- The Lady Vanishes is one of the earliest and best examples of a "locked room mystery," except that the room in this case is a moving train. The mystery, as suggested by the title, is that the charming governess Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) vanishes as the train she's riding steams across central Europe. Unfortunately, the only person willing to acknowledge that Miss Froy was even on the train is the dazed debutante Iris (Margaret Lockwood), who recently received a nasty knock on the noggin from a falling flowerpot. Still, her fainting spells couldn't possibly account for Miss Froy's disappearance. After all, the audience saw Miss Froy, too. Right?
- Although Iris claims to have "been everywhere and done everything," one gathers that this is the first time she's tried to solve a mystery. While she has the full (unsolicited) support of her puckish male counterpart, Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), the rest of the passengers appear to be in league against her. For instance, there are the two buffoonish cricket fans, Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) and Charters (Basil Radford). How could they fail to remember passing the sugar to Miss Froy in the dining car? Or what about Mr. and Mrs. Todhunter (Cecil Parker and Linden Travers)? Why would such a innocent "honeymoon couple" deny that Miss Froy passed by their car? Surely the grinning Signor Doppo (Philip Leaver) and the severe Signora Doppo (Selma Vaz Dias) recall sitting next to Miss Froy!
- Just as Iris begins to question her own sanity, some evidence of Miss Froy's existence finally surfaces. Although the faded writing on a window and a discarded tea package may not be enough evidence to convince the authorities, they are certainly enough to convince Iris and Gilbert that truly the lady has vanished. Fortunately for them, this is not the Orient Express, and not quite all of the passengers belong to a vast criminal conspiracy. The cricket fans and the increasingly unhappy couple had their own amusing reasons for wanting to stay uninvolved, and it is really the Doppos and the suspicious Dr. Hartz (Paul Lukas) who have kidnapped Miss Froy. Soon, Iris and Gilbert are battling a stage magician, uncovering an impostor nun (Catherine Lacey), and clinging to the outsides of train cars in an attempt to find the missing governess. When they finally do rescue her, it turns out that the frail-looking Miss Froy has more than a few secrets of her own.
- Although the shootout at the film's end is the least creative part of an otherwise impressive story, The Lady Vanishes is rightfully acknowledged alongside The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps as one of Hitchcock's great early works. The entire film is peppered with such wit that even secondary characters like Caldicott and Charters remain immensely memorable. Visually, Hitchcock's immersive approach to Iris' blurred fainting spells is very striking, and the shot of Gilbert hanging out the window between two moving trains is simply astounding. From an old woman's tea fixation to dry jests about cricket obsessions and the Oxford-Cambridge rivalry, this is also one of the director's most quintessentially British works. In fact, one gets the impression that the end of the film is pitched directly at Hitchcock's fellow countrymen as the two heroes implore their reluctant compatriots to take up arms against oppression. It doesn't take too much imagination to figure out which real European countries are represented by the fictional nation of "Bandrika," although Hitchcock sensibly prevents political messages from arriving at the expense of entertainment. Even at age seventy, The Lady Vanishes remains as charming, captivating, and exciting as ever. Just like Miss Froy, I'd say.
- I spotted Hitchcock walking around at the train station, but what was he doing with his neck?
- It seems like this film has been imitated extensively, although right now I can only think of Flightplan, starring Jodie Foster.
- This was based on the novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White.
