The Lady Vanishes - Criterion Collection
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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.
Movie Review: The Lady Vanishes
Summary: 5 Stars
Hitchcock's timeless classic begins on a high comic note, then quickly transforms into a suspense film with political overtones. As in "The 39 Steps," the priceless banter between the heroine and her unlikely ally elevates what is already a nifty nail-biter into something infinitely more special: a romantic mystery. The cast of eccentrics--especially two English tourists played by Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne--give this "Lady" extra punch, and Dame May Whitty is adorable as the elusive old lady who causes all the fuss.Movie Review: 1 more star?
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a good movie and I liked it, especially the very likable protagonists. I would like it more if someone would be so kind as to explain why the 'Germans' don't just arrest Miss Froy? Why go through the trouble of 'disappearing' her? Yes, if they had done so the story wouldn't exist. Why does the villain never just kill the hero but instead leaves an unintended escape... sure, we suspend disbelief up to a point, but here with this movie, I wonder if I had just missed a key dialog or something of that sort. Movie Review: Superb, suspenseful, brilliantly funny...,
Summary: 4 Stars
Alfred Hitchcock announced a call to arms in a brilliant and amusing thriller, "The Lady Vanishes."
The lady in question is Miss Froy (Dame May Witty), a splendid eccentric innocent old governess (in reality a British secret agent), who is kidnapped by the smooth Dr. Hartz (Paul Lukas), really the master enemy spy...
Involved in the rescue are Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), a sincere young musicologist trying on using up unwisely his life on unfruitful pursuits; Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood) a pretty girl who is returning to London to sacrifice herself on the altar of nobility - she has accepted to marry a weedy little English count; and a hilarious sporting couple, Chalders and Caldicott (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne), whose only concern and topic conversation is the cricket match--will they make it back in home for the "big game."
Other characters include Percy (Cecil Parker), the pompous lawyer who is constantly afraid that his affair with Linden Travers will be discovered... Above all he does not want to be involved... He is the voice of pacifism and self-control... While the others fight it out with the enemy, he rushes from the coach waving a white handkerchief... He is shot, and dies never understanding why...
Hitchcock (and you never know with him) creates a multi-sided movie (superb, suspenseful, brilliantly funny), extending the power of stereotypes by caricaturing itself, making the audience express with laughter, and in a way they forget that they have just accepted some unpleasant tasting medicine...
Movie Review: Hitchcock liked trains. It may be his favorite venue.
Summary: 4 Stars
There are so many possibilities. This is a spy thriller. It works on several levels, with quite of bit of comedy to keep it light. I interpreted much of the character development as satire on the British people themselves. Hitchcock had to be careful. In those last days before the war the British censors were tough. If the British didn't see the humor in it, I'm sure Americans did. You have two chuckle-headed school chums prattling on endlessly about criket. A cheating barrister & his vapid paramour both married back in England & parnoid about being found out. Then there is Miss Froy, (Dame May Whitty) the old, sterotypical spinister governess. Even the heroine, Iris, played by Margret Lockwood, is a blond (naturally) beautiful airhead, as is her facile, soon to be boyfriend, Gilbert (Michael Redgrave). Miss Froy goes missing on the train without getting off. She had just made the aquaintance of Iris & then, poof, disappears. Iris with the help of Gilbert seeks to find her to the annoyance of most everyone aboard the train. But Miss Froy isn't what she appears. She's a secret agent for the British & the Germans want to kidnap her. Only they weren't Germans. In order not to offend the Nazis at the time, Germany was simply refered to as a middle European country. They had phony, German sounding accents like the evil psychiatrist who was identified as a Czech. The Brits pulled themselves together when crisis hits. The train is stopped & attacked by the police. Miss Froy is amazingly nimble for an old lady. She jumps out of a train window & evades 24 young men shooting at her. Hilarious. She gets back to England before everyone else. See this. If your not a Hitchcock fan you maybe after seeing this, one of his last movies before he moved to Hollywood.