Bunny Lake is Missing 1965 ***

Adapted from a novel by Maryam Modell by John Mortimer and his wife Penelope, Otto Preminger’s 1965 black and white thriller is a tricky tale of child abduction. Bunny is the child of Ann and Steven Lake (Carol Lynley and Keir Dullea), and when she goes missing, investigating copper Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) comes to wonder if the girl ever existed. Throw in cameos from a diverse collection including Noel Coward and The Zombies) and the result is a melange of strange ingredients, which Preminger manages to weld together with some panache. The solution, very different from the one in the book, makes sense, and the journey to get there is consistently engrossing; if the slightly musty quality of the not particularly-swinging 60’s London can be ignored, Bunny Lake Is Missing is a terse little thriller with lively performances from actors who knew how to steal a scene.