DVD Collectors Online

The Lady Vanishes, a review by Achim

Title: The Lady Vanishes
Year: 1938
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: NR
Length: 95 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles:

Stars:
Margaret Lockwood
Michael Redgrave
Paul Lukas
Dame May Whitty
Cecil Parker

Plot:
In this best-loved of Hitchcock's British-made thrillers, a young woman on a train meets a charming old lady (Dame May Whitty), who promptly disappears. The other passengers deny ever having seen her, leading the young woman to suspect a conspiracy. When she begins investigating, she is drawn into a complex web of mystery and high adventure.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Featurettes
Production Notes


This must have been the first Hitchcock film I ever saw. It used to play on German TV often I possibly saw it each and every time. It has, however, been at least 20 years since I saw it last.

It is a great little film. It has lots of Hitchcock's typical ingredients: MacGuffin, suspense, witty dialogue and plays out with a rather high pace that the 90min pass by very quickly. The first 30min we are slowly and ingeniously (because of the way the focus is passed on from one to the other) introduced to all main characters. This bit plays mostly like a comedy with light hearted humor and only a hint (well, a murder) that this is not a comedy at all. The second 30min are the mysery section, where "The Lady Vanishes" (I don't think I need a spoiler tag here ) and the conspiracy plays out. The last third is the suspense section, where we finally gain more knowledge than the characters in the film and Hitchcock has us worried about how it will end!

I was rather surprised how well put together this film was. Considering its age the "special effects" (some matte painting mixed with miniature work) looked quite convincing and appropriate. The dialogue, I keep finding in all the Hitchcock films I rediscover (I used to watch these as a teenager and in a dubbed version!) is quite sharp and the sarcasm(?) is great fun for modern audiences and feels fresh. I especially enjoyed the bits with the two English gentlemen. The only cringe worthy moment was when some piece of evidence "flew by" rather conveniently...

Hitchcock does appear, but near the end of the film, so I missed him.



(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on May 8th, 2009)

Bloody Birthday, a review by Jimmy

Title: Bloody Birthday (1981)

Genre: Horror
Director: Ed Hunt
Rating: R
Length: 1h25
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:78.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Lori Lethin   
Melinda Cordell
Julie Brown
Joe Penny   
Bert Kramer

Plot:
In 1970, three children were born during the height of a total eclipse of Saturn, the planet governing emotion. Ten years later these seemingly innocent children have become heartless killers able to move around under the radar of suspicion because of their youthful facades. What happens when a teenage girl and her younger brother stumble upon the horrible truth?

The films with children killers are always a good watching, when they are well done evidently, because who can suspect a child of being evil. This one is part of the good one mostly because of the three child killers (Elizabeth Hoy, Billy Jayne and Andrew Freeman) who gave quite a professional performance (to be honest child actor aren't that good most of the time and are annoying). Of course it's hard to believe that no one would catch or suspect them (even more after what they did to their teacher in the school), but it's a movie so who care... I like also how the movie end.

It isn't better than Who Can Kill a Child? but it's way better than Children of the Corn.

Rating :

(From Jimmy's - 2013 Ooctober Horror Marathon on October 14th, 2013)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Rick

The Deal
A bit intense I thought. Off character for the series in general. I did enjoy it though. Very much.

Rating:

(From "Due South" marathon on July 27th, 2009)