Bunny Lake Is Missing

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Bunny Lake Is Missing

Released Oct 3, 1965

1h 47m

Mystery & Thriller

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Popcornmeter

86%

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14 Reviews

77%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Single American mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) arrives in London with her daughter, nicknamed Bunny, to live with her brother Stephen (Keir Dullea). Ann leaves Bunny at a nursery school, but when she returns there is no sign of her daughter and no evidence that she was ever there. Stephen, a journalist, questions all who might have seen Bunny. Once Scotland Yard Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) joins in the search, he unearths several disturbing details about Ann.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

Upon contact with an electric guitar, Otto Preminger, born in 1906, got a shock, which he conveys in this jangled psychological thriller from 1965, set in swinging London.

Sep 14, 2015

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Time Out

A middling thriller,

Jun 24, 2006

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Daniel Fienberg

Zap2it.com

Artfully directed, professionally performed and just twisty enough to make viewers get lost in the overtly Hitchcockian trappings...

Rated: 4/5

Sep 10, 2005

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Giles M. Fowler

Kansas City Star

Every now and then, give me a good, nerve-grating detective mystery to perk up the pulse, clear the head and keep the fingernails down to size... [Bunny Lake Is Missing] has about all the requisites I demand of such films.

Jun 26, 2020

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Wendy Michener

Maclean's Magazine

Like Hitchcock in Psycho, Preminger is playing upon our fears of the irrational, seemingly motiveless crime. But Preminger's film is at once more effective and more sadistic.

Jul 2, 2019

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Nathanael Hood

The Retro Set

Bunny Lake is Missing is a victory of form over content, of a great filmmaker surpassing the limits of their source material.

Rated: 7/10

Dec 28, 2018

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Carlos I

It's got a great premise and some solid performances, but this Hitchcockian thriller is a slog to get though. When I could keep myself awake, I found myself yelling at the screen to get on with it.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

09/13/24

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Papillon S

This movie is pretty good and many scenes will make you the 'squirming in your seat' kind of uncomfortable. It's weird, but it's a good kind of weird. The little girl who plays Bunny Lake acts massively scared in a few scenes - believably scared, too. It's more of a thriller than a horror movie.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

07/12/24

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isla s

This is quite a mysterious watch - it felt tense and I found myself feeling unsure what the ultimate truth may be and I certainly felt concerned for the mother. It was an intriguing watch with some interesting characters, the pervy landlord, an eccentric lady at the school and other strict employees at the school. There are some scenes which do have a slightly sinister feel to them - not really scary as such (definitely not by todays standards) but certainly a little creepy, suggestive of something potentially untoward and this builds up and becomes moreso the case as the films plot continues. This features some good performance and I would recommend it to others.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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alexandre l

Exhibit A as to how you can ruin a perfectly well-made movie in the final act.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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dave s

Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake is Missing taps into the greatest fear of any parent, the safety and whereabouts of a missing child. Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) goes to pick up her daughter after her first day at school, only to find that nobody knows of the child. She and her brother Steven (Kier Dullea) try to stave off the suspicions of the police, led by Officer Newhouse (Laurence Olivier), when authorities begin to suspect that the child may not exist. Lynley and Olivier are great, but their performances are offset by a bizarre and atrocious attempt at acting by Dullea. The movie is fascinating and riveting until the final thirty minutes, when things become so outrageously absurd and implausible that it's difficult not to laugh out loud.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Frances H

Great cast and direction with lots of twists and turns. I won't say more for fear of spoiling it. This film I saw on many different occasions years apart, but just middle to the end--seeing the whole film in one sitting was a revelation of the plot.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/16/21

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Otto Preminger

Director

Laurence Olivier

Superintendent Newhouse

Carol Lynley

Ann Lake

Keir Dullea

Steven Lake

Noël Coward

Wilson

Martita Hunt

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Synopsis

Single American mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) arrives in London with her daughter, nicknamed Bunny, to live with her brother Stephen (Keir Dullea). Ann leaves Bunny at a nursery school, but when she returns there is no sign of her daughter and no evidence that she was ever there. Stephen, a journalist, questions all who might have seen Bunny. Once Scotland Yard Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) joins in the search, he unearths several disturbing details about Ann.

Director: Otto Preminger
Producer: Otto Preminger
Screenwriter: John Mortimer, Penelope Mortimer
Production Co: Wheel Productions
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 3, 1965, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 16, 2012
Runtime: 1h 47m

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