For my birthday last year Alice gave me an Alfred Hitchcock collection of movies. I'm not sure if I was thrilled or not. Most of the movies were early Hitchcock black and white movies so I haven't been keen on watching them. On Mother's Day I decided to watch one and picked "The Lady Vanishes" at random, a 1938 movie that I thought would probably put me to sleep. Hardly! It has all of the Hitchcock things that you see in his later movies. Humor. Strange scenes. Thrilling camera shots. And more. I couldn't believe how good this movie was.
I read that this was the last movie that Hitchcock made in England before he moved to Hollywood. The movie involves a fictional country that compares with Nazi Germany. It starts with guests who are snowed in. Then a young woman, Iris, takes a train out of the country but because of a head injury she passes out only to discover that the lady helping her, Miss Froy, has vanished. She reluctantly enlists the help of a man (Gilbert) who has insulted her back at the lodge but who now manages to help her "find" the missing woman who turns out to be a British spy.
Included in the movie are a risky outside transfer by Gilbert to a different state room, a diverted train, a gun battle with "Nazis", a daring rescue and escape for Mrs. Froy, and the triumph of love between Iris and Gilbert when Iris decides to abandon her diminutive fiance and commit her life to Gilbert.
I'm told that a 1979 remake was silly but this wonderful classic is far from silly. It's worth seeing.
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