Please don't spend money on this.

Excellent adaptation.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Don't get me wrong from the Summary,it's not a movie on a plane, but it's about a missing child that the police doubt her existence.It's a straight to the point movie without any extra unnecessary events, it starts with a scene of the child's family moving from US to England.Then when the mother goes to retrieve the daughter from the school after her first day there, she does not find her and what make it worse that no one saw or had a trace of the child.The movie has a good rhythm and you will not get bored easily watching it, watching the performance of actors is really a great experience, specially the always worrying look on the face of "Carol Lynley".The few characters involved gave the movie a good spirit,however it didn't affect the quality of the plot but it enhanced it by the variety of theories trying to explain the accident.Finally, it's a good classic mystery/thriller movie that will give you a good finale but it lacks the adrenaline rush throughout it.

Saul Bass' opening credits and Paul Glass' jazzy score set the tone for this psychological thriller about the disappearance of a little girl and the police investigation that follows. The atmosphere is dark, unsettling and tense and is beautifully enhanced by Denys N Coop's magnificent cinematography. There's something undeniably perverse about the behaviours of many of the story's characters and this not only complicates the investigation but also increases the number of potential suspects.After arriving in London from the United States, single mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) takes her 4-year-old daughter, Bunny, to be enrolled at a local nursery. With no staff members available to receive the new pupil, Ann enters the kitchen and informs the grumpy German cook that she's leaving the child in the building's "First Day Room" and rushes off to meet the removal men who are waiting to move her possessions into the apartment that she's due to share with her journalist brother, Steven (Keir Dullea). Later that day, when she goes back to the "Little People's Garden School" she's horrified to discover that Bunny has disappeared and none of the staff seem very helpful or indeed, willing to take any responsibility. Ann turns to Steven for help and after he carries out a search of the building, they decide to call the police.Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) is assigned to the case and discovers that no-one at the nursery remembers seeing the little girl and the cook has quit her job. Furthermore,when one of his detectives goes with Steven to his apartment to get a photograph of the missing girl, they find that all Bunny's belongings have mysteriously disappeared. This leads Newhouse to question whether Bunny actually exists and when he's informed that, as a child, Ann had an imaginary playmate, also called Bunny, he starts to have doubts about Ann's mental state.Ann feels frustrated about not being able to prove that Bunny exists until she remembers that she has a receipt for one of the girl's dolls which she'd taken to a nearby shop for repair. When she succeeds in collecting the doll, things suddenly become more sinister in a way that shocks her but eventually enables the mystery surrounding Bunny's disappearance to be solved.The eccentricities of the characters in this movie, provide a great deal of interest for its audience as well as providing the actors with some colourful roles that they're able to exploit to the full. Ada Ford (Marita Hunt) is the retired co-founder of the nursery who lives (seemingly as a recluse) in an attic room where she spends her time researching and writing about her rather unhealthy interest in children's nightmares. Ann's creepy landlord Horatio Wilson (Noel Coward) is an alcoholic, masochist and radio broadcaster who, despite being gay, still hits on her and tries to impress her with his "melodious voice". Superintendent Newhouse is thoughtful, reserved and methodical in his work and also recognises that Ann and Steven's relationship seems more like that of a married couple rather than that of a typical brother and sister. The acting performances are all of the highest calibre and enormously enjoyable to watch."Bunny Lake Is Missing" didn't receive the critical or commercial success it deserved at the time of its initial release but has achieved greater recognition since. It certainly does well at evoking the period in which it's set and in this connection, the three songs contributed by "The Zombies" are both important and great to hear again.

If "Bunny Lake Is Missing" isn't one of Otto Preminger's masterpieces it is, nevertheless, a terrifically entertaining psychological thriller, beautifully directed, written and acted. It's about the disappearance of a little girl in London; the conundrum is, did she exist in the first place. It was adapted, by the Mortimers, John and Penelope, from a novel by Evelyn Piper and it allows a number of very fine actors, as well as Keir Dullea, the opportunity to strut their stuff superbly. There's Laurence Olivier as a pragmatic policeman, that fine and underrated actress Carol Lynley as the distraught mother, Noel Coward and Martita Hunt as eccentrics and Dullea, surprisingly good, as Lynley's over-possessive brother while there are several very neat cameos from a host of well-known British character actors. There are enough clues scattered through the picture to figure it all out long before the somewhat protracted denouement yet even after several viewings the film has lost none of its appeal. Special mention should also be given to Denys Coop's superb black and white cinematography, (it's shot in Panavision), as well as Paul Glass' wonderfully atmospheric score.

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! The film is acclaimed Austrian/American director Otto Preminger's rare foray to the London metropolis for a captivating and tense, albeit flawed, drama-thriller full of eccentric characters and philosophical as well as disturbing undertones. The stunningly beautiful but vulnerable Ann Lake just arrived from the US to her new home in the center of London, where her devoted and caring brother Steven arranged everything for her. Ann drops of her four-year-old daughter Bunny at school, but when she can't find any of the teachers, she agrees with the school's cook to keep an eye on the little girl. When Ann returns to pick up Bunny a few hours later, she isn't there. Moreover, nobody in the entire school has seen or heard about the girl. While Ann panics and Steven accuses the school board of sheer incompetence, the experienced Scotland Yard inspector Newhouse discovers that there's no evidence whatsoever to prove Bunny's existence. Is he dealing with a delusional mother and her over-protective brother or is the kidnapping of little Bunny Lake a perfect crime? "Bunny Lake is Missing" doesn't feature any action or violence throughout three quarters of its running time, and yet Preminger creates a truly ominous atmosphere and unbearable tension through mind-penetrating dialogs, mysterious characters and depressing images of an asocial London community. The subject of a child gone missing is automatically worrying, but add to this mentally unstable relatives and potential danger lurking behind every street corner and you've got yourself a gripping thriller. It's remarkable and praiseworthy for how long the script actually manages to keep everyone (the audience, in particular) guessing whether Bunny is real or imaginary! I must admit the climax is overlong, disappointing and severely damages the credibility of literally everything that happened earlier in the film, but luckily "Bunny Lake is Missing" already became an indestructible classic in my book by then. Under Preminger's surefooted direction and craftsmanship, the lead actors Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley and Keir Dullea put down stupendous performances. The most noteworthy performances, however, are coming from some of the supportive cast members like Martita Hunt (as a former school principal with an obsessive interest in children's dreams), Noel Coward (as the despicable and self-centered homosexual landlord) and – last but not least – the contemporary British cult band "The Zombies" who magically appear on every radio and TV-screen in the whole of London. And, finally, as a massive admirer of his work, I simply must also mention that Saul Bass' marvelous titles sequences also contributed a great deal to the powerful impression this film made on me.