"
The Lady Vanishes"
*** 1\2 (out of ****)
Does she or doesn't she? Exist that is. She seemed real. She spoke to me. I can recall the sound of her voice, the clothes she wore. Even her favorite brand of tea. But did I make her up? No one else seems to remember her.
That is the situation Iris (Margaret Lockwood) finds herself in aboard a train when a sweet elderly lady, Ms. Froy (Dame May Whitty) disappears. No one on the train admits to having seen the lady. Is Iris losing her mind or is there a conspiracy at play?
The movie is "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is usually ranked among Hitchcock's best British films - along with "The 39 Steps" (1935) - and is my personal favorite of his pre-Hollywood movies.
I remembered the basic premise of "The Lady Vanishes" but I had forgotten how fluid the story is. How briskly it is paced. I needed to be reminded of the movie's humor. Hitchcock may be thought of as a suspense director but there were moments of dark humor in his movies. I often thought "Rear Window" (1954) was the best example of the effortless ways Hitchcock would interject humor into one of his stories but "The Lady Vanishes" is right up there too.
Hitchcock does something else with "The Lady Vanishes". Just as with his Hollywood movies, Hitchcock is able to make a social / political commentary within a mainstream picture. An American audience today may not recognize the political implications of "The Lady Vanishes" but I would have to guess British audiences in 1938 noticed what Hitchcock was doing. Although the movie was made one year before the beginning of World War 2 is it merely a coincidence that the movie was released the same year British Prime Minister Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement? Today it is more commonly known as when Chamberlain appeased Hitler and gave him the Sudetenland. Looking back on this historical event, we often wonder how could everyone have been so blind as to not see the danger in front of them? "The Lady Vanishes" is a movie were characters deliberately blind themselves to danger around them, all for their own self-interest. Also, the movie's villain is from Czechoslovakia.
Many little touches and the villains' motivation were changed by Hitchcock from the novel the movie was based on - "The Wheel Spins" by Ethel Lina White. Hitchcock, we can only then assume, purposely meant to invoke an air of Nazi Germany and create an atmosphere comprised of paranoia, life and death suspense, and authoritarianism.
The movie begins with a group of characters stuck at a hotel in the fictional country of Bandrika. An avalanche has caused a train delay, forcing everyone to have to extend their visit at the ill-equipped hotel. This provides the movie with a clever way to introduce many of the characters at once and foreshadow their urgency for leaving the country and boarding the train. It also creates an opportunity for Hitchcock to get in some humor.
The characters include Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) and his friend, Charters (Basil Radford, who else!) - two cricket obsessed Englishmen. These characters provide much of the movie's dry wit. For younger audiences, Wayne and Radford were a popular British comedy team, often playing characters with a cricket obsession. "The Lady Vanishes" marked their first film appearance together in these roles. Next there is Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) - a musician and ethnomusicologist, who has come to the Bandrika to study its folk music. This creates a meet-cute for Gilbert to be introduced to Iris. He is making too make noise with his clarinet while Iris is trying to sleep. She wants him removed from the room above her. Rounding everything out is Mr. Todhunter (Cecil Parker) a lawyer traveling with his "wife" (Linden Travers) and sweet ol' Ms. Froy.
The following day, prior to boarding the train, Iris is hit on the head by a flower planter, purposely pushed off of a window sill, seemingly intended for Ms. Froy. Acting in a kind of grandmotherly way, Ms. Froy keeps Iris company on the train. Still feeling the effects of the planter, Iris decides to take a nap with Ms. Froy watching on in their shared compartment. After Iris awakens, Ms. Froy is gone. The other passengers in the compartment claim to have never seen the elderly lady. Only Gilbert agrees to help Iris search for the woman, while a doctor, Dr. Hartz (the great Hungarian actor Paul Lukas) tries to suggest Iris may have been hallucinating the appearance of Ms. Froy. The result of being hit on the head.
Of course the audience knows Ms. Froy was real and Iris is not hallucinating. And so do some of the characters on the train like Caldicott and Charters. When confronted about the existence of Ms. Froy the two men deny having seen her despite the fact they have spoken to her. They want no more delays as they eagerly want to get back to London to watch a cricket match. And Mr. Todhunter, we discover is not traveling with his wife. In reality the two are having an affair and don't want their presence known. The only questions an audience can ask themselves is why was Ms. Froy kidnapped and who took her?
The script written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder creates a terrific back and forth patter for Gilbert and Iris, not unlike what you would find in a screwball romantic-comedy. So that even in this perilous situation there is still room for humor and romance. Hitchcock would do this often as in "The 39 Steps" and "Rear Window" where murder can bring two people together. It's not difficult to imagine the material in "The Lady Vanishes" being played solely for comedy. In fact, in its original 1938 movie review, the New York Times critic Frank Nugent wrote "If it were not so brilliant a melodrama, we should class it as a brilliant comedy." Maybe to some that might suggest a flaw. The actors aren't giving performances that reflect the danger of the situation. To me however, this shows a director in full command. Hitchcock is able to play us like a piano, taking us on a roller coaster of emotions, effortlessly balancing elements of suspense, drama, comedy and romance.
Astonishingly "The Lady Vanishes" was Michael Redgrave's first significant movie role whereas Margaret Lockwood had appeared in several movies. Redgrave is a very suitable "stand-in" for the kind of role Robert Donat performed masterfully in "The 39 Steps". But he also had a quality to him that reminded me of Melvyn Douglas - just an affable, all-round nice guy. Lockwood on the other hand does have a kind of cool detachment often associated with Hitchcock's leading ladies. Here it isn't quite perfected. I still think Grace Kelly was the best of all of Hitchcock's leading ladies.
By the end of "The Lady Vanishes" it should have become clear what the movie's political objective was. Unfortunately, I find the movie's climax, involving a shoutout sequence somewhat disappointing, especially considering how inventive and fast paced the movie is. But it is here I believe we can see the Chamberlain connection with Mr. Todhunter as a symbolic stand-in - an Englishmen willing to surrender himself to the enemy as a means to avoid further conflict. Then there is the issue of why did all of these events happen. Hitchcock must resort to his old standby, the MacGuffin. I don't know how emotionally satisfying audiences will find it but I suppose it gets the job done. In Peter Bogdanovich's book, Who the Devil Made It, he sits down with Hitchcock, going over his career. Without revealing too much, Hitchcock admits the plot's reveal doesn't make much sense. He also calls the movie "light".
"The Lady Vanishes" was Hitchcock's second to last British film - "Jamaica Inn" (1939) was his final one - before coming to America to direct the Academy Award winning "Rebecca" (1940). From there on Hitchcock's movies would only get better and better and become more and more popular. Making him probably one of the most influential filmmakers in cinema.
Over the last 15 years I haven't reviewed enough of Hitchcock's movies. I have though tried to split my attention between the British movies and the American ones. I like going back to watch Hitchcock's early works and seeing how he matured and his talent grew. That's what makes "The Lady Vanishes" so special to me and why I wanted to include it in the "year of me" - celebrating not only my 15th anniversary writing on this blog but a year's worth of reviews dedicated to artists I admire. Hitchcock was really coming into his own with this movie. It is difficult for me to state where it ranks in popularity with modern audiences but if this movie was made with American actors, I believe it would be considered one of Hitchcock's very best movies.
"The Lady Vanishes" has been remade over the years. One of the better known remakes starred Cybill Shepherd and Elliott Gould back in 1979. For years it was hard to find on VHS before it was released on DVD. I allowed curiosity to get the best of me and bought it. It serves the purpose of demonstrating what value Hitchcock added to this material. A movie doesn't direct itself. This 1938 version of "The Lady Vanishes" has the ability to work on multiple levels. As escapist entertainment or a political commentary. Hitchcock shows a great talent for being able to juggle several genres at once. For me, it is one of Hitchcock's best movies.
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