While "The Lady vanishes" is not as polished as Alfred Hitchcock's later brilliant works, it remains a very good suspense story. At the film's beginning we see a town model – very nice, but just a model – of a snowy village in a fictional country somewhere in Eastern Europe. I still opt for Austria: the uniforms we later see certainly appear like Austro-Hungarian military uniforms of World War I even though that war is long past. Anyway, inclement weather has forced train passengers into a hotel run by a harried manager. Many are stranded English citizens eager to return home for a variety of reasons. We are introduced to Caldicott and Charters (Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford), two buffoonish Englishmen whose main interest is leaving the "wretched" country to return in time for the Test Match (cricket). As the game is their only concern, nothing else is of interest. Caldicott and Charters are quite the superficial characters, and they will be with us with their dry humor throughout the movie. They are lucky to get a room in the overcrowded hotel, but it is the maid Anna's room. She still needs to change there, and she no qualms of undressing with the two men present. Caldicott and Charters have no choice but to share a bed and pajamas. Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), an attractive but bratty socialite, is on a ski holiday with her two friends; it is her last bachelorette fling before her loveless wedding in the upcoming week. What else can she do as she feels she has done everything that she wants? Money talks, and the three young women get a nice room. Eric and Margaret Todhunter are traveling incognito; they are not married but on a tryst, cheating on their spouses. Of course Eric had told Margaret that he would divorce his wife to marry her; of course he has no intention of doing so. He values his judgeship more, that is, if he can get the position. Miss Froy (Dame May Witty), an elderly and kindly old English governess dressed in a tweed outfit, is the key personality. At a dinner table she tells Caldicott and Charters that she loves the nation that they are in, for it is a musical country. There are other persons of interest on the train, including Signor and Signora Doppo. Mr. Doppo has a dopey smile; as a circus performer he has an act called "The Vanishing Lady." In the evening the three gals are unable to sleep because the people in the room above are dancing to a clarinet. The main character in the upstairs room is raffish music scholar Gilbert (Michael Redgrave). Because these people do not stop their rumpus, the manager removes Gilbert; later he retrieves his room. Miss Froy is on her hotel room balcony listening to a street singer below, when the latter is strangled. She does not notice, but hums the tune that he was humming. The next morning all of the folks are jam-packed together waiting for the train, getting ready to leave. While Froy is bending down to get her luggage a flower-box from a second floor window, apparently aimed for her, misses and strikes Iris on the head instead, dazing her. She still manages to get on the train and wave goodbye to her two girlfriends. Before long, Iris, still lightheaded, has tea with Froy. She does not get Froy's name clearly because of surrounding noise, so Froy spells it out on the passenger car window condensation. Iris soon passes out, and when she awakens cannot locate Froy. She questions the train passengers and train stewards, but none seem to recall Froy at all. The lady has indeed vanished. Actually Caldicott and Charters certainly remember her, as they had sat together at the same dining table the previous night. But as the men want no possible interruption of a train search that will interfere with their precious cricket match back home, they feign ignorance. Eric Todhunter, too, has lied because he wants to avoid any attention to his affair with Margaret.
On the train is Dr. Hartz (Paul Lukas), a suspicious brain surgeon from Czechoslovakia. Although he seems willing to help to find Miss Froy, it is obvious that he is actually doing the opposite. And he says that Iris, because of her slight concussion, may not be thinking clearly. "There is no Miss Froy, there never was a Miss Froy. Merely a very subjective image." Meanwhile, at the next train stop, a heavily bandaged patient on a stretcher is let aboard. Dr. Hartz says that he will operate on him at a hospital at the next train stop. Now a nun assists the patient. Iris becomes suspicious as she wears high heels. But the only one willing to help is Gilbert, who had earlier repulsed her with his hotel shenanigans. But Iris has nowhere else to turn. As our two heroes investigate, they become friendly with each other. They eventually discover that not only is Miss Froy aboard, but also is in danger. Will Iris remember Froy's name on the car window? Maybe Froy is indeed the patient on the stretcher! Here the situation, directed by the movie master, really begins to build tension. There are neat clues. The pace quickens. Note how the main characters react when they realize that they are in the middle of a menace. Is Doppo involved? The pseudo-nun? A German, Madame Kummer, malevolently looking in tweed, who appeared unexpectedly? Dr. Hartz? No spoilers will be given here, but there will be a train diversion and an exciting shootout. Caldicott and Charters may have a use after all.
Alfred Hitchcock, in all of his quick-wittedness, has poised himself to begin making some of the greatest movies in world cinema history in the upcoming decades. By the way, near the end at the train station was the master himself with a cigarette in his mouth and a tiny lunch box in his left hand.
On the train is Dr. Hartz (Paul Lukas), a suspicious brain surgeon from Czechoslovakia. Although he seems willing to help to find Miss Froy, it is obvious that he is actually doing the opposite. And he says that Iris, because of her slight concussion, may not be thinking clearly. "There is no Miss Froy, there never was a Miss Froy. Merely a very subjective image." Meanwhile, at the next train stop, a heavily bandaged patient on a stretcher is let aboard. Dr. Hartz says that he will operate on him at a hospital at the next train stop. Now a nun assists the patient. Iris becomes suspicious as she wears high heels. But the only one willing to help is Gilbert, who had earlier repulsed her with his hotel shenanigans. But Iris has nowhere else to turn. As our two heroes investigate, they become friendly with each other. They eventually discover that not only is Miss Froy aboard, but also is in danger. Will Iris remember Froy's name on the car window? Maybe Froy is indeed the patient on the stretcher! Here the situation, directed by the movie master, really begins to build tension. There are neat clues. The pace quickens. Note how the main characters react when they realize that they are in the middle of a menace. Is Doppo involved? The pseudo-nun? A German, Madame Kummer, malevolently looking in tweed, who appeared unexpectedly? Dr. Hartz? No spoilers will be given here, but there will be a train diversion and an exciting shootout. Caldicott and Charters may have a use after all.
Alfred Hitchcock, in all of his quick-wittedness, has poised himself to begin making some of the greatest movies in world cinema history in the upcoming decades. By the way, near the end at the train station was the master himself with a cigarette in his mouth and a tiny lunch box in his left hand.