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1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
The ONLY THING missing here is the ending... Sep 29, 2009
I don't really understand the `camp' references here, since there is NOTHING campy about `Bunny Lake is Missing'. Even the ending, which could (I guess) be considered `camp' is not rendered as such on the screen. Despite its illogical conclusion, `Bunny Lake is Missing' never once falters from its intensity, creating a thriller that is nearly all aces. In fact, up until the last few minutes, when all is revealed, I actually thought it was about as perfect as a thriller could get.
The film opens with a very hurried mother leaving her daughter (who we never see) in the care of a cook at a local school. She has just moved to England with her daughter and needs to rush home to meet with the movers. When she returns to the school to pick up her daughter though, it appears that her daughter has never even been at the school. After her and her brother (whom she moved to live with) do some investigating of their own, the local detective comes in and begins his investigation. What seems odd is that no one seems to have any recollection of young `Bunny' and all of her things are strangely (and very inconveniently) missing from her apartment.
So, the question is raised; does Bunny even exist?
I am not a huge fan of Keir Dullea, and I did feel that he overacted a lot here (so maybe that was a tad campy) but he pulls it together towards the end to make his performance a little more credible (even if it takes the films loss of credibility to do it). Aside from his missteps though, the acting here is nothing short of amazing. Carol Lynley is superb as the worried Ann Lake, completely believable as a young mother going stir crazy trying to prove that she is NOT crazy. Laurence Olivier is also beyond amazing as Supt. Newhouse; the detective trying to put the pieces together. He has a very collected calmness about him that always relays the undercurrent of worry. Noel Coward is also sublime as the very nosey and creepy landlord, Horatio Wilson. Martita Hunt is devilishly good as the spinster founder of the school, Ada Ford, obsessed with the fears of young children. She seems to feed off of Ann's desperation, which makes her all the more suspect in the eyes of the viewer.
I'd have handed out Oscar nominations to all four of them; seriously.
As I mentioned; the end is a bit of a disappointment. I was so invested in this film; ready to label it utter perfection, and then `BAM', it hits me with the ludicrous `surprise' ending that was so clichéd and so unbelievable (there are so many questions left unanswered) and completely unrewarding. I was really hoping for something credible, but seriously, this ending is so ridiculous it makes me angry the more I think about it. It is carried out in a consistent way, thanks to director Otto Preminger, so the film never loses its intensity and drive despite the absurdity of the ending. Even though I was instantly irritated with the route it decided to go, I was still glued to my seat, eyes wide in terror. It is nothing short of thrilling, despite the huge flaw.
I don't want to `give it away', even though I feel like my review is incomplete with totally dissecting the ending. I mean, it is so preposterous it renders the characters (especially Ann) basically retarded; beings that she clearly could have guessed who was behind the whole thing and should have raised flags immediately when her daughter turned up missing.
But she didn't, so she's stupid.
UGH, well, whatever; the movie is still exciting and a real nail biter. I'd recommend it, with that one warning. The ending is horrible; but it's handled with bravado so it's `almost' forgivable. It is still a worthy film that I'd watch again, so sit back and enjoy.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Excellent thriller from the 60's Jun 29, 2009
I wont rehash the story fot the umpteenth time but simply wish to say that this movie very effectively builds tension for the viewer. My wife had to leave the room toward the end as she was frightened. Thats the sign of a good movie. When your audience bolts from tension.james e. Vigiletti
 Very Good Indeed Until..... Jun 02, 2009
The "Bunny" is Carol Lynley's daughter. The little girl was dropped off at her new London school one morning. When mom arrives to pick her up, she has vanished without a trace! A frantic Lynley receives no help form the stodgy school staff. Are they merely inept, truly uncaring or protecting their jobs? Something serious has obviously happened! Laurence Olivier is perfect as the polite, calm and suitably skeptical police inspector. LO maintains that mien though the film. Keir Dullea is over the top, at least early on, as Lynley's protective brother, demanding investigative action. The "exact nature" of the Dullea/Lynley relationship is never explained. The key difference is that she maintains credibility throughout while he decidedly does not. This reviewer was reminded of 2 similar cinematic situations: 1) "The Third Man" where Joseph Cotton searches postwar Vienna for his friend Harry Lime/Orson Welles while dealing with a skeptical British officer played by Trevor Howard. 2) The lesser known and highly recommended "Dangerous Crossing" where Jeanne Crain hunts about an ocean liner for hubby Carl Betz, receiving similar skepticism from the ship's crew. The problem from this viewer's perspective is that "Bunny Lake" virtually derails late in the film. Some of the final scenes are almost surreal; greatly muddling what had been a serious, solid investigative movie. Does Bunny turn up? A good review won't divulge resolutions! This reviewer thought the ultimate "resolution" was made anticlimactic by the film's late twist. Others reviewers will disagree. Nearly all should agree that BLM showcases a campy mid-60s London when the "British Invasion" was at full throttle.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
OTTO PREMINGER, OPUS 31 Nov 01, 2008
***1/2 1965. Based on Evelyn Piper's Bunny Lake is Missing (Femmes Fatales) and produced and directed by Otto Preminger. London. When Ann Lake, who's just arrived from the United States, wants to pick up her daughter the first day from the school, Bunny is missing. After a few days, Supt. Newhouse starts to wonder if Bunny Lake really exists. Good mystery thriller that reminded me of a film shot 23 years later: Roman Polanski's Frantic. In both movies, the tension is created by the anxiety of Americans, lost in a European country, who don't understand the way the local police is working. Note, in a small role, Anna Massey, one of the future victims of the killer of Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy. Recommended.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Not your average psychological thriller Jul 17, 2008
I first saw this film in a bad TV print 30 years ago. Despite the drawbacks of seeing it on a tiny set without the benefit even of pan-and-scan, it made an indelible impression on me. Yes, the holes in the plot and lapses of logic to which other reviewers allude looked obvious, and a major character's behavioral change in the last act seemed improbable. But I couldn't shake the film, and it stayed with me.
I was puzzled that a film with such apparent shortcomings could affect me so deeply. When I saw it again recently on TCM in a beautiful, crisp cinemascope print with the entire image, I was even more moved and began to ponder the paradox the picture presented.
After thinking about it for days, I decided that "Bunny Lake Is Missing" is mistakenly classified as a "psychological thriller." Think about three of its supporting characters: a crone who lives in an attic and listens to the disembodied voices of children describe their nightmares, an inebriated troll who propositions his female tenants, and an ancient dollmaker who lives in the center of a nocturnal labyrinth.
These aren't characters from a contemporary policier, but apparitions from the Brothers Grimm or Maurice Sendak. The viewer is in the territory of fairy tales, metaphors, dreams, and poetry in which the events and relationships are symbolically and emotionally, rather than realistically and analytically, linked.
This changed the nature of the film's narrative logic and therefore my perspective on the film.
In an unexpected way, it's more productive to think of "Bunny Lake Is Missing" as resembling "The Red Shoes" or "Black Narcissus," rather than other "psychological thrillers."
You won't find the villain in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, but you might find him in The Brothers Grimm.
I could go on at length, but rather than spoil the film, I urge you to watch it, but remember to resist filtering it through our expectations of the thriller genre. It exists apart from them and needs to viewed and accepted on its own terms. By the way, the Paul Glass score is unusually beautiful and memorable. I remembered it clearly after 30 years.
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