The Lady Vanishes

Alfred Hitchcock's last British film before moving to Hollywood was 1938's The Lady Vanishes, a delightful mixture of comedy and mystery. The film was wildly popular, especially in England, where it is invariably listed as one of the best British films ever made.

The story opens in a snowbound hotel in a fictional Alpine country. A variety of guests are focused on: an English tourist (Margaret Lockwood), who is on her way to England to be married, an obnoxious musicologist (Michael Redgrave), who enrages Lockwood by having folk dancers tromp about above her room, a pair of cricket enthusiasts who want to get back to Manchester to see the end of a match, a man and his mistress, and a dotty old lady (Dame May Whitty).

Once on the train, Lockwood takes a blow to the head and Whitty takes care of her. Later, Lockwood will awaken and find Whitty gone. She goes to look for her, but is astonished by several people telling her there was no lady. She teams up with Redgrave to solve the mystery.

The film is a joy, especially after the mystery starts. The first half hour or so, in the hotel, is amusing but we're not sure where it's going, and when a street singer is murdered, we're really on our heels. I surmise this was Hitchcock's intention, as we are in kind of the same boat as Lockwood, wondering what's going on.

Redgrave, part of the great acting family, is wonderful as someone who seems to be a cad but reveals himself to be a decent chap after all. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, who play the cricket fans, actually made many other films playing the same roles or similar, becoming a famous comic duo.

The Lady Vanishes offers a bit of everything, including a shootout at the end which seems a bit out of place. There is a subtle political message, though: the honorable characters shoot it out with jack-booted thugs, while the man who waves a white flag is shot down instantly. This was the same year as the Munich conference, after all.