Simply A Masterpiece

Don't Believe the Hype

Absolutely Fantastic

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

for a long time, it was for me the film of Dame May Witty. not surprising, because her presence/absence remains same fascinating. than, the performances of Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave was the axis for admire this special gem. not the least, the story. and , sure, the art of Hitchcock in his early period. as one of my favorite film from childhood, it is easy to define The Lady Vanishes as a remarkable film. its power of seduction remains the same. the mystery is source of fascination. the incredible parts gives to it a special charm. its innocence, the ball of political implications, the fight between parts, the art of looks as significant ingredient are, in same measure, good points. a lovely film. and useful introduction to the universe of Alfred Hitchcock.

The Lady Vanishes is a perfect film, masterful in its own way, and a must-see for the true Hitchcock fan.I was surprised by the complexities in the film, there despite the suggestion of screwball. For one thing, make no mistake, this is a violent film. We have an endless shoot out. A real brawl. And when it's creepy it's creepy. Throughout, it gives me the depressing feeling that things are going to keep getting worse. When Iris, the main character, makes it onto the train and there's a close up of the wheels spinning rapidly, I feel as if in a bad dream.The hotel at the beginning has a nightmarish atmosphere that I think would have been more obvious to viewers in 1939. Something could easily go wrong there. Which is why some of the comedy is more unnerving than amusing. Michael Redgrave plays his bit in Iris' room more flirtatiously than comedic, resulting in a scene which would have been perceived as rife with sexual tension, even threatening, back then. And things do go strangely wrong there.There's something about Iris that reminds me of Marion Crane, the main character from Psycho. It was the idea that even though she's seemingly ordinary, she has a dark secret. In Iris' case, she doesn't love her fiancé. She also reminds me of Gregory Peck's conspired-against, gaslighted character in Spellbound.The ongoing and extended violence - tame or campy as it might seem now - in The Lady Vanishes is a good and important indication of the depths that Hitchcock would go to in the future to scare his audience.

Older Hitchcock film about tourist Lockwood discovering that an elderly traveling companion (Whitty) has mysteriously disappeared off the train they're riding in, with the majority of the other passengers denying that the old lady even existed, only to unravel a sinister scheme. Cricket enthusiasts Charter and Caldicott (Wayne and Radford) are the peak of the movie, and proved to be so popular at the time that they were featured in three other films. But for its era, THE LADY VANISHES is a somewhat underwhelming thriller in terms of a satisfactory conclusion. There are a couple of instances of odd fade-ins and fade-outs, plus some seemingly overelaborate development in the first act at the "Gasthof Petrus" inn in the fictitious country of Bandrika. Based on the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White.**½ (out of four)

With the occasional setback each succeeding film Alfred Hitchcock made until the last couple seemed to get better in all departments, but especially technically. This was one of his quintessentially British films primitively but cheerfully made for 1930's British audiences to be seen and enjoyed the once, the entire industry still being on an improving curve. It's not likely cricket will ever be truly understood by the wider American audience but it was the film which proved to be Hitchcock's big break, only one more to go before Hollywood and its opportunities and coffers beckoned.Young woman Margaret Lockwood on her way to be married befriends an elderly lady Miss Froy on a European train. The only trouble is after waking up she finds Miss Froy has vanished apparently along with the very memory of her existence; everyone is seemingly against her. However, dashing young Michael Redgrave gets interested and lends his exuberant support in trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. It's completely disarmingly quaint and I've always forgiven the convoluted childishness of the plot: Lockwood & Redgrave are up against some more Johnny Foreigner's who will Stop At Nothing – except to kill them to shut them up and push them off the train and so end their problems; the greasy baddie must have awkwardly slid out of the trick cabinet silently behind them and could've polished them off and so end his problems; let's all get off the stationary train have a desultory gun battle from the woods to give the goodies a chance to get away and so end their problems. The model shots are indeed laughable, but perhaps more so by the same people who are in open-jawed admiration of todays reliance on incessant cgi cartoonery. Recognising these points and others has never lessened the entertainment value of this little movie for me, I gladly bought a ticket too to see this journey through to the end. Hitch quite rightly continually satirised British politicians' intelligence and integrity, and presciently has the only philandering appeaser on board shot dead. His usual voyeuristic attitude in the depiction of women was present, although on a side note I wonder even for 1938 did he seriously believe in Charters' statement "People don't go around tying up nuns".Is it never considered why Redgrave and Lockwood would behave so childishly and so dense? Could it be because they merely more closely represented the ordinary person, untrammelled with the cynicism and seediness so beloved by all of us nowadays. There are still millions of such people walking the streets, it's just that they're not represented as worthy of any interest any more by our artistic Betters. Hitch was always good at that – remember the detective's kindergarten-type end speech in Shadow Of A Doubt for instance.Many members of the cast would go on to make many items worthy and arty, but the chances are they'll all be ultimately remembered mainly for this fast moving but perfectly paced inconsequential entertainment. Still incredible that this was so enjoyable and the 1979 remake was so dire – neither was meant to be watched twice or generations later, Hitchcock's will be though. And like Miss Froy I too do hope and pray that we shall all meet again, one day.