Sightlines · reception
How Bunny Lake Is Missing was received
1965 · Otto Preminger · Bunny Lake Is Missing on Sightlines
The arc
Met with mixed reviews and modest box office in 1965, it spent decades as a Preminger footnote — now it's a rediscovered cult favorite, prized as one of his strangest and most stylish films.
What’s debated
Everyone agrees it's gorgeously unnerving for two acts — the fight is over the wild third-act swerve, which fans call audacious and detractors call a derailment.
Its footprint
Saul Bass's torn-paper title sequence is one of his most beloved designs, and the film's 'did this child ever exist?' premise became a template echoed by later paranoid thrillers like Flightplan. Bonus texture: The Zombies pop up performing on a pub TV.
Where it stands
A classic cinephile deep cut — the minor-key Preminger that Letterboxd users love recommending with 'trust me, go in blind.'
Did you know? Noël Coward, cast as the leering landlord, greeted his young co-star with the immortal quip 'Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow' — three years before Dullea starred in 2001: A Space Odyssey.