The Lady Vanishes (1938) | Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this month’s episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron are sure they had something to talk about and end up discussing The Lady Vanishes.

Written by: Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder

Based on the novel “The Wheel Spins” by Ethel Lina White

Starring: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, May Whitty, Cecil Parker, Linden Travers, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Mary Clare, and Emile Boreo

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Trailer:

Our Favourite Trivia:

Director Cameo: Near the end of the movie at Victoria Station wearing a black coat and smoking a cigarette.

François Truffaut claimed this movie was his favorite of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies and the best representation of Hitchcock’s work.

The film was shot at Islington Studios, Shepherd’s Bush and on location in Hampshire at Longmoor Military Camp, the site of the Longmoor Military Railway. The scenery the train passes is all rear projection. The set on which the movie was shot was only 90 feet (27.4 meters) long.

The plot has clear references to the political situation leading up to World War II. The British characters, originally trying their hardest to keep out of the conflict, end up working together to fight off the jack-booted foreigners, while the lawyer who wishes to negotiate with the attackers is shot dead even while waving a white flag. The British Board of Film Censors, to avoid political controversy, would not allow the foreign villains to be specifically identified in the script as Germans.

The tune that Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) is humming is the early 20th-century standard “Colonel Bogey March”, later made even more famous in the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).

The cricket-obsessed characters Charters and Caldicott were created especially for this movie and do not appear in the novel written by Ethel Lina White. Played by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, the characters proved to be so popular that they were teamed up in ten more movies. They reappeared in Night Train to Munich (1940) (also starring Margaret Lockwood) and Millions Like Us(1943), two movies also written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. They also starred in the BBC Radio serials Crook’s Tour (1940) (which was also made into a movie), and Secret Mission 609. They were played in the 1979 remake by Arthur Lowe and Ian Carmichael. In 1985 they reappeared in the BBC Television mystery mini-series, Charters & Caldicott (1985), played by Robin Bailey and Michael Aldridge.

The fictitious country where most of the story takes place is named in the movie. In her first scene, Miss Froy (May Whitty) says, “Bandrika is one of Europe’s few undiscovered corners.” The first two stations in the movie are identified by briefly visible signs, and the third in dialogue. They are Zolnay, Dravka and Morsken. Although Boris, the harassed hotel manager, uses the fictitious Bandrikan language when speaking to his staff, at the end of the phone conversation in which he conveys Iris’ room service order for “champagne”, he exclaims, “Oy vey is mir”, a Yiddish expression meaning “woe is me.”

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Click here for the Washington Post article

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Well Hitch Fans, it’s done! We’ve talked about every available Hitchcock film. But there’s more to be said regarding Hitch’s filmography. Next month we’ll be ranking our Best and Worst of Hitchcock, with a few other bits and pieces along the way. Get in touch and let us know your thoughts, on the great directors complete works, on our podcast, or whatever your final thoughts may be (before we continue on with other related films).

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