“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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