The Lady Vanishes




Cricket, sir, cricket!

Ah, Hitchcock before he got completely serious, when we could still enjoy a harmless, jolly good British jaunt with the old chap.

In a quaint little, unnamed European country, Iris (Margaret Lockwood), a spirited girl resigned to a future marriage with forecasts of little happiness, meets the pleasant Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty). After talking a little during their train ride however, Miss Froy abruptly vanishes. The distressing part is that everyone who saw her before denies it when Iris inquires into the matter. No one believes her that there even was such a person as Miss Froy except for Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), the gentleman she met the night before on slightly less than pleasant terms.

There's something to be said for a breezy Hitchcock film. To a greater degree than his previous The 39 Steps, which was of the same general variety, Hitch attempts to make something less serious than a traditional spy flick (his favorite subject at the time), and something slightly less than a straight comedy, providing a dynamic, fun relationship between the heroin and hero. It may not start out quite that good, but it's an intriguing premise played out right that starts rolling about a third of the way in, helped along greatly by Hitchcock's deft manipulation of the locomotive setting. And the humor, often delivered straight, of the typical British chap sort, simply makes it uproarious, being propagated mainly by Caldicott and Charters (Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford), two fellows reluctantly swept up into things, but always far more concerned with what's happening in the distant cricket league. They proved to be so popular with audiences that they went on to appear in several other films together. But the real reason why The Lady Vanishes works so well is due to the innocent, yet wickedly sharp-witted relationship (and consequently banter) between Iris and Gilbert, which makes such simple things as a swift pat on the bottom utterly ingenious, and not just a little sexy.

Fueled by the smart script, Margaret Lockwood makes Iris into a classic, independent gal invariably in a spot of trouble. She plays stupendously off Michael Redgrave, and naturally plays up on the sexual tension between the two. Though they're not exactly memorable in and of themselves, they serve their purpose extremely well. Redgrave may play Gilbert as the typically dashing, intelligent, and just a little mischievous stud muffin, but it all fits together perfectly. Needless to say, Wayne and Radford are also bloody well brilliant as the cricket enthusiasts.

Fun on a train, served with ample doses of comedy and romance. Who needs polish?



-The Gnome