A young woman, Ann Lake (Lynley) and her brother Steven (Dullea) report the woman's little girl, nicknamed Bunny, missing when she can't be found at her school on her first day of class. Sir Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea and Noel Coward star in 'Bunny Lake is Missing,' a 1965 black and white British film directed by Otto Preminger. The sensitive and well-informed Dilys Powell remarked in the Sunday Times: 'Towering over the story (is) the police superintendent of Laurence Olivier, a performance almost self-effacing, but still massive, hinting force behind the official mask.' Alexander Walker in The Evening Standard agreed that Olivier was the man to watch! My sentiments too! Preminger uses the wide Panavision aperture most astutely and as a result the film cannot be seen to advantage on full screen TV. Tension is effectively conveyed through sharp editing, shrewd dialogue exchanges and the elaborate deployment of extras against natural backgrounds. Admittedly, the script is full of holes, but the existence or non- existence of Bunny Lake is intriguing enough to guarantee edge-of- the-seat excitement. Bearing all the hallmarks of an Otto Preminger production - long takes, admirably fluid camera movement and stand-out performances, both good (Dullea, Olivier, Hunt, Massey, Currie) and bad (Lynley, Coward) - this psychological thriller rates as first-class entertainment. But we critics enjoyed the movie even if nobody else did. True, from a box-office point of view it was certainly unsuccessful. COMMENT: It's a shame that Preminger was later to dismiss this film and virtually expunge it from his memory. All told, Columbia was lucky to make a profit. The film boasted no offsetting publicity and/or super-stars. Olivier was rarely a great box-office lure (except of course with the carriage trade and the corduroy set). In fact, some of us, including me, praised the movie, but our combined verdict on its sterling entertainment qualities made little impression on the late 1965's TV-doting public. Aside from Leonard Mosley in The Daily Express - 'Flat-footed' - British critics were reasonably kind. Times was not published because of the New York newspaper strike. Bosley Crowther's negative write-up in The N. He doesn't even mention the fact that he was lucky not to get bad reviews in New York. NOTES: In his autobiography, Preminger has virtually nothing to say about Bunny Lake.

New York opening simultaneously at the Victoria, Beekman, and 34th Street East: 3 October 1965. A Wheel (Otto Preminger) Production for Columbia.

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