Must See Movie...

i must have seen a different film!!

Best movie ever!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Producer: Edward Black. A Gainsborough Picture, made at Gaumont British Islington Studios, released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Great Britain: 2 January 1939.Not copyrighted in the U.S.A. New York opening at the Globe: 24 December 1938. U.S. release by Gaumont British: 1 November 1938. Australian release through G-B-D/20th Century-Fox: 8 December 1938. 8,609 feet. Running times: 96 minutes (U.K.), 78 minutes (USA). (The complete version is available on a superb ITV DVD). SYNOPSIS: The Trans-Continental Express lies snowed-up at a wayside station in the South European State of Bandrika. Its passengers have been forced to herd together in a Gasthaus. The discomfiture of Iris Henderson is completed when, from a room above, Gilbert, a collector of folk dances, enlists the aid of the hotel staff to perform a local polka. Another victim of Gilbert's efforts is Miss Froy, a mild little English governess. Iris, by bribing the manager, has Gilbert ejected from his room.At the station next morning a flower box falls and catches Iris a glancing blow on the head. Iris sways, but declares she is all right.No sooner has the train started than Iris faints in Miss Froy's arms. The old lady brings her around and takes her to the dining car for tea, afterwards bringing Iris back to her compartment, where she falls asleep. When she wakes there is no sign of Miss Froy. She asks the people in the compartment if they have seen an English lady. "No!"NOTES: Best Directing of the Year — New York Film Critics.Number 7 on Frank Nugent's list of the Ten Best of the Year for The New York Times.COMMENT: How do you approach a classic? Pleasurable anticipation? Or dread that you're going to be disappointed? Maybe a mixture of both? It was like that for me when I first saw The Lady Vanishes in a cut version back in 1953. I remember going home from the theater with the impression that the movie had dated a fair bit, particularly in its pacing and its acting. So much of the footage was devoted to silly, time-wasting, irrelevant side issues like whether a couple of imbecilic stage Englishmen would get back to London in time for some stupid cricket test; whether the heroine would ever stop talking and whether the rather boorish hero would stop concentrating on himself long enough to start doing something. These detours and full stops were not enlivened by acting that can only be described as stagy, theatrical, mannered, artificial, over- emphatic. Lockwood, Redgrave, Parker, Wayne, Radford were the worst offenders. They tended to swamp the more realistic, more charismatic players like the quietly assured Dame May Witty and the atavistic- ally menacing Paul Lukas. While Hitchcock's staging of the straight thriller material was exciting, he seemed as bored as me by the endlessly romantic and explanatory and humorous passages as well as by the juvenile bang- bang-bang climax (such a let-down after all the splendid suspense that had gone before). Mind you, for all its absurdities and superfluity's, The Lady Vanishes is still worth seeing. Just don't expect a Rebecca or even a Young and Innocent. P.S. Viewing the superb Network ITV DVD causes me to revise the above opinion. It's not only the momentum of the screenplay that is severely disrupted by the cuts but the clever balancing act that allows all its components to re-in force each other. Furthermore, chipping away at Dame May Witty's part lessens her importance and deprives the viewer of vital information.

Hitchcock directs this very originally and interestingly written motion picture adaptation of a book and all in all this is a very entertaining train ride, with bumps along the road both literally and figuratively, and an ability to keep the viewer constantly interested and genuinely intrigued as to what is actually going on. We're given a host of twists and turns and the development never ceases to be highly dynamic, while the acting is very good with notably the two main and the doctor characters, the dialog as always in Hitchcock films of very sound quality, and it seems just about the right length - such films turn dull after too many twists and lingering plot.The only concern one may have with this is that towards the last quarter of the film, although it's all innate to the storyline the final act resembles very little of what's been going on for the whole bulk of the film and this sort of venturing outside the atmosphere worked so hard to set initially, if one considers the name of the film, the mystery etc... it could feel a bit like this train has gone off track, despite the coherence in story, the atmosphere certainly borrows another path perhaps a bit too different.7.5/8ish.

With the occasional setback each succeeding film Alfred Hitchcock made until the last couple seemed to get better in all departments, but especially technically. This was one of his quintessentially British films primitively but cheerfully made for 1930's British audiences to be seen and enjoyed the once, the entire industry still being on an improving curve. It's not likely cricket will ever be truly understood by the wider American audience but it was the film which proved to be Hitchcock's big break, only one more to go before Hollywood and its opportunities and coffers beckoned.Young woman Margaret Lockwood on her way to be married befriends an elderly lady Miss Froy on a European train. The only trouble is after waking up she finds Miss Froy has vanished apparently along with the very memory of her existence; everyone is seemingly against her. However, dashing young Michael Redgrave gets interested and lends his exuberant support in trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. It's completely disarmingly quaint and I've always forgiven the convoluted childishness of the plot: Lockwood & Redgrave are up against some more Johnny Foreigner's who will Stop At Nothing – except to kill them to shut them up and push them off the train and so end their problems; the greasy baddie must have awkwardly slid out of the trick cabinet silently behind them and could've polished them off and so end his problems; let's all get off the stationary train have a desultory gun battle from the woods to give the goodies a chance to get away and so end their problems. The model shots are indeed laughable, but perhaps more so by the same people who are in open-jawed admiration of todays reliance on incessant cgi cartoonery. Recognising these points and others has never lessened the entertainment value of this little movie for me, I gladly bought a ticket too to see this journey through to the end. Hitch quite rightly continually satirised British politicians' intelligence and integrity, and presciently has the only philandering appeaser on board shot dead. His usual voyeuristic attitude in the depiction of women was present, although on a side note I wonder even for 1938 did he seriously believe in Charters' statement "People don't go around tying up nuns".Is it never considered why Redgrave and Lockwood would behave so childishly and so dense? Could it be because they merely more closely represented the ordinary person, untrammelled with the cynicism and seediness so beloved by all of us nowadays. There are still millions of such people walking the streets, it's just that they're not represented as worthy of any interest any more by our artistic Betters. Hitch was always good at that – remember the detective's kindergarten-type end speech in Shadow Of A Doubt for instance.Many members of the cast would go on to make many items worthy and arty, but the chances are they'll all be ultimately remembered mainly for this fast moving but perfectly paced inconsequential entertainment. Still incredible that this was so enjoyable and the 1979 remake was so dire – neither was meant to be watched twice or generations later, Hitchcock's will be though. And like Miss Froy I too do hope and pray that we shall all meet again, one day.

Why does THE LADY VANISHES stand up so well, nearly eighty years after its first release? By rights, it shouldn't do so; filmed almost entirely in Islington Studios, with extensive use of back- projections, second unit film and model shots, its modest budget is palpably evident: no CGI graphics to liven up the action here. But such criticisms seem unimportant in a film whose various elements seem to cohere perfectly. As the heroine Iris Henderson, Margaret Lockwood is both strong-willed yet vulnerable, especially in the scenes in the train where she insists that the eponymous lady Miss Froy (Dame May Witty) actually exists, despite her fellow- passengers' denials. Her male companion Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) undergoes something of a character change, as he sheds his supercilious exterior and dedicates himself to solving the mystery. The way he stands up to the evil doctor Hartz (Paul Lukas), is quite admirable. Yet Hitchcock's film is perhaps noticeable for the quality of its supporting performances. Cecil Parker and Linden Travers, as a pair of illicit lovers, are both frightened and scared of discovery; they do not want anything to do with the mystery. Parker tries his best to remain detached, even agreeing to surrender at one point; but his overtures are ruthlessly spurned. Mary Clare as an Italian-speaking Baroness remains sour-faced throughout; it's clear she's only in the whole scheme for the money. By contrast Catherine Lacey, as a would be nun in high heels, realizes the error of her ways and supports Gilbert in his quest. The two stand-out supporting actors are Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as the cricket-loving Charters and Caldicott. Due to their obsession with the Test Match at Manchester, they are prepared to sacrifice everything, even their integrity; but when they become involved in the denouement, they prove to be worthy allies. Caldicott turns out to be a crack shot, which proves exceptionally useful in the circumstances. The duo proved so successful that they reappeared in other films, notably NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (1940) and IT'S NOT CRICKET (1949).Hitchcock is at his most playful here, enjoying the forbidden pleasures of photographing ladies in a state of déshabillé (Lockwood, Googie Withers, and Sally Stewart), or the visual jokes of seeing Gilbert and Iris trying to find the vanishing lady in the guard's van, or Gilbert trying and failing to remember the melody that contains a vital clue necessary to Britain's future security. The plot is pure hokum, of course, but as with many of Hitchcock's British films, it is largely irrelevant. It's far more fruitful to share the director's joy at concocting such a technically near-perfect piece of entertainment.