The Lady Vanishes
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Cecil Parker, Dame May Whitty, Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cinematographer: Jack E. Cox Editor: R.E. Dearing Producer: Edward Black Writer: Ethel Lina White Writer: Frank Launder Writer: Sidney Gilliat DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language) Format: Black & White, NTSC Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 96 minutes DVD Release Date: 2003-01-01 Audience Rating: Unrated Studio: Tgg Direct |
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Movie Reviews of The Lady Vanishes
Movie Review: I was amazed at how good this is
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this DVD because it was cheap, and I figured I could not go wrong with an old Hitchcock classic. The first two minutes of the film gave me some doubts, as the sound quality on the opening music was poor (I thought the sound was fine after that and the picture quality very good). Then the story got going, and I was amazed.
This film really needs to be appreciated on two levels. First, it is a wonderfully pleasant thriller. It has a script from the days when they cared about writing good dialogue. It is quite witty, and pleasantly sexy, the latter in a family-friendly way that is nonetheless more engaging than so much of the modern, explicit material.
But the second level is what makes this film so astonishing. It was made in 1938 in England. At the time, appeasement was the official policy of the British government and most of the British press. In fact, the film censorship board would not even allow the words "German" or "Nazi" to be used in connection with bad guys. The film nonetheless manages to suggest the utter evil of Nazism and show the utter bankruptcy of appeasement. What's most intriguing, the film cleverly shows a variety of people who just don't want to get involved in any nastiness, for one reason or another, but who have true British hearts of gold and come through wonderfully once a fight proves unavoidable.
My pleasure at this wonderful film is mixed on a few counts. The first, of course, is the sadness that the film proved to be so amazingly prophetic about the tragedy of the years that followed. The second is that this film is so little known, when it should by rights be part of the history curriculum every student learns by high school. The third is that this film is just as meaningful for us today as it was when it was made. Alas, it just may be that we are living in 1938 all over again.