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The Lady Vanishes
1938 Comedy / Thriller / Drama
Review
Considered to be the best of Alfred Hitchcock’s British films (or, at the very least,
a close second to his The Thirty Nine Steps),
The Lady Vanishes was the last film but one he
made before his move to Hollywood. The film skilfully combines suspense thriller
and black comedy, making this one of Hitchcock’s most entertaining – and unpredictable
– films. It was also a welcome commercial success after the failure of his
previous couple of films.
The film’s cast is as perfect as its direction and scripting. Margaret Lockwood makes a terrific Hitchcockian heroine – resilient, vulnerable and attractive; her pairing with the great Michael Redgrave is a stroke of genius. This is just one of the many well-formed double acts the film has to offer – the most memorable being Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as the cricket-obsessed Charters and Caldicott. These latter two proved to be so popular that they re-appeared in a number of subsequent films. The more shocking sequences in The Lady Vanishes are offset by some superlative – and wonderfully downplayed – comedy, which curiously adds to the suspense. There are even a few nice expressionist touches, notably the sequence when Iris struggles to hold onto her consciousness as the train begins its nightmarish journey. The film’s strengths – particularly in its characterisation and atmosphere – manage to carry it through its weaker moments (an unconvincing model shot at the start of the film, and a needlessly drawn-out shoot-out sequence near the end). On a bigger budget, Hitchcock would undoubtedly have managed to make a more polished production, but it is doubtful that he would have improved upon the film he did make, the compelling and irresistibly funny The Lady Vanishes. © James Travers 2004 Write a review for this film...User Comments
Considered one of the best of Hitchcock’s films from his first British
époque, The Lady Vanishes
suffers in my opinion from the negative impact of time going by.
Nowadays, spectators have not the disposition to appreciate a kind of
operetta thriller, abundant in grotesque but not always funny scenes,
and performances bordering on caricature. Nevertheless,
Hitchcock’s fans may enjoy the intriguing and interesting situations
that are repeated in many of his films, those that transform his vast
work into a single continuous one – compare, for instance, the train
scenes with those of the later North
by Northwest. The director does not dissimulate the
essential artificiality of the movie; on the contrary, he remarks on it
sometimes with the same devices. At the beginning, the panoramic shot
above the rail station does not conceal the use of a maquette, and we
cannot attribute it simply to a poor use of technique. In the
later Marnie, the street and
the big ship are clearly painted scenery. In The Lady Vanishes, Hitchcock, as
usual, appears as a false anonymous extra, reminding us this is a
fiction and I am its creator. In the last scene of the film, we
see the old lady at the piano in her Foreign Office bureau. She
stops playing to receive the young couple and seems to congratulate
them, not for their behaviour in the story, but for ending their
performance in the film.Adam Gai (Israel) How do you rate this film? |
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, Dame May Whitty Synopsis
A group of British travellers are stranded in a hotel in a remote European country.
After holidaying with some friends, Iris Henderson is on her way back home to get married.
She meets a kindly old lady, Miss Froy, a former governess who is sad to leave the country
she has made her home. Iris’ sleep is disturbed by Gilbert Redman, a musician
who is making a study of European folk music. The next day, the railway tracks have
been cleared and the group can continue their rail journey back to England. Iris
meets up with Miss Froy once more on the train, but when she awakes after a short nap
the old lady has mysteriously disappeared. Worryingly, when Iris asks the other
passengers what has happened to Miss Froy, everyone denies ever having seen her on the
train. The only person who believes her is Gilbert. Together, they attempt
to unravel the mystery of the vanishing lady…
Credits
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