“The Lady Vanishes” is a thriller based on the story "The Wheel Spins" by Ethel Lina White and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
While travelling in continental Europe, a rich
young playgirl, Iris Matilda Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), her
friends Blanche and Julie (Googie Withers and Sally Stewart) are stranded in the
mountainous European country of Mandrika, along with the rest of the passengers
on a scheduled train delayed for 24 by a day due to an avalanche, and as a
result they are forced to spend the night in an overcrowded Inn.
The next day Iris says goodbye to her
girlfriends before heading back to England to get married but she receives a
blow to the head from a falling flower pot and a middle aged English governess
named Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) takes her under her wing, and they spend some
time in the dining car before taking their seats in their compartment where
Iris promptly falls asleep.
When she wakes up Miss Froy is nowhere to be
seen and she knew she was on the train but none of the people who saw them
together will corroborate her story and she is universally dismissed and a
possible concussion is cited as the cause.
Only one person is prepared to humour her, an
Englishman named Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave), a musicologist, but will
his help be enough to find Miss Froy?
As you would expect with a Hitchcock Classic
there is a depth of quality in the cast to drive the story, Cecil Parker and
Linden Travers as the Todhunter’s, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as Charters
and Caldicott, Catherine Lacy as the Nun and Mary Clare as Baroness Athona all
contribute to a great film.
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