The Lady Vanishes (1938)Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers:
Sidney Gilliat
Frank Launder
Cast:
Margaret Lockwood
Michael Redgrave
Paul Lukas
Dame May Witty
Naunton Wayne
Basil Radford
Cecil Parker
Linden Travers
Running Time: 97 Minutes
Due to a long delay in receiving my Two-Disc edition of The Lady Vanishes I have not been able to review this film until now. I chose to wait for this film to be delivered to me because I want to keep my reviews in the spine order and now that I have received The Lady Vanishes. Here is the Criterion edition review of the film. I have both Single and Two-Disc version. I chose to review the Two-Disc edition because it has many more features available including the features on the one disc minus the restoration. I will review that feature as well in this review. So without anymore delay, Here is my The Lady Vanishes Review.
The Lady Vanishes is based on the book by Ethel Lina White called The Wheel Spins. This is a story about a group of travelers who take refuge in a local hotel when their train is held up due to bad weather conditions, once the bad weather has come to pass. Our characters leave the fictional town of Bandrika and head off on what is assumed to be a safeguarded trip home. But this will not be an easy ride when the elderly Miss Froy vanishes and no one has any recollection of seeing her. It is up to our heroine Iris Henderson to get to the bottom of her disappearence and find out just what has happened to Miss Froy. But will Iris uncover something more sinister then a kidnapping plot?
Finally the Criterion Collection releases a film by a Director I'm well aware of and know something about. With this film Alfred Hitchcock has crafted a very suspenseful thriller. The Lady Vanishes to me is divided into three sections. The first section feels like a slapstick comedy with moments of laughter. The second section of the film is dedicated to the thriller genre and stays this way right until the final fifteen minutes when The Third and final section feels like a sequence right out of an action film, with a car chases included. All these sequences come together perfectly. I wouldn't have pictured this movie to be anything more then a comedy had I not known it was directed by Hitchcock. The film for the first twenty four minutes is a slapstick comedy and shifts directions quite quickly and becomes a riveting thriller and it molds well together to come to a close on a great little twist. For that it makes it one of the most enjoyable films from the master Alfred Hitchcock.
The acting in this movie is fantastic. Margaret Lockwood as Iris our heroine delivers a great performance and one that I believe could have gone into a mental performance had the running time been longer. I would have loved her in a much more crazy role. Michael Redgrave delivered the charming hero performance perfectly. I believed he was charming and in some parts quite a smart ass, which really made me like his performance that much more. Dame May Whitty as our Lady who Vanishes is an actress I've never heard of before but I totally believed that a seventy five year old lady could have been what her character was meant to be (Sorry don't want to ruin any plot elements). Paul Lukas as our villain of the film was just the right amount of evil and he delivered a decent performance. I'd have liked something more nastier to happen to him in the end but I'm not one of those people who have to have an ending come to a conclusion with everything resolved. And lastly Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford as our comic relief deliver fine performances. I loved their uptight British performances and I loved through everything all they want is to hear the Cricket Score.
The Lady Vanishes in terms of visual style is magnificent. The beginning doesn't bode well in terms of visual style and scenery when you can clearly see that they are using a model village, people, cars and trains. The film once on board the train becomes a claustrophobic set. The passing by of mountains and trees is flawless. I was expecting to see some horrid transitions but for nineteen thirty eight this looks fantastic. The highlight for me were when our heroine gets on the side of the moving train and is nearly killed between two trains when one travels on the opposite side. I would have never expected to see something so flawless in a film from the thirties but this film surprised me on many occasions with how brilliant the visual effects are in this movie. It's worth just taking a look at these shots and seeing what was to come from the master of suspense.
Now to what I didn't like about this film. I found some parts of this film to drag on. Not to the point of Seven Samurai because this film runs at only ninety seven minutes, Where Seven Samurai clocks in at two hundred and seven minutes. The film doesn't feel like it drags out as much because it is packed into a pretty tight little film. In the end the film manages to do so much more right then wrong and it deserves to be seen in that respect.
Finally The Lady Vanishes is my favorite film so far out of the films I've witnessed in the Criterion Collection. This film starts as a slapstick comedy and then builds itself into a tight little thriller aboard a train. It has moments that are thrilling and you will be on the edge of your seat. It has a nice little twist that wraps the film up with an action filled final. For those reasons and many more this film is one that is highly recommend. Alfred Hitchcock may be known for some of the greatest films of all time e.g. Vertigo, Rear Window, Psycho and The Birds but with his more well known films he has films that are lesser known but are just as great as the ones listed above. A film that deserves to be seen by everyone and see where the master started out. From his British days to his Hollywood films he was a genius and this film is one of his best.
NOTABLE SCENES:
- Chapter Six: Shared Space: This sequence is the first part of the film that we get to see the great chemistry of Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. Even though the scene is meant to have our heroine despise our hero you just can't help but see the wonderful chemistry these two actors have. It is a very playful scene that is easily the most enjoyable out of the comedic beginnings of this movie.
- Chapter Ten: Alone: The Lady Vanishes and what the whole story is based around. The story takes thirty five minutes to get this point but once it does, the film takes off and thrills arise from this point on. This isn't the first sinister thing to happen in the film but it is what the film is based around and it is a great scene. Jodie Foster in Flightplan has nothing on Margaret Lockwood in this sequence.
- Chapter Sixteen: The Great Doppo: I loved this sequence for the sheer enjoyment of it all. It is our heroes investigating the train and trying to find Miss Froy. In the luggage carriage we are shown Doppo as one of the villains and the fight that takes place isn't just thrilling but it is extremely enjoyable. The fight has lots of magician gags that make this one of the more enjoyable sequences in this thrilling film.
- Chapter Nineteen: Conspiracies: This chapter in the film is where our major twist is handed to the audience. I loved this twist and it made this film even better. The twist isn't jaw dropping but It still a decent twist in terms of what I have seen in some movies. I didn't honestly see it coming so either I'm really stupid or the twist was just really well done.
EXTRAS:
- Audio Commentary: Bruce Elder delivers an Audio Commentary for The Lady Vanishes. The Audio commentary isn't fantastic but if you want to know just about everything in regards to the actors then this commentary is for you. I tend to watch these things because I love finding out everything about the production and the movie itself and he does touch on the film but at more times then not he is explaining everything about the actors and not the production.
- Crook's Tour (1941): This feature film is based around two of the characters from The Lady Vanishes. Caldicott and Charters are traveling around the Middle East and are caught up in a plot that involves a singer, a record and something very sinister. This plot that I've described doesn't do anything for this film but I can say right now that this film wasn't that entertaining. As leads these characters didn't do anything for me, I preferred them as supporting roles in The Lady Vanishes. I think the screenplay was one of the problems with this film. I'd say it's worth the watch but I have to be honest and say that I will only watch it that one time. I'd rather sit through The Lady Vanishes fifty more times before revisiting Crook's Tour.
- Francois Truffaut's Audio Interview: This interview is an interview involving Francois Truffaut interviewing Alfred Hitchcock in 1962. I didn't like it at all. It's not to say that it's a bad supplement but the translator in this interview ruined it for me. It was hard to try and listen to three people talk at the same time and it just got annoying hearing the translator speak over these legends. A wasted interview in my eyes and it ended up more of a chore then something I could sit back and enjoy listening to. Such a shame.
- Mystery Train: Leonard Left and his half hour video essay on Alfred Hitchcock and The Lady Vanishes. I thought he did more in his video essay then Bruce Elder did in his movie length commentary. He touched more up on the film and for that I actually liked this feature. In today's standards of extra features this would just be considered a making off with commentary but it is a worthy feature on this disc.
- Still Gallery: This feature is all right if you like seeing stills from the film. Other then that there is nothing really new in this gallery. Still I'd prefer this special supplement any day over color bars. I'm so glad they got rid of that feature for this two-disc release of The Lady Vanishes.
- Restoration: This feature was only supplied on the one-disc version of the Criterion release. I have both versions of The Lady Vanishes and thought I'd add this feature in on this review since I do enjoy the restoration features. This time around the restoration doesn't go into detail on what they did besides telling us at the beginning that they removed 7,000 blemishes from the original print. They then show us what exactly is done when it comes to restoring the film for the Criterion release. I did like this feature a lot and I hope it continues in future criterion releases.
- Two Essays: The two-disc edition comes with a sixteen-page book that features two essays on The Lady Vanishes. The book is worth the read and both essays delve a little deeper into The Lady Vanishes. The first Essay is from Geoffrey O'Brien. It is called All Aboard and the second essay is by Charles Barr and it is called Tea & Treachery. Both essays are worth a look.
RATING: 9 out of 10
SPINE: 3
