MovieChat Forums > Wait Until Dark (1967) Discussion > Plot-holes !! What bugged me about this ...

Plot-holes !! What bugged me about this movie ...

posted 12 years ago by TheHG
3 replies | jump to latest

Two things ...

First, I should say that it is agreed that the ending was "idiotic". There is major incongruence between what the husband says and the actual emotional state he is in at the time. Efrem Zimbalist is generally not known for emotional displays (He was good as the main character in the TV series, "The FBI.") But here, he really is almost crying with mixed emotions of guilt, fear, and love for his wife. So, it was rather a strange thing to suddenly revert verbally to the stolid, strict teacher mode. The oddness of what he said there cannot be explained as anything but very bad (unnecessary) piece of dialog.

Second, I would like to ask if anybody wondered how Audrey's character was able to turn the tables on Alan Arkin's character so easily, especially the part where she induces him to toss the box of matches to her. Why should this cool-as-ice killer do that? How does she get hold of the matches? In the air ... or from the floor where they fell? I don't think that anything here makes any sense although things do happen very fast, and the audience is too blinded (no pun intended)by the suspenseful situation here to do any reasoning.

There are probably a few other annoying plot-holes in this movie that other (commenters) may have picked up and commented on in this board.

[–] Eponymous-too 12 years ago

"Second, I would like to ask if anybody wondered how Audrey's character was able to turn the tables on Alan Arkin's character so easily, especially the part where she induces him to toss the box of matches to her. Why should this cool-as-ice killer do that?"

You must have missed the part where she got his knife from the wall beside her where he threw it at her, and also where she doused him with gasoline. The only weapon he had against her were the matches, which she rendered unusable for him by covering him in gasoline.

"My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the Whale Rider."

[–] Prismark10 12 years ago

Later she handed the matches back when the lights came on. She would had been better off by tossing a lighted match at him and escape through the door.

Its that man again!!

[–] jobseeker95479 12 years ago

> She would had been better off by tossing a lighted match at him and escape
> through the door.

If she wasn't able to escape through the door when she had the upperhand (because the light is out but the door has been chained by Roat) what makes you think she can escape it when the light came on? The worst fear for a blind person is being locked in a room that is on fire!