Bunny Lake Is Missing

The series concludes with the 1965 Bunny Lake Is Missing, an odd little thriller that first seems to be a smart yet routine missing-child flick. A young American mother (Carol Lynley) arrives in London with her 4-year-old daughter (named Bunny), and the kid promptly disappears. Fishy. And even fishier, even in the mid-’60s, is that there’s no father—making Lynley the figure of scorn and suspicion. Laurence Olivier delivers a wonderful, underseen performance as a police inspector full of blank smiles; he assumes a mask of practiced civility while looking for a girl that no one can actually remember seeing. Does Bunny really exist? Is the mother mad? Like Olivier’s cop, Preminger conceals his feelings about his characters, letting his camera show us their true nature. Also, watch for wicked Noel Coward in a supporting role. (NR) BRIAN MILLER

Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Starts: Feb. 17. Continues through March 17, 2011