Prismark10 Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes is a transitional film of a director who is soon to go to Hollywood where he will have a bigger budget and more resources.There is an element of propaganda in this film as war is looming in Europe, it is also whimsical as well as being an effective thriller.Margaret Lockwood plays Iris going through Europe on a train who sat with an elderly children's governess Miss Froy who has disappeared. The other passengers on the train ever deny seeing this Miss Froy. Only Michael Redgrave who plays Gilbert and has previously irritated Iris with his folk music half believes her story, so he helps her out. Both of them uncover a conspiracy as Miss Froy holds valuable information that she needs to get to Britain.Alfred Hitchcock portrays a rather nonchalant view of Britain. Iris is a bit of a playgirl due to marry someone wealthy, Gilbert is a bit of a scamp, a musician and a researcher. There are the foreign office duo, Charters and Caldicott who are more interested in catching the cricket score than what is going on in front of them until it is too late and then they take action. Another passenger is a pacifist refusing to engage in a gun battle.The film's finale is rather action packed once the truth is revealed.The standout performance is by Michael Redgrave who plays it fast and loose, a fun packed frothy performance that makes you forget he would become a theatrical knight of the same generation as Olivier and Gielgud.The film does look rather creaky now, some of the characters are irritating. However it is still an important resume of an outstanding director as his own work progressed.

create Often a criticism of action films is that the lead female character is poorly imagined, acts too helpless to exist, or can't survive in any real setting. It's a criticism that existed since the first Perils of Pauline - the early American silent series that would have Pauline kidnapped by a mustachioed villain and tied to a train track. To say the least, Pauline was not very smart. But she drew in crowds.Any film that didn't have the female going through these Pauline stunts wasn't considered an action film. The smarter females were reserved for comedies and woman "weepies" - or foreign film stars such as Leni Riefenstahl. Yes, foreign films had a gift for making their heroines smart - but they didn't draw in the crowds that the dim-witted, English-speaking girls did.Perhaps it was the comedic aspects of the romantic thriller, The Lady Vanishes, that allowed its lead character, Iris Henderson, to thrive. The character was central to not only moving the plot, but also keeping the audience involved. She not only wasn't dumb, she was exasperatingly too smart. This female role didn't drive off audiences, however. The film was an international hit.Iris Matilda Henderson is touring Europe before she has to settle down in a marriage her father arranged with some royal scion. After living off her father's self-made wealth, she is resigned to give him some royal recognition. But she doesn't let her friends talk to her about happiness. She refuses to be spoiled.Unfortunately, an avalanche interrupts her plans. It strands her and a whole host of travelers in a small cramped hotel in some fictional Eastern European country. Iris is barely inconvenienced, however. She shares a floor with an elderly governess by the name of Miss Froy, and she's bugged by a musicologist by the name of Gilbert - two people more worldly than Miss Henderson, but she's not one to judge. Besides, there is a way out. The next morning, a substitute train will come and transport them all to Paris, from which she can make her way back home to London.Alas, on the way to the train someone drops a potted plant (?) on Iris, and she blacks out. Miss Froy offers to look after the poor girl on the journey; they both are headed to the same destination. Miss Froy prepares cold compresses, and looks after meals. Miss Henderson tries to rest. The women quickly form a bond.Around lunchtime, however, Iris wakes up, and Miss Froy is nowhere to be found. She asks her fellow car passengers, a foreign minister of some Germanic country and an Italian stage magician if they've seen her companion. They say she had no companion.Incredulous, she doesn't waste anytime. She calls them stupid, and goes to search for Miss Froy. Unfortunately, she doesn't find much help. Every passenger, especially those of English origins, have their own conceits for denying the existence of Miss Froy, and implying that Miss Henderson is touched.She doesn't care. She is much better at dishing out insults, and she is determined to find her kindly helper.The Lady Vanishes was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, but he came onto the project. Originally, the film was to be shot in multiple locations including Yugoslavia by another director. That director wasn't good at hiding the script, however. Once Yugoslavian officials read a pinched copy of the script, they objected to how their country was portrayed as dimwitted and fascist. (Although based upon a book, Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder's adaptation added characters, an obvious political message, and Italian and Germanic villains in this flick that was released a couple of months before the start of WWII.) The Yugoslavian government kicked the cast and crew out. And the entire project was put on hold.Alfred Hitchcock knew the writers, who had been trying to sell this anti-appeasement, anti-fascist adventure yarn in a Chamberlain England. Hitchcock was already in negotiations to start directing in Hollywood. He decided to revive the project, and make this one of his last films for Gaumont British Studios.Hitchcock accommodates the foreign country scenes with an obvious model train set. (No sense in letting some other country get the shot of delaying the film.) Although some of the jokes fall flat, he also doesn't try and distance himself from the comedic elements of the script. Alas, the viewer can't tell where Hitchcock begins and Gillian and Launder ends. This is a true collaboration between writers and director.Francois Truffaut when he interviewed Hitchcock, admired how much Iris was able to accomplish. Hitchcock admitted even he was surprised many of Iris' traits survived the cutting room floor. And that was the ticket. Her smarts were crucial to moving the plot forward. Previous to the 1960's, Iris was the smartest, English-speaking female character on celluloid. Oh not by degrees, or citations! No, Iris had a mystery on her hands, one that pitted her against a high powered lawyer, the minister of a spy agency, a renowned magician, a national government psychiatrist (Think Hanibal Lecture!), two staticians, minions who like to play mind games, as well as England's favor for isolation, and a lady with a secret; and she outwitted them all! Iris had the one-line zingers. She had the action sequences. In the beginning of the film, Henderson says that it's time to settle down because she's done everything. By the end of the film, many viewers agree.

Geeky Randy 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)

Adam Peters (86%) The opening scenes set in an alpine hotel are like the lines on an old man's face. They really do highlight how old this film is. Not to say that they are bad, they are just of a time long gone. But once this gets going it's as thrilling as any well made modern production of the past twenty- five or so years. As like most Hitchcock movies the female lead character is painfully pretty; but the tone here is a touch lighter than most, which if anything works better than it it had overly serious one. The exciting and well handled shoot-out action towards the end is not something you get too often in movies of this age; and really if it's a classic entertaining mystery flick you're after then this is pretty much a perfect target.