The Lady Vanishes, a review by Jon
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
4 out of 5
While travelling home alone by train, Iris is shocked when a lady she befriended has completely vanished and the other passengers deny she ever existed. Only the annoying Gilbert and a charming surgeon are willing to help.This great film has inspired and delighted for generations, with a water-tight screenplay that moves effortlessly between thriller, romance and comedy, never overplaying any moment and as Marie said it fairly bats along too, making short work of the 90 minutes. They seem to spend as much time in the hotel, establishing characters, than on the train.
The premise is delicously simple and Hitch enthusiastically presents it as a magic trick; surely no accident that one supporting character is a traveling magician and typically, I don't think he needed to be except for a fantastic farcical set piece. But then the whole film is full of little touches that if left out would have made little difference to the plot, but give the film a spirit that defies its age. He's always been theatrical, with The 39 Steps and The Man Who Knew Too Much both ending on large stages with a huge audience. Here he seems to relish having to force his showmanship onto a small train with no audience at all. There is a brilliant moment with two brandy glasses, pivotal to the scene, and to make them loom large in the foreground, he had two giant versions made for certain angles! The model work on the opening shot is above average for the time too.
With Secret Agent, we suggested that Hitchcock may well have been the inspiration for Bond. Here I wonder if he was one of the founding fathers of the disaster movie? Ok, this one doesn't have a disaster, but it does have a group of characters whose only function is to be trapped on a train. Trains were popular in cinema around this time and it wasn't the first he had used them and it definitely wouldn't be the last. Probably Agatha Christie is the real one to blame because of Murder on the Orient Express, but I do love how individual and detailed each passenger is and their reasons for denying the existence of Miss Froy are quite brilliant in how they fit together, never feeling contrived. Apart from the wonderful lead couple of Michael Redgrave and the lovely Margaret Lockwood, my favourites were predictably the hilarious English gents trying to get back to England for the cricket, far more put out by a lack of dignity with the cheeky maid in the hotel, than the gunplay on the train! Although the opening scene suggested for a moment their concerns may have been for country rather than team. Considering the film was made in 1938, that was really quite audacious. To be honest, the background plot is too whimsical and has dated, considering that warring European countries was about to be a lot more than Boys Own adventure. Maybe I'm misreading it though; what better "up yours" statement to Hitler is there than presenting an England so capable, frail pensioners and pompous cricket fans were ready to dismiss murder as a mere nuisance? You can't put anything past Hitchcock.
The thing I really enjoy about his films though is the sheer confidence he directs them with. He actually embraces the flaws, raising them up as shoow-pieces instead of trying to disguise them. So it is then, in a film that has several nerve jangling moments (the name on the window; the brandy), it also has lunacy and silliness so we accept the more absurd moments. Because really, the whole central plot surrounding a little old lady (the fantastic Dame May Whitty) is daft. She can't half move fast, even without a stairlift!
Did I say central plot? Sorry, that's wrong. It's actually just another of his famed MacGuffins. No, like The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes is really a romance with a thriller getting in the way. And so one of the very best examples of film writing ends rather too neatly; except was that another two-fingered salute to potential aggressors?
(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on May 21st, 2009)
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May 21, 2024, 07:27:47 AM
