Audrey Hepburn is such a sweet, precious concoction that it's hard to imagine her in a thriler. That is, it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to kill her. In "Charade" (a widely available hybrid romcom-thriller that epitomizes the 60s), the villains are so quirky and even cute in a Looney Tunes kind of way that you never really feel like she's in danger.
In contrast, "Wait Until Dark" is a thriller that pushes that line. Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman, Susy, who's husband becomes implicated in a drug-trafficking scheme when a doomed mule passes him a doll with a stash in it. Like a Hithcock film, "Wait Until Dark" comes with its own meaningless McGuffin. A cold-blooded criminal (a young Alan Arkin fresh off his first Oscar nomination) enlists two fellow thugs to weasel the doll out of Suzy.
With Suzy's impaired sense of sight, the film is simultaneously a psychological thrill ride while maintaining a light tone as the two parties (Suzy is aided in part by an adolescent neighbor) engage in a battle of wits. The film wrings out a certain dramatic irony to the situation as we are privy to more than Suzy's point of view but she is still the character we are most emotionally attached to.
Adapted from a play by Frederick Knott, director Terrence Young milks the tension through keeping the play almost entirely in her apartment.
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