The Lady Vanishes, British thriller film, released in 1938, that was one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s early classics, noted for the taut suspense and dry humour that would largely define his movies.
Iris Henderson (played by Margaret Lockwood) is a young British woman traveling on a train in Europe. When the train is delayed by an avalanche, the passengers spend the night in a local château, and Henderson makes friends with an elderly governess named Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty). During the evening, Miss Froy is serenaded by a folksinger, who mysteriously dies shortly thereafter. There is also an apparent attempt on her life when a falling flowerpot nearly strikes her but hits Henderson instead. After being helped into her train compartment, Henderson passes out. When she regains consciousness, Miss Froy has disappeared, and the other riders deny any knowledge of her existence. Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave), a music teacher, offers to help Henderson, and they discover that Miss Froy has been held captive as part of an elaborate espionage conspiracy. After being rescued, Miss Froy confesses that she is actually a British spy and has been assigned to transport a vital secret message that is hidden in a musical tune she has memorized. Miss Froy departs the train amid gunfire, leaving Redman to memorize the tune and hum it for British intelligence agents when he arrives in London. When meeting the officials, however, Redman discovers that he has forgotten the melody. He then hears it being played on a nearby piano and discovers that it is Miss Froy, who has made her way back to London to deliver the coded message herself.
The suspenseful thriller marked the film debut of Redgrave, who took the role at the urging of John Gielgud, with whom he had acted in several plays. Supporting actors Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford were so acclaimed for their comedic performances as eccentric British buddies that they teamed up again in a number of subsequent films. With the huge success of The Lady Vanishes, Hitchcock made one more movie in England—Jamaica Inn (1939)—before moving to Hollywood.
Production notes and credits
- Studio: Gainsborough Pictures
- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Producer: Edward Black (uncredited)
- Writers: Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder
- Music: Louis Levy and Charles Williams (both uncredited)
- Running time: 96 minutes
- Margaret Lockwood (Iris Henderson)
- Michael Redgrave (Gilbert Redman)
- Paul Lukas (Dr. Hartz)
- Dame May Whitty (Miss Froy)
- Naunton Wayne (Caldicott)
- Basil Radford (Charters)