The Lady Vanishes (1938)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Ethel Lina White (story)
Sidney Gilliat (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

1 November 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Spies! Playing the game of love - and sudden death!

Plot:

While traveling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.

Plot Keywords:

Train | Governess | Guitar | Playing With Food | Barrister

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Margaret Lockwood	...	Iris Henderson
Michael Redgrave	...	Gilbert
Paul Lukas	...	Dr. Hartz
Dame May Whitty	...	Miss Froy
Cecil Parker	...	Mr. Todhunter
Linden Travers	...	'Mrs.' Todhunter
Naunton Wayne	...	Caldicott
Basil Radford	...	Charters
Mary Clare	...	Baroness
Emile Boreo	...	Boris - Hotel Manager
Googie Withers	...	Blanche
Sally Stewart	...	Julie
Philip Leaver	...	Signor Doppo
Selma Vaz Dias	...	Signora Doppo (as Zelma Vas Dias)
Catherine Lacey	...	The Nun (as Catherine Lacy)
Josephine Wilson	...	Madame Kummer
Charles Oliver	...	The Officer
Kathleen Tremaine	...	Anna
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alfred Hitchcock	...	Man in London Railway Station (uncredited)

Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock

Writing credits
Ethel Lina White		(story "The Wheel Spins")
Sidney Gilliat		(screenplay) (as Sidney Gilliatt) and
Frank Launder		(screenplay)

Produced by
Edward Black	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Louis Levy		(uncredited)
Charles Williams		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Jack E. Cox		(photography) (as Jack Cox)

Film Editing by
R.E. Dearing

Set Decoration by
Alex Vetchinsky		(settings) (as Vetchinsky)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Roy Ward Baker	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Tom D. Connochie	....	first assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Maurice Carter	....	assistant set designer (uncredited)
Albert Jullion	....	assistant set designer (uncredited)
Albert Whitlock	....	scenic artist (uncredited)

Sound Department
Sydney Wiles	....	sound recordist (as S. Wiles)

Camera and Electrical Department
Leo Harris	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Maurice Oakley	....	location photographer (uncredited)
Jack Parry	....	location photographer (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Alfred Roome	....	cutter

Music Department
Louis Levy	....	musical director
Cecil Milner	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Alma Reville	....	continuity

Production Companies

• Gainsborough Pictures (presents) (as GB Pictures)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1938) (UK) (theatrical) (as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Ltd.)
• Gaumont British Picture Corporation of America (1938) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1974) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Hal Roach Studios (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• Madacy Entertainment (1993) (USA) (VHS)
• United American Video (1997) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (1998) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Image Entertainment (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (2000) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• LS Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Laserlight Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Divisa Home Video (2004) (Spain) (DVD)
• Future Film (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Park Circus (2008) (UK) (theatrical) (re-issue)
• United Artists (1952) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Excelsior Films  Googie Withers by permission of (as Excelsior Film Productions Ltd.)
• National Board of Review, The  reviewed and classified by

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German | French | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Full Range Recording System)

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-15 (2006) | USA:Approved (PCA #02144) | South Korea:15 (2003) | USA:Passed | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:G (original rating) | Australia:PG (alternate rating) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Germany:12 | Peru:14 | Sweden:15 | UK:A | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Gaumont-British Studios, Lime Grove, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company:

Gainsborough Pictures

Trivia:

The brief shot of a ferry bringing Iris and Gilbert back to England (presumably across the English Channel) also appears as an Irish Sea ferry in Will Hay's Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dr Hartz holds Iris and Gilbert at gunpoint he seemingly sits on a seat in the middle of the compartment. When Iris and Gilbert get up after Dr Hartz leaves they walk to the door between the compartments and right through where the seat should have been.

Quotes:

'Mrs.' Margaret Todhunter: [having been given the choice between a double or two single rooms, Eric Todhunter has hastily chosen the two singles] You might at least have asked which one I preferred.
Eric Todhunter: Please Margaret, a double room in a place like this?
'Mrs.' Margaret Todhunter: You weren't so particular in Paris last fall.
Eric Todhunter: That was different then, the exhibition was at its height.
'Mrs.' Margaret Todhunter: I realise that now. There's no need to rub it in!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Foyle's War: The French Drop (#3.1)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Colonel Bogey March

Fans of "The 39 Steps" need to see this...

Before Alfred Hitchcock struck gold with such well known films as "Vertigo" and "Psycho," he made films in his native country: England. It was in the UK that he filmed such 1930s classics as "The 39 Steps," "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and "Sabotage." Among these was another slightly forgotten classic, 1938's "The Lady Vanishes." It starts as a cheery lightweight romp, it becomes a suspense-filled mystery, and it ends as an engaging thriller. Most movies nowadays get stuck in a rut and become nothing more than a run-of-the-mill action extravaganza set in a simple plot which serves as the way to get the characters on screen. Hitchcock did something else: He cared about the plot, stretched it out and made it elaborately intriguing, and then filled it in with the characters afterwards.

There's a mastermind behind this, and it belongs to that big horror master himself. "The Lady Vanishes" is one of his best early films (and it would be his last British film), a true sign of what was to come in the later years of his life. It was remade in 1979 with Elliot Gould and Cybill Shepherd, but lacked the freshness and striking narrative that the original contains.

In Germany, prior to World War II, a young woman travels cross country in a train, with an eccentric woman known as Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) as a companion. Froy is a short little woman who reeks of naivety and innocence. But perhaps not everything is as plain and simple as it seems--after falling asleep on the train for a short time period, Iris (Margaret Lockwood), the young traveler, awakens to find Miss Froy absent from her seat opposite herself.

The worst thing of all is that no one recalls having seen a little old lady aboard the train. Iris looks like a delusional loony, and she even starts to doubt the story herself, when odd clues start to turn up throughout the train. Enlisting the help of Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave), a goofy man who is crazy enough to believe Iris' story, the two search in a frantic race before their train meets its arrival and Miss Froy is unloaded--if she's even still on the train.

The fundamentals of the story lie in its plot, and also in its characters. They're all lovable, from Gilbert to Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) and Charters (Basil Redford), two traveling men looking to get back to England for a cricket tournament. After the train is stopped towards the end of the film and a band of Germans tries to board the plane, one of the men quips to the other something to the effect of, "We'll never be back for the cricket match, now."

It's interesting how so many mysteries make so much sense by the end, but you can't for the life of you guess the ending ahead of time. Sometimes this is not the case (I guessed the "surprise" ending of "Identity" from the trailer), especially nowadays with each mystery film being a retread of "The Sixth Sense." But back in the Hitch days, most every mystery was a complex one that had a totally unexpected climatic ending.

Filmed on an extremely low budget, "The Lady Vanishes" surprisingly boasts some amazing special effects in some areas, at least for the decade the movie was filmed in. One of these is when Gilbert climbs the exterior of the train, and on the opposite tracks another train swooshes by, knocking him backwards. You find this type of low-budget effect nowadays in homemade movies, but then it was quite good.

But other scenes are not quite as exquisite. The opening scene post credits, in which the camera swoops down into a small German village, is filmed well but the background and foreground are both models. If you look closely, you can see that the village folk walking along the street aren't actually walking at all--they're miniature figurines! Look for the little toy car that drives by behind the building--stuff like this is classic! But even with a horrible budget Hitchcock manages to control the scene the way he wants. It shows that even with a minimal amount of money he still tried to make everything intriguing and mysterious.

And that he did. Not only is "The Lady Vanishes" one of the best mysteries of all time, it's one of the best films of all time, too. It takes a while to start, but once it does, does it ever! It's low budget, yes, but not nearly as hard to make out as "The 39 Steps," one of Hitch's earlier British films. There are a lot of Hitchcock fanatics out there, and they may not have even heard of some of his earlier, lesser known films. Plus, they may be turned off by how hard it is to make out dialogue and scenes. ("The Man Who Knew Too Much" is notorious for being hard to understand.) And so for interested Hitchcock fans, your journey starts here.

Note: Towards the end of the film, look for a quick Alfred Hitchcock cameo. He's the man at Victoria Station who walks by with a cigarette.

5/5 stars.

- John Ulmer