The Lady Vanishes 1938, Rated PG Home Vision

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Starring Alfred Hitchcock, Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave.

After having run through about five highly recommended and critically acclaimed whodunits made in the last 25 years, ranging from The Conversation (ugh!) to the comicalClue, I'd had enough, and decided to play my Hitchcock marker. The result was one of the best mysteries I've ever seen on celluloid.

One element of Alfred Hitchcock's productions that has always separated his work from that of other directors, aside from his great visual flair and sense of rhythm, is his ability to weave dry, dark humor into any situation. Be there a murder, a kidnapping, or a case of mistaken identity, you can be guaranteed that along with the suspense and confusion there will be any number of truly funny scenes. Hitchcock takes great pleasure in delivering this in spades in The Lady Vanishes.

What most pleased me about this movie though, was the way in which Hitchcock allows the viewer to be introduced to the ten or so major characters before the actual crime in question takes place. The first twenty minutes of the film are spent in a lazy, and somewhat backwater European hotel. The principal players are all present, waiting for a delayed train that will take them to London. Hitchcock jumps to and fro between the characters, following their actions, acquainting you with their driving mannerisms and beliefs, allowing the viewer to examine their motives and associations with other characters before the mystery commences. This was quite a contrast from some of Hitchcock's other films, like North by Northwest, and more recent mysteries like Murder at 1600, where, should you decide to get something to eat as the opening credits roll, the story will have begun and left you behind like a 20 pound sack of dirty laundry by the time you return.

The storyline of The Lady Vanishes is succinctly explained in the title. Margaret Lockwood takes a nap on a train to London and upon waking, finds that the friendly old lady who had been sitting next to her, Ms. Froy, is missing. To compound Lockwood's situation, the other passengers in her compartment and conductors on the train do not remember there ever being another person in the compartment with her. Lockwood was hit on the head with a flower pot early, but knows that she can't be crazy, however is completely unable to prove that her affable, old neighbor ever existed. Lockwood bumps into Michael Redgrave, whom she had met at the hotel the previous night, and together they begin to search the train, she in an effort to find Ms. Froy, he in an effort to put some moves on Lockwood.

The Lady Vanishes is one of those rare films that manages to be suspenseful, romantic, and superbly entertaining throughout its entirety. This movie is one of Hitchcock's better films, easily holding its own next to Psycho or Rear Window. I had to go back over 60 years to find this one, but it was well worth the journey. As a whodunit film, you simply can't do much better than this movie.