The Lady Vanishes
With
The Lady Vanishes (1938), Alfred Hitchcock scored his biggest triumph in
Great Britain shortly before leaving to pursue a career in the U.S, where
he would eventually become the world's most recognizable film director. In
fact, the success of
The Lady Vanishes helped him negotiate the best
possible deal in Hollywood. It also gave film scholars a healthy helping
of those traits that would distinguish his films: deceptive appearances,
sly humor, a tangled international plot and what he called "The McGuffin,"
a nonsensical device used to motivate the action and suspense.
Ironically, although it was one of his biggest hits,
The Lady
Vanishes was the only major Hitchcock film that he didn't initiate
himself. Two soon-to-be-successful British writers, Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, had
pitched a novel by Ethel Lina White (who also wrote the book on which
The Spiral Staircase, 1946 would be based) to producer Edward Black in
1937. The story, about a young girl on vacation in Europe who befriends an
elderly woman then has to prove the lady's existence after she disappears,
seemed a natural for the screen. Black gave them the go-ahead, assigned
the film to American director Roy William Neill, then sent a crew to
Yugoslavia for background shots. One of the crewmembers had a minor
accident there, and during the investigation the local police came across
the script. One look at the opening pages, which juxtaposed shots of the
Yugoslavian army with waddling geese, and the authorities deported the
entire crew, which led Black to cancel the production.
A year later, Hitchcock was trying to find a film to end his contract with
Black so he could sign a deal with Charles Laughton's production company
and pursue offers from America following the success of
The 39 Steps (1935). For once, he couldn't come up with a property. Knowing
Hitchcock was desperate to get on with his career, Black dusted off the
script to
The Lady Vanishes and the director immediately agreed to the
production. He suggested some changes to Launder and Gilliat that
tightened the film's opening and made the finale more exciting,
but basically shot the film as written, although he insisted on a
screenplay credit for his wife, Alma Reville.
Hitchcock was particularly lucky in his casting, awarding the leads to two
actors who would soon become major stars in England. After considering
Lili Palmer for the female lead, he settled on a young actress, Margaret
Lockwood, who had long dreamed of playing one of White's heroines. The
male lead went to Michael Redgrave, a popular young stage actor who had played a bit part in Hitch's earlier thriller,
Secret Agent (1936). The stage star was
reluctant to commit, however. He had just completed three plays in
repertory with John Gielgud and wanted to continue concentrating on his
stage work. It was Gielgud who convinced him that he'd learn a lot about
filmmaking from Hitchcock but the main lesson he learned was how to
handle himself on the set. Hitchcock put most of his work into preparing shots
and sequences, editing the film in the camera by shooting just what would
end up on the screen. All he wanted from the actors was cooperation.
Sensing that Redgrave had a swelled head about his stage work, on the first
day of shooting Hitchcock told him, "You know, don't you, that Robert Donat;the star of
The 39 Steps; wanted to play this role in the worst
way." When he realized that Redgrave didn't care, Hitch took a liking to
him, using his casual attitude as a part of the character. As a result,
the film made Redgrave, in his first leading film role, an international
star.
For the title role, Hitchcock cast Dame May Whitty, a stage veteran who had
recently scored a hit in Hollywood as the old lady murdered by Robert
Montgomery in
Night Must Fall (1937). Although a wonderful actress in
certain roles, Whitty was somewhat set in her ways after almost three
decades of stardom. To unsettle her, Hitch interrupted her first scene,
shouting, "Stop! That's terrible. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" From
then on, she did exactly as he wanted and turned in a surprisingly
hard-edged performance as the title character who turns out to
be a spy.
As with Whitty, Hitchcock made several of the other actors play against
type. Hollywood leading man Paul Lukas was cast as the villain, a
seemingly compassionate doctor who turns out to be a cold-blooded espionage agent.
Glamorous character actress Catherine Lacy played a nun with a twist --
after a surprising shot of her wearing high heels under her habit, she
turns out to be one of the enemy spies. But his biggest success, at least
with English audiences, was casting dramatic actors Basil Radford and
Naunton Wayne as two comical cricket fans -- typical English tourists more
interested in catching the latest scores than helping the leading lady find
her missing friend. The two were such a hit in their roles that they would
repeat them in other films, including the classic horror tale
Dead of
Night (1945).
The Lady Vanishes was one of those rare films that hit pay dirt on
its initial release and has never lost its luster as a classic. When it
opened in England in October 1938 it quickly became the most successful
British film to that time. Two months later, it was the hottest ticket in
New York, where it was named Best Picture of 1938 by
The New York
Times and brought Hitchcock the New York Film Critics Award for Best
Director. It also helped him win a lucrative contract with independent
producer David O. Selznick, for whom he would work through most of the
'40s.
Producer: Edward Black
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Alma Reville, Sidney Gilliat & Frank Launder
Based on the novel
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White
Cinematography: Jack Cox
Art Direction: Alex Vetchinsky, Maurice Carter, Albert Jullion
Music: Louis Levy
Principal Cast: Margaret Lockwood (Iris Henderson), Michael Redgrave
(Gilbert Redman), Paul Lukas (Dr. Hartz), Dame May Whitty (Miss Froy),
Cecil Parker (Eric Todhunter), Naunton Wayne (Caldicott), Basil Radford
(Charters), Catherine Lacy (The Nun), Googie Withers (Blanche).
BW-96m.
by Frank Miller
The Lady Vanishes
In 1938 Alfred Hitchcock was already in a class by himself; English critics referred to his
The Lady Vanishes as simply 'a Hitchcock movie'. We now recognize
Lady as a romantic-comedy-suspense thriller developed far in advance of its time.
Fritz Lang may have pioneered the espionage and conspiracy film, but Hitchcock added his
own mischievous personality, mixing jeopardy with sex appeal and a delicious sense of
humor.
A great deal of
The Lady Vanishes plays out on a passenger train. Besides
throwing a score of strangers into a confined dramatic space, the train setting guarantees a
heightened sense of excitement: movement toward an uncertain destiny. Although the
film's intrigues include kidnapping and murder, Hitchcock maintains a buoyant tone. The
supporting characters include a number of amusing eccentrics, and Hitchcock's writers
pepper the dialogue with sly jokes and innuendos. But when young Iris Henderson
discovers that some of her fellow travelers are not what they seem to be, a European
holiday becomes a life and death struggle.
Criterion's two-disc special edition replaces its old original release, spine # 3 in a collection
that now numbers over four hundred.
Synopsis: Returning to England from a vacation in Bandrika, Iris Henderson (Margaret
Lockwood) befriends a charming old governess, Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty). After a
nap, Iris finds that Miss Froy has disappeared. The Italians and Bandrikans sharing their
train compartment claim that she never existed. Czech neurologist Dr. Hartz (Paul Lukas)
suggests that Iris is hallucinating. Other travelers including English cricket fans Caldicott
and Charters (Naunton Wayne & Basil Radford) have ulterior motives for denying that they
saw the old governess. Music student Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave) indulges Iris'
stubborn assertions until clues indicate that she's telling the truth -- a conspiracy is afoot!
In Hitchcock's
The 39 Steps an innocent fugitive uses charm and wit to evade the
police and uncover a traitorous nest of spies.
The Lady Vanishes changes the
sex of the protagonist and puts her on the spot as 'the girl who knew too much.' As the
only witness to an apparent kidnapping, Iris Henderson is given plenty of reasons to doubt
her own memory. The other passengers in her compartment contradict her version of
events and a respected doctor openly questions her sanity. But Iris has both pluck and
spirit, and with the help of an eccentric music student, she chips away at the mystery. If
Iris is wrong she'll have inconvenienced a lot of people and proved herself a fool. But if her
suspicions are correct lives may be saved, starting with that of the lovable Miss
Froy.
Fritz Lang's spy classics predicted that modern times would be an age of technological
terror. Hitchcock pulls Lang's paranoia back down to the level of light entertainment. A
thoughtless playgirl grows up by taking an interest in Mrs. Froy, the kind of sweet old lady
that ingénues normally dismiss with a condescending smile. With Europe and
England slipping toward war, Hitchcock's writers place Iris on a Ruritanian holiday
surrounded by ignorant Bandrikans and distracted, selfish English tourists. As in
Foreign Correspondent, a crime is being hatched in Europe while the English have
their noses buried in private problems and petty diversions. The comedy team of Naunton
Wayne and Basil Radford are a deadpan pair of cricket twits, and Hitchcock makes their
Charters & Caldicott the butt of scores of jokes, starting with their inseparability. If not
actually gay, they're platonically married. When the suave Dr. Hartz talks about operating
on the brain of an English minister, Gilbert Redman asks him if he indeed found a brain in
the man's head.
The Lady Vanishes uses music and dance as a major theme. Young Gilbert and
Iris 'meet cute' when the clog dancers he's studying 'play musical chairs with an elephant'
on the floor above her room. Charters & Caldicott think that the Hungarian Rhapsody is that
country's national anthem. A key tune becomes one of Hitchcock's most clever
MacGuffins. His assured direction begins with some quaintly unrealistic model work but
progresses to excellent special effects to show Gilbert climbing on the outside of a railway
car. Hitchcock keeps interest high with special sequences like the subjective montage of
ghostly 'Mrs. Froy' faces that convince Iris to stick to her story.
The Lady Vanishes reinforces 1930s' prejudices against Europeans, who exploit
English gullibility and mask their murderous schemes with impeccable manners. When the
chips are down the English show their true character. The respectable lawyer is revealed
as a coward and appeaser, while Caldicott and Charters prove to be take-charge men of
action. Iris and Gilbert's bickering disappears as they commit themselves to solving the
mystery -- there's something about that nun that doesn't add up, and it's unwise to expect
a magician to stay locked up in his own trick cabinet. Mrs. Froy earns her double-0 spy
credentials by dashing into the woods under a hail of gunfire. Iris previously ignored the
world outside her hermetic social circle, but adventure and danger open her mind to greater
responsibilities. The war is still a year away, but the message imparted is that England can
take it.
By 1938 Alfred Hitchcock had become a big fish in a small British pond; he'd soon be
snapped up by David O. Selznick and promoted to the Hollywood big leagues. The further
development of the English spy thriller would be left to
Lady's writers Sidney Gilliat
& Frank Launder, and the up 'n coming team of Powell & Pressburger. The film made a star
of Michael Redgrave and launched actors Wayne and Radford on a series of spin-off
'Charters & Caldicott' comedies.
Criterion's revised DVD of
The Lady Vanishes is a flawless transfer of this highly
entertaining thriller, with a sharp image and a rich audio track. Even mumbled lines are
perfectly clear, erasing memories of the dismal 16mm prints shown in film school. The
commentary is carried by Bruce Eder, who points out the film's relatively straightforward
camerawork, and its great many rear projection shots.
A second disc has an entire Charters & Caldicott comedy called
Crook's Tour,
which mostly serves to remind us how inspired the main feature is. Leonard Leff's Video
Essay analyzes
Lady in detail, using film clips to illustrate his points directly. An
audio extra presents an excerpt from François Truffaut's original tapes talking with
Alfred Hitchcock, recorded for his influential interview book. A gallery of photos and artwork
are included, and the insert booklet has essays by Geoffrey O'Brien and Charles Barr.
Criterion's disc producer is Curtis Tsui.
For more information about
The Lady Vanishes, visit
The Criterion Collection. To order
The Lady
Vanishes, go to
TCM Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
