The Lady Vanishes - Criterion Collection
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Catherine Lacey, Emile Boreo, Mary Clare, Philip Leaver, Selma Vaz DiasDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-05-27
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of The Lady Vanishes - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Screwball comedy + Thriller + Romance = Great Fun
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very funny, totally enjoyable movie, that's sure to please almost anyone. The cast is first rate. Michael Redgrave is handsome, funny, and totally charming in his first major film role. Margaret Lockwood is more than just a beautiful screwball comedian; she displays a subtlety that many actresses of this genre lack. Together they make a great team. Dame Mae Whitty plays an English governess type that everyone will want to hug. Some of the others---the excitable hotel manager, the smiling buxom maid, the Italian magician, his spooky wife, as well as the two cricket-mad English tourists, are all hilarious. The dancers who accompany the eccentric musicologist are wonderful---especially when stopped in mid-action.
The plot starts slowly, with plenty of comedy and then gradually the difficulty presents itself. We know, from the title, that some lady will vanish but it takes a while before we know who it will be. Tension mounts and eventually things get real serious before it all settles down.
Considering the time and place in which the film was made, there are pertinent themes which deepen its value---the initial reluctance of some of the English train passengers to recognize the danger they are in and then to do something about it, the idea of saving one's self vs sacrifice. The ultimate guy-you-want-to-hate is a pompous lawyer, on an adulterous trip with his married girlfriend, who values his own reputation over everything. Several times people comment about having a sense of proportion. This is a very smart film, which can be enjoyed on many levels.
Summary of The Lady Vanishes - Criterion Collection
At first glance The Lady Vanishes appears to be a frothy, lightweight treat, a testament to Alfred Hitchcock's nimble touch. This snappy, sophisticated romantic thriller begins innocently enough, as a contingent of eccentric tourists spend the night in a picture-postcard village inn nestled in the Swiss Alps before setting off on the train the next morning. In a wonderfully Hitchcockian twist on "meeting cute," attractive young Iris (Margaret Lockwood) clashes with brash music student Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) when his nocturnal concerts give her no peace. She gets him kicked out of his room, so he barges in on hers: True love is inevitable, but not before they are both plunged into an international conspiracy. The next day on the train, kindly old Mrs. Froy (Dame May Whitty) vanishes from her train car without a trace and the once quarrelsome couple unite to search the train and uncover a dastardly plot. No one is as he or she seems, but sorting out the villains from the merely mysterious is a challenge in itself, as our innocents abroad face resistance from the entire passenger list. Hitchcock effortlessly navigates this vivid thriller from light comedy to high tension and back again, creating one of his most enchanting and entertaining mysteries. Though this wasn't his final British film before departing for Hollywood (that honor goes to Jamaica Inn), many critics prefer to think of this as his fond farewell to the British Film Industry. --Sean AxmakerIn this best-loved of Hitchcock's British-made thrillers, a young woman on a train meets a charming old lady (Dame May Whitty), who promptly disappears. The other passengers deny ever having seen her, leading the young woman to suspect a conspiracy. When she begins investigating, she is drawn into a complex web of mystery and high adventure.
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