The little girl of the title, Felicia "Bunny" Lake, is supposed to be an American just arrived in England by ocean liner, yet she speaks with a distinctly English accent.
(at around 48 mins) Bunny Lake is running with her mother in the garden.
After a cut to the brother, the exact same shot is shown again (passing behind a bush and a white stake).
"Bunny Lake Is Missing" was one of the last appreciable films made by Otto Preminger, before he indulged in ugly parodies as "Hurry Sundown" and "Skidoo". Made in the United Kingdom, during the first minutes it seems an interesting study of a clash of two cultures, as restrained Londoners face the rudeness of two American siblings who report the disappearance of little Bunny Lake, but it turns into a psychological thriller.
The American single mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) seeks out someone in the nursery Little People's Garden School in Hampstead. She finds a German cook and explains that she has just moved from the United States to London and she left her daughter Bunny Lake at the First Day Room alone with a baby.
Based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Merriam Model, this is a rather good psychological thriller which unfortunately loses much of its credibility towards the end. The plot concerns the disappearance of a four-year-old girl named Bunny Lake from the playschool Little People's Garden several days after she and her mother Ann moved from New York to London.
Great chilling way to reveal the credits. Ripped from the screen, lurking surreptitiously behind it, like clues.
Wow! I didn't expect this to be THIS good!
Given that Noel Coward was a gay man, playing the role of a landlord with a clear hatred of female girls makes this one of the oddities of this 1965 offering. Keir Dullea isnt great as Steven.
This one was predictable, silly by times and not especially entertaining. However, there are some very good actors here giving fine performances: Laurence Olivier as Superintendent NewhouseKeir Dullea (also in 2001: A Space Odyssey) as Steven LakeCarol Lynley as Ann Lakeand Noël Coward as Wilson the creepy landlord.
It's strange and disappointing to find a writer like John Mortimer guilty of sloppiness. The plot is an uneasy hybrid of So Long At The Fair - Jean Simmons travels to Paris with her bother who promptly disappears leaving no record he was ever there - and Gaslight - a man attempts to drive his wife mad in which four-year old Bunny Lake disappears from a Nursery school on her very first day yet no one - staff, pupils, parents, deny ever seeing her.
I didn't hesitate for one second when I was offered the unique opportunity to watch this movie on a big cinema screen, when a modest genre festival in my country programmed it in their theme of "obscure British cult gems". And does "Bunny Lake is Missing" ever fit into this category, or what!
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