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The Lady Vanishes (1938 film)
Encyclopedia
The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock
and adapted by Sidney Gilliat
and Frank Launder
from the 1936 novel
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White
. It stars Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave
, Paul Lukas
and Dame May Whitty, and features Cecil Parker
, Linden Travers
, Naunton Wayne
, Basil Radford
, Mary Clare
, Googie Withers
, Catherine Lacey
and Sally Stewart.
The Lady Vanishes is Hitchcock's penultimate film made in the UK before his move to Hollywood–1939's Jamaica Inn
followed it. It was the great success of The Lady Vanishes, after a slump of three films that were not hits, that made it possible for Hitchcock to negotiate a very good deal to work in the States. A remake, also titled The Lady Vanishes
, was made in 1979.
in an "uncivilised" region of immediately pre-World War II Central Europe
, a motley group of travellers eager to return to England is delayed by an avalanche
that has blocked the railway tracks. At night, a folk singer plays a tune al fresco that catches the attention of Miss Froy (May Whitty
), an elderly lady who has worked some years abroad as a governess
. The folk singer is suddenly silenced--apparently murdered.
Among the train's passengers are Gilbert (Michael Redgrave
), a young musicologist
who has been studying the folk songs of the region, Iris (Margaret Lockwood), a young woman of independent means who has spent a holiday with some friends, but is now returning home to get married, and Miss Froy.
When the train resumes its journey, Iris and Miss Froy become acquainted, while the remaining passengers in the compartment appear not to understand a word of English. Iris lapses into unconsciousness, the result of an earlier encounter with a falling flowerpot meant for Miss Froy. When Iris reawakens, the governess has vanished, and she is shocked to learn that the other passengers claim Miss Froy never existed. The other English travelers deny ever seeing her, for their own reasons.
Fellow passenger Doctor Egon Hartz (Paul Lukas
) convinces everyone that Iris must have hallucinated the scene with the old lady because of the blow to her head. Undaunted, Iris starts to investigate, joined only by a skeptical Gilbert, with whom she eventually falls in love. They discover that Miss Froy is being held prisoner in a sealed-off compartment supposedly occupied by a seriously ill patient being transported to an operation. They manage to free her, but the train is diverted to a side track, where a shootout ensues. Miss Froy intimates to Gilbert and Iris that she is in fact a British spy
assigned to deliver some vital information (the famous Hitchcock MacGuffin
) to the Foreign Office
in London; after entrusting her message, encoded in a folk song—sung earlier by a balladeer, who is strangled in the first violence of the film – to Gilbert, she flees under cover of the shootout.
After managing to restart the train and escape, Gilbert and Iris return to London. At the Foreign Office, Gilbert, driven to joyful distraction when Iris accepts his marriage proposal, forgets the tune. Just as it appears the message has been lost, the coded folk song is heard in the background. Fortunately, Miss Froy had been able to escape, and is revealed playing the song on a piano.
were created for the film, and do not appear in the novel. White's novel was adapted for BBC Radio
by Neville Teller and directed by Andy Jordan, first broadcast on BBC World Services and later on BBC Radio 4 Extra. The cast included Jenny Funnell
as Iris, Renée Asherson
as Miss Froy, Mark Paten as Max, Mark Tandy as Professor Wilberforce, Richard Durden as Dr. Traunitz, Michael Roberts
as Baron Hoffmeyer, Jonathan Keeble as Prince Frederick, Karen Lewis as Ms. Barnes, Shirley Dickson as The Baroness, Geraldine Fitzgerald
as Evelyn Flood-Porter, Jan Shand as Rose Flood-Porter and Geoffrey Beevers
as Ian Bretherton.
The story was used again in the series Alfred Hitchcock Presents
, in the episode "Into Thin Air". Several themes of the movie (person vanishing from a moving vehicle, dizzy woman as only witness, writing on the window as proof, etc.) reappear in the 2005 thriller Flightplan
starring Jodie Foster
.
Cast notes:
was assigned by producer Edward Black
to make it. A crew was dispatched to Yugoslavia
to do background shots, but when the Yugoslav police accidentally discovered that they were not well-portrayed in the script, they kicked the crew out of the country, and Black scrapped the project. A year later, Hitchcock could not come up with a property to direct to fulfill his contract with Black, so he accepted when Black offered The Lost Lady to him. Hitchcock worked with the writers to make some changes to tighten up the opening and ending of the story, but otherwise the script did not change much.
At first, Hitchcock considered Lilli Palmer
for the female lead, but went instead with Margaret Lockwood, who was at the time relatively unknown. Lockwood was attracted to the heroines of Ethel Lina White
's stories, and accepted the role. Michael Redgrave was also unknown to the cinema audience, but was a rising stage star at the time. He was reluctant to leave the stage to do the film, but was convinced by John Gielgud
to do so. As it happened, the film, Redgrave's first leading role, made him an international star.
The film, which was shot at studios in Islington
and Shepherd's Bush
, and on location in Hampshire
, including at Longmoor Military Camp, was the first to be made under an agreement between Gaumont-British
and MGM, in which Gaumont provided MGM with some of their Gainsborough films for release in the UK, for which MGM would pay half the production costs if MGM decided to release the film in the US. In the case of The Lady Vanishes, however, 20th Century-Fox did the American release.
.
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
and adapted by Sidney Gilliat
Sidney Gilliat
Sidney Gilliat was an English film director, producer and writer.He was born in the district of Edgeley in Stockport, Cheshire. In the 1930s he worked as a scriptwriter, most notably with Frank Launder on The Lady Vanishes for Alfred Hitchcock, and its sequel Night Train to Munich , directed by...
and Frank Launder
Frank Launder
Frank Launder was an English writer, director and producer, who made more than 40 films, many of them in collaboration with Sidney Gilliat....
from the 1936 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White
Ethel Lina White
Ethel Lina White was a British crime writer, best known for her novel, The Wheel Spins , on which the Alfred Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes , was based.-Early years:...
. It stars Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
, Paul Lukas
Paul Lukas
Paul Lukas was an Austrian-Hungarian-born actor.-Biography:Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut in 1917...
and Dame May Whitty, and features Cecil Parker
Cecil Parker
Cecil Parker was an English character and comedy actor with a distinctive husky voice, who usually played supporting roles in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969....
, Linden Travers
Linden Travers
-Life and career:Travers was born Florence Lindon-Travers in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, the daughter of Florence and William Halton Lindon-Travers. She was the elder sister of Bill Travers, and attended La Sagesse. She made her first stage appearance at the Newcastle Playhouse in 1933...
, Naunton Wayne
Naunton Wayne
Naunton Wayne , was a British character actor, born in Llanwonno, South Wales. He was educated at Clifton College....
, Basil Radford
Basil Radford
Basil Radford was an English character actor who featured in many British films of the 1930s and 1940s. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his first stage appearance in July 1924...
, Mary Clare
Mary Clare
Mary Clare was a British actress who performed in films, on the stage, and later on television.-Biography:...
, Googie Withers
Googie Withers
Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...
, Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey was an English actress who made her film debut in 1938 as the secretive nun who wears high heels in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes . She was an established stage character player before she was 30...
and Sally Stewart.
The Lady Vanishes is Hitchcock's penultimate film made in the UK before his move to Hollywood–1939's Jamaica Inn
Jamaica Inn (film)
Jamaica Inn is a 1939 film made by Alfred Hitchcock adapted from Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name, the first of three of du Maurier's works that Hitchcock adapted ....
followed it. It was the great success of The Lady Vanishes, after a slump of three films that were not hits, that made it possible for Hitchcock to negotiate a very good deal to work in the States. A remake, also titled The Lady Vanishes
The Lady Vanishes (1979 film)
The Lady Vanishes is a 1979 British comedy mystery film directed by Anthony Page. Its screenplay by George Axelrod was based on the novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White...
, was made in 1979.
Plot
In Bandrika, a fictional countryFictional country
A fictional country is a country that is made up for fictional stories, and does not exist in real life, or one that people believe in without proof....
in an "uncivilised" region of immediately pre-World War II Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
, a motley group of travellers eager to return to England is delayed by an avalanche
Avalanche
An avalanche is a sudden rapid flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers or human activity causes a critical escalating transition from the slow equilibrium evolution of the snow pack. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the...
that has blocked the railway tracks. At night, a folk singer plays a tune al fresco that catches the attention of Miss Froy (May Whitty
May Whitty
Dame May Whitty, DBE , born Mary Louise Whitty, was an English stage actress who appeared in numerous films in later life, achieving recognition in several character roles.-Background:...
), an elderly lady who has worked some years abroad as a governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
. The folk singer is suddenly silenced--apparently murdered.
Among the train's passengers are Gilbert (Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
), a young musicologist
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
who has been studying the folk songs of the region, Iris (Margaret Lockwood), a young woman of independent means who has spent a holiday with some friends, but is now returning home to get married, and Miss Froy.
When the train resumes its journey, Iris and Miss Froy become acquainted, while the remaining passengers in the compartment appear not to understand a word of English. Iris lapses into unconsciousness, the result of an earlier encounter with a falling flowerpot meant for Miss Froy. When Iris reawakens, the governess has vanished, and she is shocked to learn that the other passengers claim Miss Froy never existed. The other English travelers deny ever seeing her, for their own reasons.
Fellow passenger Doctor Egon Hartz (Paul Lukas
Paul Lukas
Paul Lukas was an Austrian-Hungarian-born actor.-Biography:Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut in 1917...
) convinces everyone that Iris must have hallucinated the scene with the old lady because of the blow to her head. Undaunted, Iris starts to investigate, joined only by a skeptical Gilbert, with whom she eventually falls in love. They discover that Miss Froy is being held prisoner in a sealed-off compartment supposedly occupied by a seriously ill patient being transported to an operation. They manage to free her, but the train is diverted to a side track, where a shootout ensues. Miss Froy intimates to Gilbert and Iris that she is in fact a British spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
assigned to deliver some vital information (the famous Hitchcock MacGuffin
MacGuffin
A MacGuffin is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is...
) to the Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
in London; after entrusting her message, encoded in a folk song—sung earlier by a balladeer, who is strangled in the first violence of the film – to Gilbert, she flees under cover of the shootout.
After managing to restart the train and escape, Gilbert and Iris return to London. At the Foreign Office, Gilbert, driven to joyful distraction when Iris accepts his marriage proposal, forgets the tune. Just as it appears the message has been lost, the coded folk song is heard in the background. Fortunately, Miss Froy had been able to escape, and is revealed playing the song on a piano.
Adaptation
The plot of Hitchcock's film differs considerably from White's novel. In The Wheel Spins, Miss Froy really is an innocent old lady looking forward to seeing her octogenarian parents; she is abducted because she knows something (without realising its significance) that would cause trouble for the local authorities if it came out. Iris' mental confusion is due to sunstroke, not a blow to the head. In White's novel, the wheel keeps spinning: the train never stops, and there is no final shootout. Additionally, the supporting cast of English people differs somewhat between the novel and the film; for instance, in the novel, the Gilbert character is Max Hare, a young English engineer (described as "untidy and with a rebellious tuft of hair", and in a similarly chirpy vein to Gilbert) building a dam in the hills who knows the local language, and there is also a modern-languages professor character who acts as Iris's and Max's interpreter who does not appear in the film. The characters Charters and CaldicottCharters and Caldicott
Caldicott and Charters are two supporting characters in the film The Lady Vanishes, and recurring characters in later films and BBC Radio productions.-Life:...
were created for the film, and do not appear in the novel. White's novel was adapted for BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
by Neville Teller and directed by Andy Jordan, first broadcast on BBC World Services and later on BBC Radio 4 Extra. The cast included Jenny Funnell
Jenny Funnell
Jenny Funnell is a British actress best known for her role as Sandy in the British sitcom As Time Goes By .Funnell was born in Kenya, then still a British colony, and has a twin sister named Julie...
as Iris, Renée Asherson
Renee Asherson
Renée Asherson , born Dorothy Renée Ascherson, is an English actress of stage, film and television.Much of Asherson's theatrical career was spent in Shakespearean plays, appearing at such venues as the Old Vic, the Liverpool Playhouse and the Westminster Theatre...
as Miss Froy, Mark Paten as Max, Mark Tandy as Professor Wilberforce, Richard Durden as Dr. Traunitz, Michael Roberts
Michael Roberts
Michael Roberts may refer to:*Michael Roberts , British poet, writer, critic and broadcaster*Michael Roberts , British historian...
as Baron Hoffmeyer, Jonathan Keeble as Prince Frederick, Karen Lewis as Ms. Barnes, Shirley Dickson as The Baroness, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lady Lindsay-Hogg was an Irish-American actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Early life:...
as Evelyn Flood-Porter, Jan Shand as Rose Flood-Porter and Geoffrey Beevers
Geoffrey Beevers
Geoffrey Beevers is a British actor who has appeared in many different television roles.Beevers has worked extensively at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, both as an actor ; and as an adaptor/director of George Eliot's novel Adam Bede , for which he won a Time Out Award, and Balzac's...
as Ian Bretherton.
The story was used again in the series Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
, in the episode "Into Thin Air". Several themes of the movie (person vanishing from a moving vehicle, dizzy woman as only witness, writing on the window as proof, etc.) reappear in the 2005 thriller Flightplan
Flightplan
Flightplan is a 2005 thriller film directed by Robert Schwentke and starring Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen, Kate Beahan, Greta Scacchi, and Sean Bean. It was released in North America on September 23, 2005...
starring Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
.
Cast
- Margaret Lockwood as Iris Henderson
- Michael RedgraveMichael RedgraveSir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
as Gilbert - Paul LukasPaul LukasPaul Lukas was an Austrian-Hungarian-born actor.-Biography:Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut in 1917...
as Dr Hartz - May WhittyMay WhittyDame May Whitty, DBE , born Mary Louise Whitty, was an English stage actress who appeared in numerous films in later life, achieving recognition in several character roles.-Background:...
as Miss Froy - Cecil ParkerCecil ParkerCecil Parker was an English character and comedy actor with a distinctive husky voice, who usually played supporting roles in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969....
as Mr Todhunter - Linden TraversLinden Travers-Life and career:Travers was born Florence Lindon-Travers in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, the daughter of Florence and William Halton Lindon-Travers. She was the elder sister of Bill Travers, and attended La Sagesse. She made her first stage appearance at the Newcastle Playhouse in 1933...
as Mrs Todhunter - Naunton WayneNaunton WayneNaunton Wayne , was a British character actor, born in Llanwonno, South Wales. He was educated at Clifton College....
as Caldicott - Basil RadfordBasil RadfordBasil Radford was an English character actor who featured in many British films of the 1930s and 1940s. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his first stage appearance in July 1924...
as Charters - Mary ClareMary ClareMary Clare was a British actress who performed in films, on the stage, and later on television.-Biography:...
as Baroness
- Emile Boreo as Hotel Manager
- Googie WithersGoogie WithersGeorgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...
as Blanche - Sally Stewart as Julie
- Philip Leaver as Signor Doppo
- Selma Vaz Dias as Signora Doppo
- Catherine LaceyCatherine LaceyCatherine Lacey was an English actress who made her film debut in 1938 as the secretive nun who wears high heels in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes . She was an established stage character player before she was 30...
as The Nun - Josephine Wilson as Madame Kummer
- Charles OliverCharles Oliver (actor)Charles Oliver was a British film actor. He appeared in the Will Hay film Ask a Policeman as the local squire who oversees a smuggling empire.-Selected filmography:* Wings Over Africa * Midnight at Madame Tussaud's...
as The Officer - Kathleen Tremaine as Anna
Cast notes:
- Alfred Hitchcock can be seen at Victoria Station, wearing a black coat and smoking a cigarette, near the end of the film.
- The film is the first appearance of the comedy double-act Charters and CaldicottCharters and CaldicottCaldicott and Charters are two supporting characters in the film The Lady Vanishes, and recurring characters in later films and BBC Radio productions.-Life:...
(played by Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford). The first of these characters' many recurrences is in Night Train to MunichNight Train to MunichNight Train to Munich is a 1940 British thriller film. It was directed by Carol Reed, with writing credits by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. It is liberally adapted from the Gordon Wellesley novel Report on a Fugitive.-Plot:...
.
Production
The Lady Vanishes was originally called The Lost Lady, and young American director Roy William NeillRoy William Neill
Roy William Neill was a film director best known today for directing several of the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, made between 1943 and 1946 and released by Universal Studios....
was assigned by producer Edward Black
Edward Black (producer)
Edward Black was an English film producer.-Partial filmography:* Oh, Mr Porter! * Good Morning, Boys * Doctor Syn * Convict 99 * The Lady Vanishes...
to make it. A crew was dispatched to Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
to do background shots, but when the Yugoslav police accidentally discovered that they were not well-portrayed in the script, they kicked the crew out of the country, and Black scrapped the project. A year later, Hitchcock could not come up with a property to direct to fulfill his contract with Black, so he accepted when Black offered The Lost Lady to him. Hitchcock worked with the writers to make some changes to tighten up the opening and ending of the story, but otherwise the script did not change much.
At first, Hitchcock considered Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer , born Lilli Marie Peiser, was a German actress. She won the Volpi Cup, the Deutscher Filmpreis three times, and was nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award.-Life and career:...
for the female lead, but went instead with Margaret Lockwood, who was at the time relatively unknown. Lockwood was attracted to the heroines of Ethel Lina White
Ethel Lina White
Ethel Lina White was a British crime writer, best known for her novel, The Wheel Spins , on which the Alfred Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes , was based.-Early years:...
's stories, and accepted the role. Michael Redgrave was also unknown to the cinema audience, but was a rising stage star at the time. He was reluctant to leave the stage to do the film, but was convinced by John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
to do so. As it happened, the film, Redgrave's first leading role, made him an international star.
The film, which was shot at studios in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
and Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush
-Commerce:Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green....
, and on location in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, including at Longmoor Military Camp, was the first to be made under an agreement between Gaumont-British
Gaumont British
Gaumont-British Picture Corporation was the British arm of the French film company Gaumont. The company became independent of its French parent in 1922, when Isidore Ostrer acquired control of Gaumont-British....
and MGM, in which Gaumont provided MGM with some of their Gainsborough films for release in the UK, for which MGM would pay half the production costs if MGM decided to release the film in the US. In the case of The Lady Vanishes, however, 20th Century-Fox did the American release.
Response
When The Lady Vanishes opened in the UK it was an immediate hit, becoming the most successful British film to that date. It was also very successful when it opened in New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.