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Desaparecida! ()

The Lady Vanishes (original title)
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While travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.
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Photos and Videos

60 photos | 1 video

Cast verified as complete

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Iris Matilda Henderson
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Gilbert Redman
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Dr. Egon Hartz
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Miss Froy (as Dame May Whitty)
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Mr. Todhunter
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'Mrs.' Todhunter
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Caldicott
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Charters
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Baroness Athona
Emile Boreo ...
Hotel Manager
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Blanche
Sally Stewart ...
Julie
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Signor Doppo
Selma Vaz Dias ...
Signora Doppo (as Zelma Vas Dias)
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The Nun (as Catherine Lacy)
Josephine Wilson ...
Madame Kummer
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The Officer
Kathleen Tremaine ...
Anna
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ernest Blyth ...
Foreign Office Man (uncredited)
Wallace Bosco ...
Gasthof Petrus Guest (uncredited)
Alf Casha ...
Gasthof Petrus Guest (uncredited)
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Man at Victoria Station (uncredited)
Nan Kearns ...
Dancing Woman (uncredited)
John Miller ...
Rudolf - Gasthof Waiter (uncredited)
John More ...
Passenger in Dining Car (uncredited)
Charles Rolfe ...
Train Fireman (uncredited)
Roy Russell ...
Guitarist (uncredited)

Directed by

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Alfred Hitchcock

Written by

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Ethel Lina White ... (based upon the story by: "The Wheel Spins")
 
Sidney Gilliat ... (screen play) (as Sidney Gilliatt) and
Frank Launder ... (screen play)

Produced by

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Edward Black ... producer (uncredited)

Music by

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Louis Levy ... (uncredited)
Charles Williams ... (uncredited)

Cinematography by

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Jack E. Cox ... (photography) (as Jack Cox)

Film Editing by

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R.E. Dearing

Editorial Department

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Alfred Roome ... cutting

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

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Roy Ward Baker ... second assistant director (uncredited)
Tom D. Connochie ... first assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department

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Alex Vetchinsky ... settings (as Vetchinsky)
Maurice Carter ... assistant art director (uncredited)
Albert Jullion ... assistant art director (uncredited)
Albert Whitlock ... scenic artist (uncredited)

Sound Department

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Sydney Wiles ... recording (as S. Wiles)
Claude Hitchcock ... sound assistant (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department

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Leslie Gilliat ... camera operator (uncredited)
Len Harris ... assistant cameraman (uncredited)
Maurice Oakley ... location photography (uncredited)
Jack Parry ... location photography (uncredited)

Music Department

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Louis Levy ... musical director
Bretton Byrd ... music editor (uncredited)
Cecil Milner ... orchestrator (uncredited)

Script and Continuity Department

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Alma Reville ... continuity
Crew verified as complete

Production Companies

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Distributors

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Special Effects

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Other Companies

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Storyline

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Plot Summary

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 (Dame May Whitty). Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), 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 (Sir Michael Redgrave), a musicologist with whom she had a not so pleasant encounter at the inn the evening before. As Iris and Gilbert go on their quest throughout the train, they believe there is a conspiracy amongst many of the passengers against the validity of there being a Miss Froy. But if there is a conspiracy, Iris and Gilbert still have to find Miss Froy and find out why anyone would want to kidnap a middle aged English governess. Written by Huggo

Plot Keywords
Taglines Comedy! Chills! Chuckles! in a Mystery Express! See more »
Genres
Parents Guide View content advisory »
Certification

Additional Details

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Also Known As
  • The Lost Lady (United Kingdom)
  • The Lost Lady (United States)
  • Une femme disparaît (France)
  • Alarma en el expreso (Spain)
  • Alarma a l'exprés (Spain, Catalan title)
  • See more »
Runtime
  • 96 min
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Did You Know?

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Trivia In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, Sir Alfred Hitchcock revealed that this movie was inspired by a legend of an Englishwoman who went with her daughter to the Palace Hotel in Paris in the 1880s, at the time of the Great Exposition: "The woman was taken sick and they sent the girl across Paris to get some medicine in a horse-vehicle, so it took about four hours. When she came back she asked, 'How's my mother?' 'What mother?' 'My mother. She's here, she's in her room. Room 22.' They go up there. Different room, different wallpaper, everything. And the payoff of the whole story is, so the legend goes, that the woman had bubonic plague and they dared not let anybody know she died, otherwise all of Paris would have emptied." The urban legend, known as the Vanishing Hotel Room, also formed the basis of one segment of the German portmanteau movie Eerie Tales (1919), So Long at the Fair (1950) (in which the missing person was the young woman's brother as opposed to her mother) and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) season one, episode five, "Into Thin Air", starring Hitchcock's daughter Patricia Hitchcock. See more »
Goofs In the noisy dancing scene above Lockwood's hotel room, the clarinet is shown with the mouthpiece turned with the reed upwards. Normally the mouthpiece is turned so that the reed is downwards, but in some European folk traditions the clarinet was played with the mouthpiece "upside-down". See more »
Movie Connections Edited from Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937). See more »
Soundtracks Colonel Bogey March See more »
Crazy Credits Closing credits: The Characters in "THE LADY VANISHES" were played by: See more »
Quotes Gilbert: Can I help?
Iris Henderson: Only by going away.
Gilbert: No, no, no, no. My father always taught me, never desert a lady in trouble. He even carried that as far as marrying Mother.
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