Showing:
BBC TWO, Saturday July 28, 2.40pm
Synopsis:
(1938) An English girl on a train from Switzerland befriends an old woman. But when the woman disappears, her fellow passengers deny ever having seen her.
Read the full synopsis on BFI Screenonline
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Cast:
- Margaret Lockwood (Iris Henderson)
- Michael Redgrave (Gilbert Redman)
- Paul Lukas (Dr Egon Hartz)
- Dame May Whitty (Miss Froy)
- Emile Boreo (hotel manager Boris)
Full cast and credits on BFI Screenonline.
Analysis:
If one film challenges the idea that Hitchcock 'found himself' as a director only after he arrived in Hollywood, it is The Lady Vanishes. Released in 1938 by Gainsborough, it is arguably the most accomplished, and certainly the wittiest of Hitchcock's British films, and is up there with the best of his American work.
In Michael Redgrave (in his first film role), Hitchcock found a leading man whose urbane charisma - and his comic timing - rivals that of Cary Grant, while co-star Margaret Lockwood has a warmth which fascinatingly contrasts with the coolness of his American female stars like Ingrid Bergman or Grace Kelly.
Written by the young partnership of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, later well known for their St. Trinian's films in the '50s and '60s, the story is blessed by great characters and many witty and imaginative touches.
Read the full analyisis on BFI Screenonline.
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