing" for the second time last night at San Francisco's Castro Theatre. The first time was also at the Castro twelve years ago during an Otto Preminger festival. Preminger made a number of better films – "Laura" and "Anatomy of a Murder" come to mind – but I have a special fondness for "Bunny Lake" even though at times it drags and is overly talky.

Among the merits of casting Carol Lynley and Keir Dullea, it can be successfully argued that they look like siblings – often not the case in films – which works very well for this film, as does their ethereal out-of-body quality.

Criticism has been made that the role of Ann Lake was written one dimensionally and therefore offered Lynley little to do but weep and whine; but this may have been Preminger's intention to support that part of the plot that suggests Ann may not have a daughter and that Ann herself may be more than a bit unbalanced.

Dullea is an unusual looking actor who can photograph good looking or simply strange. Preminger used this well early in the film, although he seemed to lose subtlety as the narrative headed towards its denouement.

The film's superior black-and-white widescreen photography is one of its strengths. London locations and interiors are effective and impressive. I especially liked the doll hospital cellar sequence with Lynley holding an oil lamp as she moves about, the high angle shot of the backyard the begins the final sequence, and several sequences when characters pass quickly from one room to another.

The sexual subtext is not as hidden as it would have been in the 50s, but subtler, say, than after 1970; its ambiguity adds to the film's texture without getting in the way.

In fact, 1965 seems a perfect time for this film to have appeared since the cinematic fulcrum was still well placed to balance a filmmaker from older Hollywood who also enjoyed pushing the envelope. A little bit later, color photography would have been mandatory, and the characterizations would have moved into a much more bizarre, psychedelic arena.

Perhaps because of how its strengths and weaknesses combine, the film has a seductive, haunting integrity for me. As the film began with the Saul Bass titles and Paul Glass's score, I felt a pleasurable sensation of awe which I used to feel more often when seeing a movie, and which reoccurred a number of times in "Bunny Lake".

Try to see this film on a large theater screen to experience the full power of the black-and-white widescreen cinematography. Otherwise, view the letterbox DVD on a screen large enough to allow you to see details. There is much to enjoy in "Bunny Lake Is Missing", so don't miss out.

Carol Lynley does some fabulous work here as American woman newly arrived in England whose little daughter is apparently kidnapped from school on her first day. The catch is, nobody knows the child and Lynley is having trouble proving she even exists! Terrific mystery from director Otto Preminger, an uneven filmmaker who does strong work just up to the finale (which is somewhat anti-climactic). Laurence Olivier is the police inspector on the case and he's very smooth, cunning and yet sympathetic to Lynley. There are some mod overtures which seem misplaced, and Noël Coward has a gratuitous bit as Carol's drunken landlord (and BBC celebrity!), yet the film does have many sharp bits of minute detail, intriguing and funny supporting characters, terrific cinematography and locations. Does it all add up? No, but it's inscrutable fun nevertheless. *** from ****

Taciturn director Preminger created here an atmospheric, beautifully shot film of mystery and oddity. Though it isn't 100% satisfying, it remains quite entertaining and visually arresting. Lynley, a newcomer to London, England, takes her four year-old daughter to nursery school and, in a hurry to meet movers at her new flat, briefly leaves the child in the custody of a rather unfriendly cook. Later, the cook has quit and the child is gone. Worse, no one seems to have ever known about the child or has ever even seen her except Lynley and Dullea. No tangible trace of the child seems to exist! Olivier is brought in to head up the investigation and scours all the various clues and suspects, all while trying to determine if there even IS a child to be searching for. The film kicks off with famously innovative Saul Bass titles and sets its contrived, but fascinating story in motion with skill. Lynley manages to come off rather well in a difficult role. Dullea is also strong in a part that never gets completely fleshed out. Olivier is reliably commanding and slick and offers a lesson in understated excellence. These performers are surrounded by a lustrous galaxy of terrific British character actors. Most notable is the delicious Hunt as the vaguely sinister, yet delightful headmistress of the school. Massey is also excellent as a frustrated teacher. Coward pops up as a creepy landlord with designs on Lynley. It is not easy to watch the somewhat disintegrated legend put the moves on her. Many other great people show up and, even if they don't get a moment of glory, their participation adds greatly to the class and feel of the film. A sense of dread and uncertainty hangs over the movie as the viewer is never exactly sure what is going on. As stylish and intriguing as the film is, certain sections drag on a bit too long, none more so than the climax, in which Lynley must fend off the villain of the piece and seems to go out of her way NOT to escape or harm the person, at times. Even with this and other gripes (like a needless, annoying and intrusive "appearance" from The Zombies), the film is well worth watching and deserves a better availability and reputation than it currently accords.

Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) is an American recently settled in London. She comes to pick up her daughter Bunny after her first day and finds her missing. Nobody seems to know anything about her. Her brother magazine reporter Steven Lake (Keir Dullea) is the only one who knows her. Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) investigates but soon wonders if she has made the whole thing up.

This movie starts off with such a powerful compelling sequence as Ann Lake try to find her daughter at the school. It's a nightmare that is close to heart for every parent. However as it goes on, I found the movie to be uneven. Olivier is able to hold the various pieces together but I found the brother to be unreal. Director Otto Preminger made a very interesting movie that I found some parts to be more compelling than others. Overall, I found the good parts to be so great that the less good parts aren't that bothersome.

Stuffed with wonderful character actors and recognisably shabby locations - like the little school in an old house where the cook is making junket (whatever happened to junket?). Her accent is familiar: she once played a beautiful spy in 39 Steps, warning of leaking "secrets vital to your air defence". After many viewings, it's easy to forget that it's a mystery and everyone is a suspect. Has Bunny been abducted by sinister Martita Hunt (the slightly dotty founder of the school)? Or creepy Noel Coward (the landlord)? The Zombies song "Just Out of Reach" keeps being reprised.

They were more famous, though, for a song called "She's Not There". How's that for intertextuality? The script is by John and Penelope Mortimer. John is famous for the Rumpole series, and Laurence Olivier's detective has echoes of Rumpole, muttering that bus conductors never notice anything - they are dreamers and philosophers. Noel Coward's character too is very Mortimerian: "There are many at the BBC who bear bruises left by the love of Horatio Wilson." Mortimer reveres Shakespeare and Conan Doyle and sometimes it shows.

The plot is stuffed, sometimes clunkily, with issues that were only just beginning to be spoken about: perversion (in the person of whip-wielding Horatio), teen pregnancy (Anne Lake seems about 20), unmarried motherhood and abortion. Anne chose to have her baby and raise it on her own. This is still a difficult course of action, but in 1965 it was groundbreaking, especially if you were - as she is - middle class.

This was an interesting story line to determine for one self if there is actually a little girl nicknamed Bunny Lake, and if this supposedly 4 year old girl who was dropped off at a pre-school daycare center, then went missing, is real or imagined by her mom. Strong performances by the three lead actors, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, and Laurence Olivier.

No spoilers here, but to suffice to say the characters are intriguing and you just feel that you have to watch the entire film to determine what really happened. Carol Lynley plays mother Ann Lake, who is obviously distraught when she goes to pick up her little 4 year old Bunny only to find out she is missing. Ann's brother Steven (played by Keir Dullea) appears to be Ann's rock and support system.

When the police are called in to investigate, Superintendent Newhouse (Sir Laurence Olivier) tries to befriend the grieving mother all the while trying to gather information to assess for himself if this little girl nicknamed Bunny Lake is actually real or imagined by her mother.

It is a bit like a cat and mouse game, and children's games certainly play in to the theme of this mystery. But hold onto your swing as the film takes us "higher and higher" until the bitter end to a decent ending.

Well done! I rate the film a 7 out of 10.

Sir Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea and Noel Coward star in "Bunny Lake is Missing," a 1965 black and white British film directed by Otto Preminger. A young woman, Ann Lake (Lynley) and her brother Steven (Dullea) report the woman's little girl, nicknamed Bunny, missing when she can't be found at her school on her first day of class. The detective in charge, Supt. Newhouse (Olivier) soon finds out that Bunny's things are disappearing from the new apartment where she, her mother and uncle live, and Newhouse begins to wonder if Bunny ever existed at all.

This is a dark, atmospheric film that takes the viewer into an adult world where a child's fantasy life is explored and often accepted - the cofounder of the school on its top floor listening to children's dreams on tape as she writes a book about children's fantasies; the man who runs the doll hospital; and Ann herself, who had an imaginary friend as a child called Bunny, named after a character in a book. Is Bunny Lake missing? Was there ever a Bunny Lake? Is Steven trying to cover for his sister? "Bunny Lake is Missing" is very offbeat and will make you uneasy as you, along with Newhouse, try to figure out what's going on. The acting is very good - Olivier obviously did this role for money - there is nothing particularly interesting about it, though he does a good job. The pretty Lynley gives an ambiguous performance - she's either a grieving mother, a nut, or both, and Dullea is equally ambiguous - does he know more than he says he does? Is he placating his sister? Noel Coward has a showy if small role as the Lake's landlord, a rather strange bird into S&M who proudly shows one of the detectives the skull of the Marquis de Sade.

Though not entirely satisfying, this is a great movie to see on a Sunday afternoon. It takes you right into the darkness of London and leaves you there as it travels through a child's strange world and comes out in illusion? Reality? Or madness?

Inconsistent and sometimes quite dull as a Director Preminger helms this audacious 60's genre trend of Hammer and Hitchcock, that of the Psychological Thriller. He seems to be right on the pulse of the better of these things when it collapses in the Third Act with missteps of overwrought childhood game silliness.

These things are best left to the psyche not acted out on the playground for here it loses all sense of tension. But leading up to the conclusion there is plenty of stimulation both visually and from the unending parade of offbeat and creepy Characters.

Things are kept centered by some fine Acting all around and a pastiche of unsettling situations. It's a rewarding Movie if the ending is anti-climatic and uneven.

Bunny Lake is Missing is directed by Otto Preminger and adapted to screenplay by John & Penelope Mortimer from the novel of the same name written by Marryam Modell (AKA: Evelyn Piper). It stars Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, Martita Hunt & Noel Coward. Music is by Paul Glass and cinematography by Denys N. Coop. 1960s Brit Pop combo The Zombies also feature in the film.

Ann Lake (Lynley) turns up at her daughter's school to collect her after her first day there, but nobody has any recollection of ever having seen the four year old...

It was a film that irked Otto Preminger, he was never happy with the finished product, this even after changing the ending from the one in the novel and relocating the story from New York to London. Yet time has been very kind to the film, after re-evaluations from auteurist critics the film has found a sturdy fan-base, giving it cult classic status and a reputation as a sleeper classic of its type. You feel that with its thematic links to Hitchcock's Psycho, Preminger wanted to make a film worthy of being in the same league as Hitch's classic. Certainly the marketing for the film lends one to think the makers wanted to be compared with it, that it of course isn't on a par with Psycho is a given, otherwise it would be more well known. But it's a damn fine picture, stitched together impeccably by Preminger, film holds attention and intrigue from Saul Bass' nifty opening credit sequence, right to the eerie denouement.

Here we go round the mulberry bush, The mulberry bush, The mulberry bush. Here we go round the mulberry bush on a cold and frosty morning.

With real London locations used and Coop's pin sharp black and white (shadowy) photography tight to the unsettling mood, story carries an air of psychological discord about it. The mystery element is strong, and this coupled with the edgy, near unhealthy, relationship between Ann and her brother Stephen (Dullea), makes for a "shifting in your seat" experience. Then there's the small matter of Noel Coward as Horatio Wilson, creepy landlord extraordinaire, he may not be in it for much, but the impression made creeps the flesh. Slotted into the tight narrative are scenes that the likes of Hitchcock, Welles and Kubrick would be proud of, where Preminger calls on his film noir know how to feverishly glide around a doll shop and track his actors as they cavort around a children's garden play area. All topped off by the supreme performance of Olivier as analytical Superintendent Newhouse, a man calm and versed in psychology, he is the perfect contrast to the hysteria and borderline mania that surrounds him.

Is it Hitchcockian? As some critics have called it? Well yes it is, but not overtly so, it has closer links in tone and narrative thrust to under seen British thrillers like Don't Talk to Strange Men (1962) and Taste of Fear (1961). Is it flawless? No! Dullea is way too animated, some character reactions to situations are eyebrow-raising and Paul Glass' score is at times maddeningly wrong for the mood sequence it accompanies. But they are problems easily forgivably when taking the film as a whole. 8.5/10

I'm not a huge fan of Preminger - many of his films from 1950 forward are pretty bad (e.g. "Saint Joan," "Exodus," "In Harms Way," "Hurry, Sundown") or don't date well (e.g. "Man With The Golden Arm," "Such Good Friends").

But "Bunny Lake Is Missing" is a bright spot in his later work. I first saw this on TV back in the early 70's and then again in a 16mm pan-and-scan print - and enjoyed it. But it wasn't until I saw it in a 35mm widescreen print that I could appreciate Preminger's expert use of the widescreen space, which gave "Bunny Lake" added dimension.

"Bunny Lake" isn't a great thriller, but it's a good one. The story itself doesn't rise above a certain amount of contrivance, but the performances are mostly solid enough to keep you glued to the screen until the suspenseful climax. Best are Olivier, beautifully restrained as the chief inspector, Lynley as the frantic heroine, and Martita Hunt as the eccentric owner of the school where Bunny first goes missing. As Lynley's brother whose feelings for his sister are almost incestuous, Kier Dullea does well walking a tightrope between normal brotherly concern and something darker, but occasionally overdoes his role.

Unfortunately, Preminger can't help but indulge his desire to titillate and shock with the character played by Noel Coward. Watching the playwright/actor caress his face with a leather whip handle (a scene not in the original novel, I believe), is a piece of vulgarity that will produce more adolescent giggles than gasps.

I don't remember how old I was when I saw "Bunny Lake is Missing" - I was only 5 years old when it was released in theaters, and I know that I saw it on television, so I must have been around 10 or 12. All I know is that I have remembered it to this day, and when even the title of a movie, seen only once at such a young age, is etched forever in your memory, you know it's something worth seeing again. I can't remember every detail of the plot, but I remember the haunting feeling I had after seeing this movie, the realization for the first time, being so young, that things truly are not always as they seem. I have often thought about this movie over the years, and have always watched for it among late-night television, and among video titles, and this is the first place I have ever found mention of it - I was beginning to think it was one of those childhood memories that came from a vivid dream rather then from reality. I am happy to know that my memory was real, and that there are those who feel this movie was truly as great as I remember it being. I hope that someday it is made available - I look forward to the day when I can see it again.

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.

"Bunny Lake is Missing" is a very good mystery thriller that deals with the desperate search of a young single mother for her 4 year old daughter (Bunny Lake) disappeared when left early at school in her very first day and no one seems having seen her (viewers don't either). The woman has just arrived in London to live with her brother and it comes the time when even the police doubts that the little girl really exists since all her things have also disappeared from her new home (or so says the mom).

Otto Preminger makes a fine job with a black and white photography that helps to create a most adequate sordid and gray atmosphere all along and a simple and intelligent direction that keeps a permanent interest on what is happening. It is true that if you pay attention to the action and dialogues you'll probably solve the mystery before it is revealed, but that doesn't hurt the picture that sustains tension up to the end.

Lawrence Olivier gives one of his usual acting lessons as the police inspector in charge of the case in a role that he handles with no effort. Carol Lynley as the tortured mother renders a fine performance oddly better in her dramatic sequences. Both Keir Dullea (as Lynley's overprotective brother) and Martita Hunt (as the former owner of the school) are also convincing in their parts. Always reliable Finlay Currie is also there in a small appearance as a doll maker.

In my opinion "Bunny Lake is Missing" is not a classic or perhaps not even a great film (in such range that will depend on each one's particular preferences), but no doubt it stands as a very good and enjoyable product in its genre far deserving more attention and recognition that those it received when it was first shown in theatres in the middle 60's.

Go for it if you missed it, you won't regret it.

Suspenseful film that will have you on the edge of your seat until an amazing finale . Intriguing film is packed with thrills , suspense , plot twists , and results to be quite entertaining . An American woman (Carol Lynley) and her brother (Keir Dullea) report that her young daughter is missing from a nursery kindergarten , but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed . As the main trouble the police led by a cunning inspector (Laurence Olivier) and his helper (Clive Revill) soon face is : Does the child really exist? . No one admitted while the clock is ticking!

Stirring as well as exciting yarn packs intense drama , thrills , suspense , puzzled events , twists and turns . This is a suspenseful flick that really thrills . The atmosphere and perverse intrigue enhance as well as the relationship among protagonist develops . From start to finish the intrigue and thrilling scenes are continuous till a striking ending . Penélope and John Mortimer's script along with uncredited Ira Levin is plenty of enjoyable incidentals and interesting events . Screenplay does something strange by the end : it actually removes the stakes of everything that came before with its surprising revelation that had been built up by that point about the strange missing . Very good cast gives perfect interpretation such as Laurence Olivier as an obstinate cop , Carol Lynley at her best , as an unsettling mother , though Columbia Pictures wanted Otto Preminger to cast Jane Fonda as Ann Lake, who was eager to play the role, but Preminger insisted upon using Carol Lynley ; furthermore , Keir Dullea as the suspect brother . Very good support cast such as Clive Revill as an intelligent deputy , Noel Coward as a drunken old intellectual with a vast collection of sadistic-looking sculptures d'art , Finlay Currie as a doll maker who undergoes surgery at a macabre dolls' hospital , Anna Massey as a nursery attendant and Martita Hunt as a nutty old mistress who records childhood's fantasies . Plus , other Brit secondaries in brief appearances as Adrienne Corri and Percy Herbert . Evocative and adequate photography in black and white by professional cinematographer Denis Coop . Atmospheric and appropriate musical score by composer Paul Glass . A remake to this film was planned during the period of 2007-2009 , Reese Witherspoon was attached to the project which was ultimately shelved.

This engrossing , riveting picture was effective and compellingly directed by Otto Preminger . At the beginning he became a stage director and subsequently a notorious secondary actor . Otto directed several films , nowadays many of them are considered as classic movies . He made ¨Laura¨ that was released in 1944 and Preminger ranked as one of the top directors in the world . He realized all kind of genres as Court drama such as the great success ¨Anatomy of a murder¨, ¨Court martial of Billy Mitchell¨ , Noir film as ¨Laura¨ which made him an A-list director in Hollwyood , ¨Angel Face¨ , ¨Man with a golden arm¨, Religious drama as ¨The Cardinal¨ , Musical as ¨Porgy and Bess¨, ¨Carmen Jones¨ , Western as ¨River with no return¨ and historical as ¨Saint Joan¨, ¨Exodus¨ though also had some flop as ¨Rosebud¨ getting scathing reviews , though with ¨The human factor¨ won him respectful notices . However , his powers began to wane after and by the end of the decade of the 60s he was considered washed-up . ¨Bunny Lake is missing¨ resulted to be one of the his best films . Rating : Better than average . Worthwhile watching .

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING is a psychological thriller film as a puzzling mystery about a little girl who disappears without a trace in her first day in a nursery school. It was based on the novel of the same name by Merriam Modell. The idea about a child who is born out of wedlock, and too close relationship between brother and sister is intriguing enough without mysterious background.

Ann is a single mother who recently moved to London from New York. She wishes to drop off her daughter Bunny for the girl's first day at a new nursery school. However, Ann cannot locate any teachers or administrators, only the school's disgruntled cook. She is forced to leave Bunny unsupervised in the building's "first day" room, under the reassurance that the cook will be responsible for the child. When Ann returns in the afternoon, the cook has quit and Bunny Lake is missing. An administrator recalls meeting with Ann but claims never to have seen the missing child. Ann and her brother Steven, in desperation, call the police. However, some of the evidence pointing to the fact that the little girl actually never existed...

A striking pair of possibly incestuous siblings comes in an eccentric environment. It is difficult to draw a line between a perversion and objectivity in the case of a missing child. It's about secrets from childhood, or some sort of guilt? The story and direction are somewhat illogical and unclear. The plots blend from bizarre, expressionist to surreal moments. In the background of all this is a tantalizing mystery of a motherhood, kindness, disbelief, skepticism and madness. The characterization could have been better.

Carol Lynley as Ann Lake is scared and distraught mother, who has to quickly connect strings in her life. Keir Dullea as Steven Lake is her distressed brother who has managed to draw a thin line between madness and kindness. Their bizarre game at the end of the film is a sort of culmination of their trepidation.

Laurence Olivier as Superintendent Newhouse has stole the show as a somewhat cynical, but very detailed inspector.

The American single mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) seeks out someone in the nursery Little People's Garden School in Hampstead. She finds a German cook and explains that she has just moved from the United States to London and she left her daughter Bunny Lake at the First Day Room alone with a baby. Now she needs to receive the delivery men at the apartment she rented and she needs to leave Bunny for a moment and the cook says that she can check on her daughter. When Ann returns, she does not find neither the cook nor Bunny and no one in the nursery seems to have seen the girl. Ann calls her brother Steven Lake (Keir Dullea) and the police. Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) investigates the case with his men and there is no evidence of the little girl. Soon he begins to question whether Bunny Lake does exist or is Ann's imaginary daughter.

"Bunny Lake Is Missing" is an intriguing and mysterious thriller directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay keeps the mystery and the tension until the end, when the viewer discovers the truth about Bunny Lake. The black and white cinematography is beautiful and the film shows the English rock band The Zombies in a television broadcast. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not available on DVD or Blu-Ray.

I recently saw this at the 2008 Palm Springs Film Noir Festival. Not exactly from the time period after the war to the late 50's associated with Film Noir it does have a Film Noir feel and look to it. This film was based on the 1957 novel by Marryam Morell about a single mother in New York's Upper East Side whose young daughter disappears from her school and the existence of the girl and sanity of the mother is brought into question. In the screenplay by John and Penelope Mortimer the setting is London in the mid 1960's and a new central character is added that changes the story and adds a different plot twist to this psychological thriller. Noted director Otto Preminger directs Carol Lynley as Ann Lake and Keir Dullea as her brother Stephen who have recently moved to London from the United States. Laurence Oliver is the wise and seasoned police superintendent Newhouse and Noel Coward is the seedy and lecherous Shakespearean stage star turned landlord. Lynley plays it fairly cold and lacking in the proper hysterical emotions for a mother whose daughter has disappeared so one doesn't know for sure if the daughter is real or in her imagination. Dullea is as creepy as Norman Bates as the straight-laced button down concerned brother with strong hints of an unnatural relationship between the brother and sister. Olivier is as smooth as silk as the inspector in charge of the case. Noel Coward is deliriously over the top in his performance and brief screen time as the landlord. The 60's British Invasion rock group the Zombies culled from an appearance on the BBC pop show "Ready, Steady, Go" get a lot of screen and soundtrack time in this and I never figured out how or why they are in this film. They did have a number one hit called "She's Not There" which could tongue-in-cheek tie in to the film's theme but the song isn't in this film. The plot takes a a sudden and disturbing twist that seems a little far-fetched but the film is interesting and Hitchcock-like but not one of Preminger's best. some great supporting roles from Martita Hunt as Ada Ford, the eccentric old spinster who owns the school, Anna Massey as Elvira Smollett as a school administrator and Finlay Currie as the elderly doll maker. Carol Lynley was on hand for the festival screening and did a Q&A for the audience following the film. I would give it a 7.5 out of 10 and recommend it.

Enjoyed this film directed by Otto Preminger which features a great actor Laurence Olivier, (Supt. Newhouse) who plays the role as a British Police Supertendent who investigates a little girl named Bunny Lake who is missing. Carol Lynley, (Ann Lake) and Keir Dullea, (Stephen Lake) are a brother and sister and Ann has a little girl which is illegitimate and they have just arrived in England from the United States and have entered her in a British private school and she cannot be found anywhere. Supt. Newhouse does everything he can to find out just what happened to Bunny Lake and begins to think that Ann Lake is not missing at all and is just an imaginary person that Ann has created. This film was not a big success when it first opened in theaters's in the Year 1965 but over the years it has become a great cult film and it is a very great entertaining film. Enjoy.

"Bunny Lake is missing" is a first rate psychological thriller which keeps its viewers guessing until the very end about the real motives of a crime and the person behind a horrible crime.As the knots are untied only till the very end,Otto Preminger has been able to direct a taut thriller which is able to reveal itself as a rewarding experience only for those viewers who watch this film as a mental exercise of catching innocent looking criminals whose identities betray their real motives. An effect of suspense is created by constantly asking questions about reality.What is real ? Who is real ? What is an illusion ? Why does X appear as an illusion ? Although the film is spread over a long,tiring day Otto Preminger still manages to show different people at work.His viewers get to see methods of policemen who are dealing with ordinary people.There are also casual scenes from a children's school where parents leave their children thinking that their wards would be safe.One of the film's major highlight is the manner in which Otto Preminger has nicely handled taboo subjects such as incest and the plight of the unwed mother.Lastly Otto Preminger-a cinéaste who needs no introduction at all to all those cinéphiles who are aware of great films made in the past.For those who are watching this film for the first time,it would be nice if they make efforts to watch his other films.