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Harrison's Reports (1938) - The Lady Vanishes

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"The Lady Vanishes" with Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave and Paul Lukas

(Gaumont-British, Nov. 1 ; time, 91 min.)

A very good melodrama, with excellent comedy, and a charming romance. Alfred Hitchcock, director of "The 39 Steps" and "The Girl Was Young," again displays his talents in the field of melodrama ; taking ordinary situations, he builds them up in so exciting a manner that the spectator is held in tense suspense. As a matter of fact some of the situations are so thrilling that they send chills down one's spine. Although most of the action takes place aboard a train, the pace is fast and the action thrilling. The comedy, both in dialogue and situation, is unusually good :—

Margaret Lockwood, a beautiful English girl, leaves the Balkans, where she had been vacationing, to return to London, there to marry a titled Englishman. She is annoyed to find that Michael Redgrave, an easy-going musician whom she disliked, was on the same train. She becomes acquainted with Dame May Whitty, a harmless-looking spinster, who takes care of her when she is accidentally hit on the head by a flower-pot. Miss Whitty suggests that she go to sleep. When she awakens and asks the other passengers in her compartment where Miss Whitty was, they look at her strangely and claim that no one else had been in that compartment. Paul Lukas, a brain specialist, shows an interest in Miss Lockwood and suggests that the blow on her head might have affected her. Miss Lockwood turns to Redgrave for help; it takes her a long time to convince him that such a person as Dame Whitty existed. Their investigation leads them to the surprising discovery that they were dealing with dangerous characters ; they take Lukas into their confidence, not knowing he was one of the conspirators. They eventually find and rescue Dame Whitty ; she admits that she was a member of the British Intelligence Service and that she had information that Lukas and his assistants did not want her to pass on. After many thrilling adventures, during which their lives are endangered when Lukas detaches their car from the rest of the train, Redgrave and some of the other passengers finally overpower the conspirators and get to the border safely. In the meantime, Miss Lockwood and Redgrave had fallen madly in love with each other and decide to marry.

Ethel Lina White wrote the story, and Sidney Gilliatt and Frank Launder, the screen play; in the cast are Cecil Parker, Linden Travers, and others.

Suitability, Class A.

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