The Lady Vanishes
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| The Lady Vanishes | |
|---|---|
 Original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | Edward Black (uncredited) |
| Written by | Sidney Gilliat Frank Launder Ethel Lina White (novel) |
| Starring | Margaret Lockwood Michael Redgrave Paul Lukas Dame May Whitty Cecil Parker Linden Travers Naunton Wayne Basil Radford Mary Clare Philip Leaver Catherine Lacy |
| Music by | Louis Levy Charles Williams (both uncredited) |
| Cinematography | Jack E. Cox |
| Distributed by | MGM (UK) |
| Release date(s) |  Nov 1, 1938 Dec 25, 1938 |
| Running time | 97 min |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, adapted by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder from the novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White. It starred Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave and Dame May Whitty. Also in the cast were Paul Lukas, Cecil Parker, Linden Travers, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Mary Clare, Googie Withers, Catherine Lacey, and Sally Stewart.
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[edit] Synopsis
In an "uncivilized" Alpine region of pre-World War II Europe, a motley group of tourists eager to get back to England is delayed by an avalanche blocking the railway tracks. Among the passengers are Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), a young musicologist who has been studying the folk songs of the region; Iris (Margaret Lockwood), a young woman of independent means who has spent a holiday with some friends but is now going home alone to be married; and Miss Froy (May Whitty), an elderly lady who has worked some years abroad as a governess.
When the train resumes its journey, Iris and Miss Froy strike up a conversation, while the remaining passengers in the compartment appear not to understand a word of English. Iris lapses into unconsciousness (the result of an earlier encounter with a falling flowerpot meant for Miss Froy). When she reawakens, the governess has vanished. Iris is shocked to learn that the other passengers claim Miss Froy never existed. Even the other English travellers deny ever seeing her, for their own reasons.
Everyone, including a foreign doctor, declares that she must be hallucinating due to her accident. Unconvinced, Iris starts to investigate, joined only by a skeptical Gilbert, with whom she eventually falls in love. They discover that Miss Froy is being held prisoner in a sealed-off compartment supposedly occupied by a seriously ill patient being transported to an operation. They manage to free Miss Froy, but the train is diverted to a side track, where a shootout ensues. Miss Froy intimates to Gilbert and Iris that she is in fact a British spy assigned to deliver some vital information (the famous Hitchcock MacGuffin) to the Foreign Office in London; after entrusting her message, encoded in a folk song, to Gilbert, she flees under cover of the shootout.
After managing to restart the train and escape, Gilbert and Iris return to London with the message. At the Foreign Office, Gilbert, driven to joyful distraction when Iris accepts his marriage proposal, forgets the tune. Fortunately, Miss Froy has also made good her escape and has already completed her task herself.
It must be noted that the plot of Hitchcock's film differs considerably from White's novel. In The Wheel Spins, Miss Froy really is an innocent old lady looking forward to seeing her octogenarian parents and witnesses a murder shortly before boarding the train. Interestingly, the Hitchcock version retains the murder — a man singing outside the hotel is strangled prior to the train's departure. However, there is no indication that Miss Froy or anyone else witnesses the murder, and the film provides no explanation. Only after it is revealed that Miss Froy is a spy who is carrying a secret message encrypted in musical notes does it become clear that the murdered singer at the beginning of the movie was most likely conveying the message to her. In White's novel, the wheel keeps spinning: the train never stops, and there is no final shootout.
[edit] Trivia
- The film was originally titled The Lost Lady and was to be directed by Roy William Neill.
- Hitchcock has a cameo role towards the end of the film. He is smoking a cigar in Victoria Station.
- It has often been stated that the action of the movie is set in Nazi-controlled Austria immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War, but in fact the film is set in the fictional country of 'Bandrika'.
- Two of the supporting characters, the hilariously singleminded cricket fans Caldicott and Charters (played by Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford), proved so popular with audiences that they starred in a movie of their own, Crook's Tour (1939), and appeared in several more Gilliat-and-Launder-scripted movies, Night Train to Munich (1940) (also starring Margaret Lockwood), Millions Like Us (1943) and Passport to Pimlico (1949) (although they were re-named Straker and Gregg). They were resurrected again for a BBC television series, Charters & Caldicott, in 1985, starring Michael Aldridge as Caldicott and Robin Bailey as Charters.
[edit] Remake
The Lady Vanishes was remade in 1979. The remake was directed by Anthony Page and adapted by George Axelrod. It starred Elliott Gould as Robert (Gilbert), Cybill Shepherd as Amanda (Iris), Angela Lansbury as Miss Froy, Herbert Lom, Arthur Lowe and Ian Carmichael.
The setting of the remake is essentially similar to the earlier film, but it is openly set in Germany in the months immediately before the Second World War. Amanda is a rich and much-married, but now divorced, American woman, and heiress to a large fortune. Robert is an American photographer and journalist. Miss Froy is a secret agent, who has been living as a governess to a rich and influential German family. The action takes place on the train travelling through the Bavarian country towards the Swiss border. Most of the passengers make it safely into Switzerland, after a shootout with their Nazi pursuers.
[edit] Other films set on trains
- Murder on the Orient Express (based on the novel by Agatha Christie)
- Hitchcock's North by Northwest and Strangers on a Train (partly)
- Twentieth Century
- Death, Deceit and Destiny Aboard the Orient Express
- Silver Streak
- Night Train to Munich
- From Russia with Love (an early James Bond movie)
- Horror Express
- Sleeping Car to Trieste
- Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
- Tough Guys
- Throw Momma From The Train
[edit] External links
- The Lady Vanishes at the Internet Movie Database
- Alfred Hitchcock Fans Online - The Lady Vanishes (1938)
- Criterion Collection essay by Michael Wilmington
| Alfred Hitchcock's films |
|---|
| 1920s: The Pleasure Garden • The Mountain Eagle • The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog • Downhill • Easy Virtue • The Ring • The Farmer's Wife • Champagne • The Manxman • Blackmail • 1930s: Juno and the Paycock • Murder! • Elstree Calling • The Skin Game • Mary • Number Seventeen • Rich and Strange • Waltzes from Vienna • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The 39 Steps • Secret Agent • Sabotage • Young and Innocent • The Lady Vanishes • Jamaica Inn • 1940s: Rebecca • Foreign Correspondent • Mr. & Mrs. Smith • Suspicion • Saboteur • Shadow of a Doubt • Lifeboat • Aventure Malgache • Bon Voyage • Spellbound • Notorious • The Paradine Case • Rope • Under Capricorn • 1950s: Stage Fright • Strangers on a Train • I Confess • Dial M for Murder • Rear Window • To Catch a Thief • The Trouble with Harry • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The Wrong Man • Vertigo • North by Northwest • 1960s: Psycho • The Birds • Marnie • Torn Curtain • Topaz • 1970s: Frenzy • Family Plot |
| Preceded by: The Seven Samurai |
The Criterion Collection 3 |
Succeeded by: Amarcord |
