A Masterpiece!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Watching "The Lady Vanishes" on a cozy and lazy Sunday afternoon sadly led to a minor argument between me and my beloved wife… When the young leading lady wakes up after a nap on the train, she discovers that an elderly befriended lady went missing, but for some mysterious and unknown reason all the other passengers claim there never even was an elderly lady aboard the train. During these events, my wife said something like: "Hey, they took the exact same plot as in that movie Flightplan with Jodie Foster". Well, actually, no my dearest … "Flightplan" with Jodie Foster, as well as dozens of other movies, copied the plot from this movie and not the other way around. She got slightly agitated for correcting her and told me that 78-year-old movies are simply not very exciting. And that, of course, was the end of a lovely afternoon. Everybody always hails the movies that Alfred Hitchcock made in Hollywood starting with "Rebecca" in 1940 and onwards – and righteously so, of course – but all the movies that he released in his motherland England are undeniably brilliant as well and often even unjustly neglected. Take "The Lady Vanishes", for instance. Contrary to what my wife might say, this movie is still as refreshingly mysterious, suspenseful and absorbing as it must have been around the time of its release. And, moreover, the screenplay is also genuinely funny! It remains strange and almost unnatural to associate Alfred – the Master of Suspense – Hitchcock with comedy, and of course this is not a laugh-out-loud slapstick movie. The humor comes from the sharp and witty dialogues as well as from several delightfully stereotypical characters (notably the irresistible British chaps Caldicott & Charters). At the beginning of the film, a whole bunch of people are snowed in and trapped in a small (Tyrolian?) mountain hotel, including the young Iris Henderson, recovering from a bachelorette weekend, the cocky musician Gilbert and the friendly elderly Miss Froy. The next day, Iris and Miss Froy aboard the train together, but when Iris wakes up after a nap Miss Froy mysteriously vanished. She slowly persuades the skeptical Gilbert to take her concerns seriously and he helps to find her. "The Lady Vanishes" is an intelligently structured and non-stop fascinating mystery, chock-full of contrast. The tone is definitely light-headed, but simultaneously there's lots of political tension and unsettling atmosphere. The performances are more than stellar and it's needless to say that the direction is surefooted and impeccable. Shortly after "The Lady Vanishes", Hitchcock moved to Hollywood and altered suspense cinema forevermore, but his earliest UK movies should never be neglected!

The initial 20 minutes or so of Hitchcock's penultimate film made in UK is frolic where a bunch of passengers (mainly British) is trapped in a local hotel of the fictitious middle- Europe country Bandrika, due to an avalanche has blocked the railway line. Which is quite unusual since mystery and suspense is our knee-jerking reaction towards a vintage Hitchcock brand. But if you think it over after watching the entire movie, you will realise it is a neat conceit, not only does it imply the characteristics of its various players - e.g. proffering a plausible reason for the reaction of two key witness, the cricket enthusiasts Charters (Radford) and Caldicott (Wayne), when they are learned about the lady vanishes; it also excels in satirising the common foibles rooted deep in Britons, notably the married Mr. Todhunter (Parker) and his mistress-in-disguise-as-Ms. Todhunter (Travers), whose switch of testimony will be vividly delineated as an example that truth cannot always win over individual's self-serving reckonings. Also one key character is Miss Froy (Witty), soon will disappear in the train next morning, she is a courteous and amiable retired governess, one lingering big question is why she is the target? The real protagonists are actually an English lady Iris Henderson (Lockwood), who is going back to get married, and Gilbert (Redgrave in his screen debut), a young musician and writer, the two perfectly tallies with a good match started with dispute, she is a bit supercilious while he is very impetuous, but together, they will investigate the mysterious disappearance of Miss. Froy on the train, and a little romance is burgeoning as well.When a pair of unknown hands starts to strangle a man who is serenading under Miss Froy's room, the mystery kicks off (in hindsight, another brilliant plot device), and the next day, a premeditated murder attempt is accidentally foiled but it injures Iris and pairs her with Miss Froy, and then, after the disappearance occurs, the situation becomes more mythic and intriguing, those who clearly see Miss Froy before, all refuse to admit her existence, to the extent Iris begins to question her own rationality, thanks to a prestigious surgeon Dr. Hartz (Lukas) fanning the flames nearby. Eventually through Iris' indomitable persistence and Gilbert's aide, the conspiracy theory is debunking when a conscience- smote mole offers a helping hand (which is the most far-fetched part in the tale). And a final confrontation is a slick action stand-off, with a British-only invitation and gallows humour galore. Lockwood and Redgrave strike up charming chemistry in the fast-paced process of finding out the truth, Paul Lukas is viciously debonair as a heartless snake-in-the-grass, not to mention Dame May Witty, who is pleasantly radiant with her ingenuous facade where true grit lies. And its byproduct - Charters and Caldicott would expand their popularity in three other pictures made by different directors. Suspense, humour, mystery, romance, action, all can be found in Hitchcock's engagingly crafted homegrown piece, even its budget cannot match his later Hollywood fine arts, and certain props and settings are inconveniently discernible as miniatures and models, all the major constituents of Hitchcock-ian school is hearteningly fully-fledged at that stage. Like FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940), the ending of THE LADY VANISHES also evokes the looming-large approach of WWII, and the secret agent trope becomes sought-after ever since in the cinema-scape.

Often a criticism of action films is that the lead female character is poorly imagined, acts too helpless to exist, or can't survive in any real setting. It's a criticism that existed since the first Perils of Pauline - the early American silent series that would have Pauline kidnapped by a mustachioed villain and tied to a train track. To say the least, Pauline was not very smart. But she drew in crowds.Any film that didn't have the female going through these Pauline stunts wasn't considered an action film. The smarter females were reserved for comedies and woman "weepies" - or foreign film stars such as Leni Riefenstahl. Yes, foreign films had a gift for making their heroines smart - but they didn't draw in the crowds that the dim-witted, English-speaking girls did.Perhaps it was the comedic aspects of the romantic thriller, The Lady Vanishes, that allowed its lead character, Iris Henderson, to thrive. The character was central to not only moving the plot, but also keeping the audience involved. She not only wasn't dumb, she was exasperatingly too smart. This female role didn't drive off audiences, however. The film was an international hit.Iris Matilda Henderson is touring Europe before she has to settle down in a marriage her father arranged with some royal scion. After living off her father's self-made wealth, she is resigned to give him some royal recognition. But she doesn't let her friends talk to her about happiness. She refuses to be spoiled.Unfortunately, an avalanche interrupts her plans. It strands her and a whole host of travelers in a small cramped hotel in some fictional Eastern European country. Iris is barely inconvenienced, however. She shares a floor with an elderly governess by the name of Miss Froy, and she's bugged by a musicologist by the name of Gilbert - two people more worldly than Miss Henderson, but she's not one to judge. Besides, there is a way out. The next morning, a substitute train will come and transport them all to Paris, from which she can make her way back home to London.Alas, on the way to the train someone drops a potted plant (?) on Iris, and she blacks out. Miss Froy offers to look after the poor girl on the journey; they both are headed to the same destination. Miss Froy prepares cold compresses, and looks after meals. Miss Henderson tries to rest. The women quickly form a bond.Around lunchtime, however, Iris wakes up, and Miss Froy is nowhere to be found. She asks her fellow car passengers, a foreign minister of some Germanic country and an Italian stage magician if they've seen her companion. They say she had no companion.Incredulous, she doesn't waste anytime. She calls them stupid, and goes to search for Miss Froy. Unfortunately, she doesn't find much help. Every passenger, especially those of English origins, have their own conceits for denying the existence of Miss Froy, and implying that Miss Henderson is touched.She doesn't care. She is much better at dishing out insults, and she is determined to find her kindly helper.The Lady Vanishes was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, but he came onto the project. Originally, the film was to be shot in multiple locations including Yugoslavia by another director. That director wasn't good at hiding the script, however. Once Yugoslavian officials read a pinched copy of the script, they objected to how their country was portrayed as dimwitted and fascist. (Although based upon a book, Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder's adaptation added characters, an obvious political message, and Italian and Germanic villains in this flick that was released a couple of months before the start of WWII.) The Yugoslavian government kicked the cast and crew out. And the entire project was put on hold.Alfred Hitchcock knew the writers, who had been trying to sell this anti-appeasement, anti-fascist adventure yarn in a Chamberlain England. Hitchcock was already in negotiations to start directing in Hollywood. He decided to revive the project, and make this one of his last films for Gaumont British Studios.Hitchcock accommodates the foreign country scenes with an obvious model train set. (No sense in letting some other country get the shot of delaying the film.) Although some of the jokes fall flat, he also doesn't try and distance himself from the comedic elements of the script. Alas, the viewer can't tell where Hitchcock begins and Gillian and Launder ends. This is a true collaboration between writers and director.Francois Truffaut when he interviewed Hitchcock, admired how much Iris was able to accomplish. Hitchcock admitted even he was surprised many of Iris' traits survived the cutting room floor. And that was the ticket. Her smarts were crucial to moving the plot forward. Previous to the 1960's, Iris was the smartest, English-speaking female character on celluloid. Oh not by degrees, or citations! No, Iris had a mystery on her hands, one that pitted her against a high powered lawyer, the minister of a spy agency, a renowned magician, a national government psychiatrist (Think Hanibal Lecture!), two staticians, minions who like to play mind games, as well as England's favor for isolation, and a lady with a secret; and she outwitted them all! Iris had the one-line zingers. She had the action sequences. In the beginning of the film, Henderson says that it's time to settle down because she's done everything. By the end of the film, many viewers agree.

(86%) The opening scenes set in an alpine hotel are like the lines on an old man's face. They really do highlight how old this film is. Not to say that they are bad, they are just of a time long gone. But once this gets going it's as thrilling as any well made modern production of the past twenty- five or so years. As like most Hitchcock movies the female lead character is painfully pretty; but the tone here is a touch lighter than most, which if anything works better than it it had overly serious one. The exciting and well handled shoot-out action towards the end is not something you get too often in movies of this age; and really if it's a classic entertaining mystery flick you're after then this is pretty much a perfect target.