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Directed By
Alfred Hitchcock
Written By:
Sidney Gilliat, Ethel Lina White
Cast:
Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, Dame May Whitty, Cecil Parker, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Mary Clare, Googie Withers, Selma Vaz Dias, Catherine Lacey, Philip Leaver, Linden Travers, Emile Boreo, Sally Stewart, Philip Leaver
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The Lady Vanishes (1938)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
June 3rd, 2008
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'The Lady Vanishes' is probably the best of the films made by Hitchcock in his native England. Its only real competition is The 39 Steps, which preceded it by three years. This is a beguiling and intriguing mystery, set in the fictional country of Bandrika (I think that's the name), which is most likely modeled after Austria, which, in 1938, was taken over by the Nazis and annexed to the Reich. The opening shot reveals to us a pristine snow-covered village nestled in the mountains; everything we see is quite obviously fake, especially that car moving down the street. But then the camera moves closer, eventually into a crowded inn, where travelers are waiting for a train, many of them returning to Britain. Among them are two men, Caldicott and Charters (Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford) hoping to get back in time to catch a cricket match. Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood) is also a tenant, one of the few to have a large room all to herself, primarily because she is young, wealthy, and well-connected. She meets a kind old governess named Miss Froy (Dame Mae Whitty), whom she befriends. She also encounters a musician, Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), whose upstairs racket keeps her awake one night. She pays the innkeeper to throw him out of his room; he threatens to share hers, unless he gets it back. It is inevitable that they will eventually fall for one another, given the tension that exists between them.
On the train the next day, Iris is reunited with both Froy and Gilbert. Froy disappears. Iris looks for her, but the passengers insist they have not seen her, and even suggest that she does not exist. Gilbert is the only one who believes Iris and he offers to help her find Miss Froy. They uncover a sinister conspiracy, the details of which I won't reveal, but it involves Dr. Hartz (Paul Lukas), a famed Czech neurologist who tells Iris that the head injury she suffered earlier may have led her to hallucinate, an explanation she is willing to accept until new evidence shows up that proves Miss Froy was not only real, but is still on the train somewhere. Who is that strange Italian man in Iris's cabin? What's the deal with that nun wearing high heels? Everything comes together in the end, quite beautifully, too, I might add. There is even a secret about Miss Froy that is cleverly divulged, and this is perhaps Hitchcock's introduction of the MacGuffin, something that is used to explain the motivations of certain characters and advance the story, but is irrelevant otherwise.
'The Lady Vanishes' may also have been the first installment of Hitchcock's train saga, that group of movies where key events or multiple scenes take place on a train; North by Northwest is an example of this, and so too, is Strangers on a Train. Of course, 'The Lady Vanishes' is different, because it takes place more or less exclusively on a train, only the very first and very last scenes occur in the outside environment. Lockwood and Redgrave have terrific chemistry; much of their dialogue is witty and wryly humorous, and they are both attractive. There is a distinctively British sensibility to be found in the humor; it should be noted that Wayne and Radford reprised their roles as Caldicott and Charters in British radio comedy and in a sequence of films throughout the 1940s. Despite claims to the contrary, the premise of this movie served as a blueprint for the Jodie Foster thriller Flightplan; all that changed really was the relocation from train to plane, and a little girl instead of an old lady.
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