Anna Massey, Carol Lynley, Clive Revill

A woman claims her child is missing, and a weary police inspector is out to find it, but whether the child is real or imaginary on the mother's part is the real puzzle.

Flixster Users

76% liked it

1,668 ratings

Critics

89% liked it

9 critics

Unrated, 107 min.

Directed by: Otto Preminger

Release Date: October 3, 1965

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DVD Release Date: January 25, 2005

Stats: 120 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (120)


  • February 3, 2008
    What a heartbreak really. The first hour of the film was about to reconcile me with Preminger who I never quite enjoyed but the last 30 minutes are a sad bore where once more Preminger toys with is pet subject: psychopathology. The best scenes of the first hour reminded of the be...( read more)st films set in an intimidating London. The plot is maybe a bit light but it does ultimately install the audience in an unpleasant atmosphere of suspicion. The two leads are also very well casted. The main two strengths of the movie are the supporting actors and the locations. There is no studios scenes in this movie, and each location is pretty stunning. They truly bring the movie to another dimension while also presenting us a London long gone by now (the 1960s pub, the kindergarden, and special mention for the dolls' hospital). Laurence Olivier is very good as the inspector but Martita Hunt as the retired school director, Noel Coward as the landlord and Finlay Currie as the dollmaker are perfect and give to the film an added sense of grittiness. Once more Saul Bass hits the nail right on the head as title designer. He fully participates to the enjoyment one can feel watching this movie.
  • January 11, 2008
    !!! SPOILER ALERT !!! This movie sucks.
  • January 11, 2008
    umm wtf? one of the most ridiculous 'thriller's i've seen. the americans were just embarrassing, especially in the final scene. olivier can do no wrong and noel coward was hilarious but otherwise i'm pretty sure i laughed at all the wrong parts. still entertaining in a perver...( read more)se kind of way
  • December 23, 2007
    Great performances (namely Lawrence Olivier), incredible titles by Saul Bass and even better direction from Otto Preminger who delivers 25 of the most jarring final minutes (MUCH of which is owed to Fritz Lang) I've seen in a movie to date. Bunny Lake is Missing is an all-around ...( read more)creepy movie with everything from the brother/sister relationship, that landlord with that chihuahua to the secondary cast. It seemed to shift gears a lot and often made me wonder if they were going to go to the proverbial "there." I felt gypped when The Zombies were finally shown (I'm a big fan) and I truly despised the movie's score. Worth it for the ending, but be warned--this movie does take a while to get going.
  • December 3, 2007
    A campy creepy cult classic from the madman Otto Preminger.

    Performances all round are top notch. Extra awesome creepy award goes to the landlord. I feel all dirty.
  • October 9, 2009
    I?m loving the Otto Preminger vaults. I never knew much about his wide array of movies. They are great, and this movie is right there. It is a simply play on a paranoid mystery that wraps up (or you can figure it out) pretty early, but it just plays it simple for suspense and tha...( read more)t feeling of dread. ?Disadvantaged? woman. New city. Different elements. Uncontrolled circumstances where no one believes her but her brother, who tries to help but it all seems lost as she gets more and more distant. Aside from how this story progression is handled, I loved the suspense in the end game final act when the pieces were already worked out but the cat and mouse game begins.

    Pacing and piecemail story-telling can be exciting. It?s something I like about The Sixth Sense guy if he would only write his own story (I had said that Spike Lee needed to direct a story that wasn?t written by him to progress, then he did Malcolm X, which was superb), a great flare for suspenseful set-up, even with a preposterous story. Preminger is definitnly someone I want to watch the whole catalog from. And anyone who likes classic suspense mysteries should check this one out.
  • September 23, 2009
    This was pretty bad. The script is full of holes. It's really laughable and a very non-thrilling "thriller". I watched because I have always liked Carol Lynley and had not seen this previously, and it was supposed to be the classic movie that Jody Foster's "Flight Plan" was ba...( read more)sed loosely upon...very loosely - and Flight Plan was better. A mom's child goes missing, but she has trouble proving her daughter even exists...yadda yadda.
  • August 17, 2009
    The ending of the story is weak but the mystical and mysterious atmosphere, sounds and black and white pictures are priceless.
  • June 25, 2009

    Young ANN LAKE has just moved to England from America with her successful but controlling brother STEPHEN. The two are extremely close, with Stephen doting upon Ann. In a hurry the day she enrolls her child, BUNNY, in a private school, Ann leaves her with the s

    ...( read more)chool's female German COOK, then runs off to do errands.That late afternoon, Ann returns to the school to pick up Bunny. To her increasing dismay, however, no one at the school seems to know where Bunny is or even who she is. Ann interrogates one of the school's staff, ELIVRA, who hasn't a clue. When the arrogant Stephen arrives, he badgers Elvira further.Soon, SUPT. NEWHOUSE, an unflappable British police officer, arrives, looking into the matter. He talks with all parties involved, including ADA FORD, one of the school's elderly founders. The eccentric Ada resides in an upstairs room, where she's currently compiling a tome about childhood nightmares. Newhouse continues his investigation, tolerating the threats and barbs from Ann's increasingly accusatory brother, Stephen. But as Newhouse puts together Ann's profile, he begins to doubt her story in subtle ways. After all, since no one saw the child (the Cook has quit and has disappeared) he has to wonder if Ann even has a child. Is she delusional, perhaps? The insinuation infuriates Stephen, but he seems to back it up with references to Ann having had an imaginary playmate named Bunny as a child. Ann must now try to find clues that her child really existed. She must also fend off her creepy new landlord, WILSON, an aging homosexual actor who's always drunk and carting about his little dog. The POLICE interrogate him, as well. When Stephen comes across Newhouse talking to Ann in a pub, he blows up at the officer, threatening and accusing him. As police attempt to locate the Cook, Ann's nightmare intensifies. Desperate for evidence that will prove the existence of her child, she suddenly remembers the claim check for a store that's repairing Bunny's doll. In spite of the late hour, Ann goes off in a cab after telling Stephen where she's going. In the meantime, Newhouse and his MEN look into the travel records that brought Ann and Stephen to England. Ann finds the doll shop, which, although closed, has an unlocked door. She gets the doll from the PROPRIETOR. Stephen has followed her, however, and once Ann presents him with the doll and goes off to deal with the Proprietor, Stephen gets a crazed look in his eye and sets the doll afire. Ann is horrified. Ann follows Stephen to a remote location where he has Bunny hidden. Stephen is the kidnapper! Indeed, Stephen is so close to his sister Ann he found Bunny an intrusion in their relationship. Stephen has now lapsed into another identity - a more murderous one and likely an extension of their imaginary selves as children. He's now intent upon killing the child, so as to have sole access to his sister again. Ann tricks Bunny away from the demented Stephen by engaging him in a series of childlike games. Stephen chases Ann and Bunny, but Newhouse and Police soon arrive, arresting the demented young brother. They finally found the evidence they needed of the child's existence by way of travel records.
  • June 23, 2009
    "No one admitted while the clock is ticking"


    Having just arrived in London from Boston, single mother Ann Lake believes that she has dropped her four year old illegitimate daughter, Felicia - who Ann has nicknamed Bunny, the name of her imaginary childhood friend - of...( read more)f for her first day at her new school.
    Ann's belief is tested when she goes to pick up Bunny after school, Bunny who is not there. No one at the school even remembers ever seeing Bunny. The only person in London who knows Ann and can vouch for her assertion is her brother, magazine reporter Steven Lake.
    Ann's worry is heightened because there have been a few child abductions and murders of late. The police are brought into the matter. The further that sympathetic lead investigator, Superintendent Newhouse, gets into the investigation, the more it seems like Bunny is a figment of Ann's imagination,
    her fantasy supported by Steven for her own mental well-being. Steven however seems convinced that someone knows of Bunny's disappearance, that someone perhaps being one of the plethora of school administrators including its elderly owner, Ada Ford, or the Lake's seemingly eccentric landlord, Horatio Wilson.



    Doll-maker: I've got a near fatality here.
    Doll-maker: This doll had almost been loved to death. You know, love inflicts the most terrible injuries on my small patients.

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