The Lady Vanishes
United Kingdom, 1938
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenwriters: Ethel Lina White, Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder
Genre: thriller, comedy
Editing: H. J. Trever; Helen Lewis
Production: Michael Balcon (executive producer), Gainsborough Pictures
Cast
Margaret Lockwood (Iris)
Michael Redgrave (Gilbert)
Paul Lukas (Doctor)
C. Aubrey Smith (Inspector)
Plot
Many tourists are forced to stay crammed into a small hotel in the European country of Bandrika due to a snowstorm that prevents trains from running in the area. Among them is a young English woman named Iris, who is celebrating her bachelorette party with her friends.
There are also other compatriots, such as the eccentric and talkative Gilbert, a musicologist specializing in folk dances. And two cricket fans, eager to return to England so as not to miss a game.
Iris meets an elderly woman at the guesthouse who says her name is Miss Froy and that she is a governess.
When the trains start running again the next day, Iris says goodbye to her friends at the station and then has an accident while talking to Miss Froy. A flowerpot or something similar falls on her head from a window, leaving her slightly dizzy.
The elderly woman accompanies her into the carriage, and they both sit in the same compartment. When Iris recovers, she is astonished to find that the woman has disappeared. What amazes her even more is that no one on the train seems to remember her. Everyone claims that she was alone, and that there was no one there who matched the description given of Miss Froy…
A doctor tries to convince Iris that her memory of the woman must be a hallucination, or some kind of autosuggestion caused by the blow to her head. But Iris insists, and is convinced that Miss Froy is real.
Gilbert, who is also traveling on the train, ends up believing her, and together they begin to investigate…
Commentary
This little-known film by Hitchcock, from his early period, is very atypical for those who are more familiar with the suspense masterpieces that would come later (Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, etc.). It begins almost like a slapstick comedy, and throughout much of the film there is a somewhat surreal humorous tone (in the literal, Buñuelian sense of the term—example: the nun in high heels). In many scenes, the boundaries between reality and illusion are blurred (in fact, an illusionist, the Italian magician, is also traveling on the train). Is the protagonist disturbed? Or does this mysterious old woman really exist? If so, how could she have vanished? And who is she really? These and other unknowns will keep viewers on their toes, especially in the second half, when the themes of espionage and geopolitical conflicts take center stage.
Perhaps the train doctor, who tries to convince Iris that her memories are not real, does not have the best intentions. And perhaps there is some truth in the protagonist’s “conspiracy theories”…
The train, by the way, serves as a vehicle to symbolize the tension in Europe in the late 1930s, which was on the brink of World War II (remember that the film is from 1938). Predictive programming?
Until then, Hitchcock had only worked in his native England, but this was the film that caught the attention of Hollywood producers, leading the British director to continue his career across the Atlantic. Hitchcock himself can be seen at the end of the film, in one of his famous cameos, among the crowd at the London train station.
The film begins in a chaotic hotel in the fictional country of Bandrika, probably located in Southeast Europe, in the Carpathians or the Balkans (incidentally, the Balkans were where the previous major war, World War I, began). The frivolous attitude of several of the characters (such as the cricket fans) has been interpreted as a metaphor for the West’s initial passivity in the face of the advance of totalitarianism in Europe.
The fictional Balkan country, combined with the general humorous tone, is reminiscent of the Tintin comics set in Syldavia and Borduria. These comics by the brilliant Hergé use espionage and international intrigue as a plot device, as does The Lady Vanishes. Hitchcock would later develop a similar theme in North by Northwest (1959), in which the main characters’ train journey is also of great importance (but in this case, with less comedy and more suspense).
Felix Hahlbrock Ponce
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