The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Ethel Lina White (story)
Sidney Gilliat (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1 November 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Spies! Playing the game of love - and sudden death!

Plot:

While traveling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.

Plot Keywords:

Train | Governess | Dining Car | Double Cross | Concussion

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Margaret Lockwood	...	Iris Henderson
Michael Redgrave	...	Gilbert
Paul Lukas	...	Dr. Hartz
Dame May Whitty	...	Miss Froy
Cecil Parker	...	Mr. Todhunter
Linden Travers	...	'Mrs.' Todhunter
Naunton Wayne	...	Caldicott
Basil Radford	...	Charters
Mary Clare	...	Baroness
Emile Boreo	...	Boris - Hotel Manager
Googie Withers	...	Blanche
Sally Stewart	...	Julie
Philip Leaver	...	Signor Doppo
Selma Vaz Dias	...	Signora Doppo (as Zelma Vas Dias)
Catherine Lacey	...	The Nun (as Catherine Lacy)

Also Known As:

En dam försvinner (Finland: Swedish title) (Sweden) [sv]
Une femme disparaît (Belgium: French title) (France) [fr]
Alarma a l'exprés (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Alarma en el expreso (Spain) [es]
Dama zniknela (Poland) [pl]
Desaparecida! (Portugal) [pt]
Een vrouw verdwijnt (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Eine Dame verschwindet (Germany) [de]
En kvinde forsvinder (Denmark) [da]
Ha-Geveret Ne'elmet (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
I exafanisis (Greece) [el]
I exafanisis tis kyrias (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
I kyria exafanizetai (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
La dama desaparece (Argentina) [es]
La signora scompare (Italy) [it]
Londoni randevú (Hungary) [hu]
Nainen katoaa (Finland) [fi]
Starsza pani znika (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German | French | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Full Range Recording System)

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-15 (2006) | USA:Approved (PCA #02144) | South Korea:15 (2003) | USA:Passed | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:G (original rating) | Australia:PG (alternate rating) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Germany:12 | Peru:14 | Sweden:15 | UK:A | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

Gaumont-British Studios, Lime Grove, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company:

Gainsborough Pictures

Trivia:

In the original cut, as seen in the 25th Anniversary national re-release of 1963, Charters and Caldicott have to share the same pair of pyjamas in the hotel after Charters has accidentally dropped his in the water jug. In later years and showings this innocent preamble has been snipped out and we cut straight to them in bed together. Though we can still see Charters' pyjamas hanging up to dry during the scene the explanation has disappeared.

Goofs:

Continuity: The way Iris leans on her pillow when Gilbert enters her room changes between shots.

Quotes:

Gilbert: [wearing a deerstalker and brandishing a calabash pipe] Let's marshal the facts over a pipeful of Baker Street shag.

Movie Connections:

Spin off Crook's Tour (1941)

Soundtrack:

Colonel Bogey March

the best of the early Hitchcock films

This is the best of the early Hitchcock films. The plot is absorbing, the dialogue clever and the cast great. Whether or not this was the first of the director's films to place its principal action on a moving train I cannot say, but it's a theme that would come back again in his later work, most notably in "Strangers on a Train."

The film gets off to a somewhat rocky start with the camera panning over an Alpine inn and a train halted mid-journey by an avalanche. I agree with the review who observes that we've become spoilt by more sophisticated special effects. A Lionel half buried in a heap of bleached wheat flower just doesn't cut it nowadays. Think also of the stick figure engulfed in the munitions factory explosion in "Saboteur." I suppose directors of that era had to do with whatever was available.

But after this point the film really takes off, and one scarcely recalls the unpromising opening. Viewers always look for the chemistry or lack thereof between actors. Well, Lockwood and Redgrave definitely have it. One cannot help but enjoy seeing how the initial sparks flying between their clashing characters develop into true love by movie's end. As the two are making their way through the train trying to locate Whitty, they move from one barely plausible predicament to another. But we love it, as one witty exchange turns quickly into another. (For example, Lockwood is asked to describe the missing Whitty and launches into an extremely detailed portrait that leaves not a single button unaccounted for. Then she ends by saying, "That's all I can remember." Counters Redgrave dryly: "Well, you can't have been paying attention.")

Much of the film's action occurs in the fictional country of Bandrika, which seems to be a thinly disguised stand-in for nazi-controlled Austria, so recently annexed by Hitler's Germany. As an amateur linguist, I found myself trying to make sense of the made-up "Bandrikan" spoken by the natives, but of course was unable to do so. (What could it be? A Finno-Ugric language? :) Most of the time the identity of Hitchcock's villains remains deliberately vague, except in "Notorious" and "Torn Curtain," where they are nazis and communists respectively. It works better when he leaves us guessing.

As an amateur musician I loved Hitch's "macguffin," namely, the secret formula encoded in a song which the protagonists had to memorize and carry to the Foreign Office in London. (I should think, however, that a genuine secret message might translate into something more like Schoenberg's twelve-tone music than a central European folk song, but of course that would hardly work in a film. :)

The early Hitchcock seemed to like shootouts, as seen also in the first version of "The Man Who Knew Too Much." But shootouts are an ineffective way to convey suspense, and this is perhaps the one thing that dims what is otherwise a masterpiece.

It's too bad the director lived long enough to see this film remade in 1979. Cybil Shepherd is no Margaret Lockwood, and it's pretty unpleasant-almost embarrassing-to see her shrieking her way through each scene. Couldn't they have waited a few years until he had passed on? They ought to have let him die in peace.