Une femme disparaît

"The Lady Vanishes" is one of Director Alfred Hitchcock's best British made films, in fact I think it's one of his all time best.

Set in pre-WWII somewhere in Europe, A group of people board a train bound for England after having spent the previous night in an overcrowded hotel. Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood) befriends a kindly old governess/teacher, Miss Froy (Dame May Witty). When Iris is struck by a falling flowerpot, Miss Froy promises to take care of her as they board the train.

After having tea together, the two women return to their compartment where Iris falls asleep. When she awakes, Miss Froy is gone, totally vanished. The people sharing the compartment, "The Baroness" (Mary Clare), Signor and Signora Doppo (Philip Leaver, Selma Van Dias) deny ever having seen Miss Froy. Doctor Hartz (Paul Lukas) comes to her aid and is convinced that the bump Iris received to her head may have caused a memory lapse.

Iris then meets Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave) whom she had met the previous evening at the hotel. He offers his help. Skeptical at first, he soon comes to believe Iris' story. Eric Todhunter (Cecil Parker) and "Mrs." Todhunter (Linden Travers) deny seeing Miss Froy because they are in the midst of an extra marital affair. Two British "gentlemen", Caldicott (Naughton Wayne) and Charters (Basil Radford) though having seen Miss Froy with Iris, don't wish to become involved.

When Dr. Hartz brings a patient aboard the train, Gilbert and Iris become suspicious and.......................................

As was his custom, Hitchcock pits his heroine against all odds in her quest to find Miss Froy. The suspense builds as the situation becomes more hopeless. This would be a theme that the master of suspense would use throughout his career. He also liked to work trains into many of his plots, including this film of which three quarters takes place on board a train.

The scene in the hotel showing Caldicott and Charters sharing a bed (and a pair of pajamas) never would have gotten by the American censors. The relationship between the Todhunters as well, was quite obvious and rare for the American cinema of the day.

This is one of Hitchcock's best films and hasn't suffered because of age. Highly recommended.

From 1938, The Lady Vanishes is clearly where Hitch was getting comfortable in his trade. Starting slowly, it soon revs up with mystery and intrigue. But I think that was the whole point. A seemingly innocuous day can lead itself into adventure.

Starting in some remote European village, a woman meets a little old lady. Getting on the train the next day, the old lady vanishes without a trace while she is asleep. When she asks about the lady, people say that there was no old lady. The mystery then ensues as our leading lady tries to uncover the plot behind a woman she knows was there.

The main aspect of this movie is the everyday humor that is applied. The two English fellows who are only looking for the latest cricket scores, score themselves some remarkable laughs. Our hero that comes to the leading woman's assistance is funny and charming himself. The time spent at the beginning in the hotel may seem to be off topic, making a viewer wonder where the mystery is, but the point is that the viewer becomes acquainted with the characters and are much more believable to the viewer. Again, I think Hitch was showing us our next door neighbors and how they can rise up against unusually dangerous circumstances. I think my analysis of Hitch would be his championing the moral fiber of everyman. I think that is why Hitchcock films still stand today as some of the best ever made.

This movie receives my major recommendation. Not done yet. I got more to view and review. What fun!

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

A Hitchcock movie filled with mystery but lacking suspense. Which is quite fine, turning "The Lady Vanishes" into a fun movie with lots of wry jokes and clever twists. You can't take it any more seriously than Hitchcock did, and he famously had fun with his ideas. That's one reason why they are recognizably Hitch.

This is a transitional movie for the director in many ways. For one thing it was hugely successful in Britain, and then later in the U.S., and Hitchcock soon moved to Hollywood where his stellar string of successes for over 20 years began. But that said, this is a film filled with provincial humor (that was a joke, in case you are British)--that is, you need to have a feel for British humor, and for the style of joking and making witty remarks (constantly) of the time. It's a hilarious movie. When you aren't laughing you're still tickled.

Which is what disappoints some viewers expecting "Psycho" or something. Nope. But you'll recognize the director's hand here, mixing regular people who are misunderstood (if not quite accused of something they didn't do) and who end up having to solve the problem themselves. And so it goes, and they do rather well for a couple of ordinary folk.

When I say there is no suspense I mean it, even when there is uncertainty. The biggest twist of the whole plot (not to be mentioned here!) is only kept from the viewer for a short while. Then the actors tell you! Yes, you are let in on the secret, and yet the movie goes on from there. That is--it's not about worrying and trying to figure it out. It's about watching the main characters work together and piece together their way out of a sticky situation. And of course eventually fall in love.

You forget sometimes that the key element in nearly every Hitchcock movie is a love story. After all, that's what matters to most of us (or all of us?) day after day, so he zeroes in on that even as the world is threatened by uranium 235 ("Notorious"), a murderer in the apartment complex ("Rear Window"), the ghost of a previous wife ("Rebecca") and so on. (Of these, "Psycho" is an interesting exception.) So watch what is actually a romantic comedy with a dash of international intrigue in the ominous year leading up to WWII, which hasn't happened at the time of filming. Great stuff.

For what turned out to be his last masterpiece in the United Kingdom before leaving for Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock went back to a familiar theme of someone being innocently caught up in intrigue.

The someone here is the beautiful Margaret Lockwood who is being gaslighted while on a train in Eastern Europe. She's made the acquaintance of Dame May Witty who disappears from the moving train and no one but Lockwood remembers she even exists.

Lockwood gains a sympathetic if skeptical ally in Michael Redgrave and they search the train for Witty. Of course as it is in Hitchcock films, the train's passengers and crew are not all they seem to be either and in the end the passengers have to fight for their lives.

Although Lockwood is a striking dark beauty, not the cool blondes that Hitchcock normally favored, she's a fine Hitchcock heroine. Best in the supporting cast are Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford who seem like a pair of silly English twits whose only concern is getting back for a big cricket match. They actually come through when the chips are down.

Viewers should also take note of Cecil Parker who plays a barrister on holiday with his mistress whose main concern is staying uninvolved lest news of a scandal kill a judicial appointment he wants. He is one absolute horse's patoot and his death must have been cheered by film audiences in the theaters.

Alfred Hitchcock was about to leave his homeland and the less expensive British film industry for Hollywood and bigger budgets. The Lady Vanishes however is a great example of what can be done even on a skimpy budget by a master craftsman.

The Lady Vanishes is a wonderful piece of fluff, the culmination of Hitchcock's British period, after which he started to explore more serious themes in his American films. Of course the basic plot is absurd, centering around the most ridiculous way to get a secret message through one can think of, and why did.....o well, never mind, it's the handling that matters, and Hitchcock achieves a near perfect balance here of humour and suspense that he only really matched on one other film, North By Northwest.

The film spends 20 or so minutes just introducing it's characters, but they are all so great, especially the two men so obsessed with returning to a cricket match that a case of disappearance and possibly murder is relatively unimportant, that it hardly matters, while Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood simply sparkle as the main couple who of course initially can't stand each other. Once on the train, the ensuring mystery and sleuthing are riveting,and full of fantastic little details- the name on the window, the nun with high heeled shoes, the fight amidst a magician's paraphenalia The final shootout is excellently staged and still quite exciting. The laughs are constant, with some helarious lines, but they never detract from the suspense. Of course there's those shoddy model shots, but hell, this is a film from 1939!

Hitchcock had countless classics to come, including such complex masterpieces as Vertigo and Rear Window, but the delightful, hugely enjoyable The Lady Vanishes is a little masterpiece of it's own.