The Lady Vanishes

I'm a big fan of Hitchcock films, so was interesting to see how this remake differs... and it differs greatly! Its full of stereotypes - loud Americans saving the day, weedy posh Brits and Nazi Germans. I found myself not caring what happened and just found some of the characters annoying.

Skip this one and watch the Hitchcock original.

One of Hitchcocks best. Newcomers to this movie may solve the mystery element to this film quite early, simply because every other film-maker has borrowed from it.

Terrific performances all round, particularly Margaret Lockwood who has to team up with Michael Redgrave in order to solve the disappearance of Miss Fry (the sublime Dame May Whitty).

Witty, clever and completely entertaining. Rent it now...

This isn't the Hitchcock version, but the extremely poor Hammer remake from the 70's.

The Hitchcock version is also available on DVD.

Amanda Kelly (Cybill Shepherd) boards a train in Switzerland with a friendly children's nanny, Miss Froy (Angela Lansbury). However, mid-way through the journey Miss Froy seemingly vanishes from the train, and everyone who saw her begins to claim otherwise! With Robert Condon (Elliott Gould) being the only person on-board willing to believe Amanda's story about the missing passenger, will they be able find this mysterious woman before reaching the end of the line?

Anthony Page directs a flaccid remake of Hitchcock's original. Both Shepherd and Gould 'ham up' the acting to unbearable heights, with each trying to out-do the other in an attempt to steal the limelight and ultimately neither succeeding.

Shepherd relies on being loud and flamboyant, whilst Gould tries to play it suave and sophisticated, in the same way that, perhaps, a drunk uncle thinks he can do a suave and sophisticated 'James Bond' impression.

The dialogue is crass, stunted and written more as a parody than a remake; there are endless speeches regarding Nazis and money that the original cleverly avoided entering into, as well as incessantly reiterated plot points that may as well have a huge arrow pointing at them they're so obvious!

The film only remains watchable thanks to sterling performances from Ian Carmichael and Arthur Lowe, who do more than a reasonable job of emulating the pompous 'British abroad' characters, Caldicott and Charters.

Avoid this terrible Americanised interpretation, and rent the far, far better British original instead!

This is one of the last films that Hitchcock made in Britain before he was lured to Hollywood, and there's certainly a more British -- cosier, almost -- feel to it than to his later (and perhaps more famous) work.

It was also made with far fewer resources than he was to command in Hollywood - the film was shot in a small studio in Islington with highly impressive results, though to be honest the lack of cash shows in the opening model shot which pans over an alpine "town" (eat your hearts out Weta Workshop :-) However, this doesn't detract as long as you remember the film dates from the late 30s on a small budget, and the story soon kicks off with a charming snow-bound hotel prelude in which the characters, comedic relief, and romantic conflicts are introduced before the characters board the train home.

I won't give the plot away, but I'll just say that there's plenty of tension, romantic conflict, and a superb slice of understated, quintessentially British comedy from cricket fans Charters and Caldicott.

One downside with this version is that the video transfer could have been better -- it lacks the crisp tonality that the best black and white DVDs deliver. Still, this is definitely one to rent if you're into vintage movies.