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Roat: Oh, Suzy! You don't have to be ashamed. Everybody's frightened of something, I... ooooooo! I have gasoline here! Gasoline. Hmm? Gasoline. This place will go up like a matchbox! The big question, Suzy, is do you want to be outside in the street? Or locked in there with Mike? It's up to you. So, will you give it to me now?
Suzy Hendrix: No.
Roat: 'I won't give it to you'. 'I don't know!'. 'I don't know, I don't know, I don't know I don't know I don't know'. THEN, as it always happens, finally something seemed to snap. Ohhh, yes. And she told me everything she knew. As it turns out, she didn't know where it was, but... she told me everything she could! At last, she wanted to tell me, but, like her, you won't stop at that, will you, Suzy? Hmmm? No! After I'd finished 'questioning' her, she went on, and she told me other things. Little, useful things that just might come in handy, hmm? And then she told me OTHER things. Things I didn't even want to know. Little, intimate things about herself, and Mike, and Carlino... and I said 'Now that's enough, Suzy. That's enough I don't want to know any more' but she went ON AND ON AND ON AND ON... and then finally, she was dead. Now, I'm not going to ask you for it again, Suzy, so when you want to give it to me, you have to tell me. Will you go in there, hmm? Shall I HELP you, Suzy...
[Suzy hurls a bowl of hypo into Roat's face]
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Suzy Hendrix: [Suzy is trying to make her apartment completely dark] Can you see me moving?
Gloria: Yes, just.
Suzy Hendrix: There must be a light coming from somewhere, where is it coming from?
Gloria: From under the door at the top of the stairs.
Suzy Hendrix: Hell! OK, wait, There's a broom in the spare closet. Go out in the hall and smash every light you can see, just go until you can't see anything.
Gloria: WILL DO, ha ha...
[she does]
Gloria: All out!
Suzy Hendrix: Close the door. Now, can you see anything?
Gloria: Nothing at all.
Suzy Hendrix: All dark?
Gloria: Yes.
Suzy Hendrix: Good! OK, off you go then, know what to do?
Gloria: Asbury Park, and tell Sam everything!
Suzy Hendrix: Lock this door, check that the street door is locked, then go out the back way and run until you find a taxi!
Gloria: Bye, Suzy...
Suzy Hendrix: Gloria? I don't know anyone who could do this as well as you.
Gloria: Oh boy, I wish a thing like this would happen every day, HA HA!
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Roat: Of course, I knew they'd try and kill me once we had the doll. But, when Carlino walked up to his car just now outside in the street? And saw it start up all by itself and drive straight at him, hmmm? I just couldn't resist turning on the lights to catch his expression, I... I don't think I've ever seen anybody look quite so surprised.
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Roat: Now... what was it you wanted to say to me?
Suzy Hendrix: I'll give you the doll. If you'll just go and leave us alone.
Roat: You have to say 'Please may I give you the doll'.
Suzy Hendrix: PLEASE may I give you the doll?
Roat: You may!
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Suzy Hendrix: I won't give it to you.
Roat: "I won't give it to you"? "I won't give it to you." You remind me of somebody else who said that! Only she said..."I don't know where it is! I don't know! I don't KNOW I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW!"
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Roat: Well, Suzy... now all the children have gone to bed. Now we can talk.
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Description
A photographer's blind wife, trapped in her New York apartment by an evil trio who are ready to murder to retrieve a heroin-filled doll hidden in her apartment, cleverly outwits them. Music by Henry Mancini. Based on the long running Broadway play by Frederick Knott.
Amazon.com essential video
Audrey Hepburn's last Oscar nomination was for this adaptation of Frederick Knott's famed stage thriller about a blind woman, a con man (Alan Arkin), and a doll full of heroin. Thanks to Hepburn's husband, a photographer who does a good deal of traveling, she's unknowingly come into possession of said doll, which was given to him on a plane by a comely young drug runner who winds up dead. The murderous Arkin, aided by sympathetic henchman Richard Crenna, will let nothing stand in the way of his obtaining it, even if it comes down to assaying multiple "personalities" in order to visit and terrorize Hepburn; Crenna is unwillingly enlisted to help. However, the "world's champion blind lady" (as Hepburn sardonically states) is more than up to the task of defending herself in her basement Manhattan apartment in a heart-stopping climax that to this day still defines the way horror movies with jack-in-the-box psychos are made. Despite the obvious staginess of it all (the entire action takes place in Hepburn's apartment), it still works magnificently, thanks to Hepburn's steely will and Arkin's deadly, sadistic madman. A helpful hint: turn out all the lights when you watch it; theaters back in 1967 did so, killing the guiding lights during the film's last 15 minutes. We can't tell you why, but trust us, it's worth it. --Mark Englehart
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