Bunny Lake Is Missing – 1965 | 107 mins | Drama, Thriller | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Taut psycho-thriller from director Otto Preminger, Bunny Lake is Missing is packed with dark, unsettling twists that recall Alfred Hitchcock in his prime; is the mother mad and does her daughter even exist? The screenplay by John and Penelope Mortimer is loosely based on the novel by Marryam Modell (using the pseudonym Evelyn Piper). Preminger keeps the viewers guessing, while Denys Coop’s crazed black-and-white camera angles find shadowy menace in an offbeat British cast, including the excellent Anna Massey is as a frustrated teacher, Martita Hunt as the vaguely sinister headmistress and Noël Coward as a sadomasochistic landlord. Both a commercial and critical failure at the time, the dark and noirish film has since been reappraised and gained a cult following.

Set in 60s London, Scotland Yard’s inspector Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) is called in to investigate the mysterious Hampstead nursery school kidnapping of four-year-old Bunny Lake, illegitimate daughter of Ann (Carol Lynley), a neurotic American woman newly arrived in London. The slightly dotty nursery head (Martita Hunt) vehemently deny ever seeing the child and have no record of her ever being enrolled, and so Ann desperately calls her erratic older brother Stephen (Keir Dullea) for help. The police suspect that the child is merely a figment of Ann’s imagination, but could she actually be telling the truth? Terrified that Newhouse will abandon the search for the girl, the hysterical Ann sets out to prove her sanity and, in the process, surprisingly uncovers the true psychosis behind the disappearance of her daughter.