The Lady Vanishes (1938)

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

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

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

Stars:

Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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	...	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)

Storyline

Passengers on a scheduled train out of the mountainous European country of Mandrika are delayed by a day due to an avalanche, and thus get up close and personal with each other out of necessity in the only and what becomes an overcrowded inn in the area. Once the train departs, the one person who it is uncertain is on the train is a middle aged English governess named Miss Froy. Iris Henderson, who was vacationing in Mandrika with girlfriends before heading back to England to get married, is certain that Miss Froy was on the train as they were in the same compartment and they had tea together in the dining car, but all those people who can corroborate her story don't seem to want to do so. Iris' thoughts are easily dismissed as a possible concussion as Iris was hit over the head just before boarding the train. Iris will take anyone's help in finding Miss Froy, even that of an Englishman named Gilbert, a musicologist with who she had a not so pleasant encounter at the inn the evening ...

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Plot Keywords:

train | governess | conspiracy | english | concussion | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Comedy | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English German French Italian

Release Date:

1 November 1938 (USA)

Also Known As:

La dama desaparece

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gainsborough Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although he uses the fictitious Bandrikan language when speaking to his staff, at the end of the phone conversation in which he conveys Iris's room service order for "champagne", Boris, the harassed hotel manager, exclaims, "Oy vey is mir", a Yiddish expression meaning "woe is me."

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Goofs

In the opening scene of the movie, the camera tracks downward in an aerial view over the side of a snow-covered mountain to show railroad tracks and the front of a train's locomotive buried by an avalanche, close to a train station in a small mountain village. As the camera passes over the train and four railroad officials standing to the left of it, one of the officials swivels to the left and then to the right, as if he were rotating on a pivot. As the camera moves closer to the ground, away from the train station and along a village street at ordinary eye level, it shows an automobile crossing the far end of a street; the string pulling the automobile along the street is plainly visible for an instant. Both this detail and the movement of the railroad official show that the entire opening scene was shot upon a scale-model miniature set.

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Quotes

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

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Connections

Referenced in Upstairs Downstairs: All the Things You Are (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Colonel Bogey March"
(1914) (uncredited)
Music by Kenneth Alford
Hummed by Michael Redgrave

User Reviews

Classic Movies just don't get any better than this!

A cracking plot, sparkling dialogue, great characters and sublime direction make The Lady Vanishes an all-time must see.

Marking the peak of Hitchcock's British period, it is an exquisitely crafted, finely wrought, cinematic treasure, boasting a cast which reads like a veritable Who's who of British acting talent from the Golden Age of British Cinema.

While the director, writers and supporting cast all deserve credit, the film very much belongs to its leading lady, the lovely Margaret Lockwood, who, as feisty heroine Iris Henderson, somehow manages to be heart-stoppingly beautiful, supremely sexy, spirited, cute and adorably vulnerable all at the same time! Now where can I meet a girl like that?

The Lady Vanishes is, for every reason, but especially because of Miss Lockwood, the very best of the very best; a landmark movie which is truly unmissable! Buy it, rent it, steal it if you must, but make damn sure you see it