So-called "genre" films—a somewhat dismissive term referring to the kinds of vintage movies pasty males like—are usually a reliable way to take the temperature of the era in which they were made. But the most timeless of these films speak to something so human that we can apply them to any situation or decade.
The 1967 release "Wait Until Dark," featuring Audrey Hepburn as an innocent blind woman defending herself against home invasion and ruthless drug lords, is such a film. Blindness might, to some, suggest a nation’s confused state after years of political anxiety and confusion. The invaders could stand in for those who have been doing the deceiving, as Alan Arkin, assuming the role of Hepburn’s violent antagonist, is certainly not a guy you’d want to have a beer with. We’ll always hope that we have the resourcefulness of "Wait Until Dark’s" heroine, whose wit and will overrides her supposed helplessness. We can also hope to be as attractive as Ms. Hepburn, though we’re always left wondering: How does this ravishing, visually impaired woman sport ’60s-era eyeliner that’s so perfectly applied?
