Post by petrolino on Mar 18, 2018 0:58:59 GMT
'The Lady Vanishes' is an elegant mystery based upon the novel 'The Wheel Spins' (1936) by Welsh crime writer Ethel Lina White. An avalanche in the Central European nation of Bandrika forces English tourist Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood) to occupy a room at the remote Gasthof Petrus Inn. Iris is on her way back home to get married to a wealthy and successful businessman. The following day, Iris and several of the stranded guests board a train, only for Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) to disappear like a puff of smoke. Iris determines to follow the traces and find Miss Froy but none of her fellow passengers seem willing to admit to having ever seen this lady.
'The Lady Vanishes' is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most influential motion pictures. It can be seen as a chief source of inspiration to Wes Anderson when making 'The Darjeeling Limited' (2007) and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' (2014). Films like Ray Gower's 'Dark Corners' (2006), Brad Anderson's 'Transsiberian' (2008), David Fincher's 'Gone Girl' (2014) and Tate Taylor's 'The Girl On The Train' (2016) also exhibit the influence of Hitchcock's work. Anthony Page's film 'The Lady Vanishes' (1979) is quite different to the original. 'The Lady Vanishes' was remade for television in 2013.
"Hitchcock and railways go together like a locomotive and tender. He loved them, they figure significantly in his work and never more so than in The Lady Vanishes."
- Philip French, ' My Favourite Hitchcock : The Lady Vanishes'
Sally Stewart, Margaret Lockwood, Alfred Hitchcock & Googie Withers
- Philip French, ' My Favourite Hitchcock : The Lady Vanishes'
Sally Stewart, Margaret Lockwood, Alfred Hitchcock & Googie Withers
'Nocturne Op 48 No.1 C Minor' by Frederic Chopin performed by Valentina Lisitsa
'The Lady Vanishes' is an enormously popular thriller that prepared the catapult that launched Alfred Hitchcock into a Hollywood career under the aegis of Pennsylvanian film producer David O. Selznick. It occupies a fantasy world overseen by an authoritarian regime that feels like it's made from dolls, models and miniatures. It's an essentially British piece, hopping from bedrooms, compartments and cabins like a bedroom farce and delighting in the differences British people perceive between themselves and other Europeans."In The Lady Vanishes, Hitchcock creates a sprightly piece of escapism around an eccentric old Englishwoman who seems to dematerialize while traveling on a Continental train and the fractious budding romance between a mischievous musicologist and a betrothed playgirl who attempt to enlist their fellow passengers in a search for the missing woman. Any brutality here is brisk—from a knock on the noggin with a flowerpot to a climactic gunfight—and Hitchcock manages to be impish and nerve-wracking simultaneously."
- Michael Sragow, The Criterion Collection
"Look at the date of 'The Lady Vanishes': 1938, the same year as Neville Chamberlain’s Munich agreement. This early-ish Hitchcock showing as part of the Margaret Lockwood season at BFI Southbank, was made in the run-up to the last war and has debates over appeasement and engagement scribbled lightly all over it, while at the same time remaining funny, creepy (in a way already peculiar to Hitchcock) and always entertaining, both in the moment and in the realisation that you’re enjoying a particularly witty and playful script."
- Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Paul Lukas & Fay Wray
'Grand Galop Chromatique' by Franz Liszt performed by Valentina Lisitsa
- Michael Sragow, The Criterion Collection
"Look at the date of 'The Lady Vanishes': 1938, the same year as Neville Chamberlain’s Munich agreement. This early-ish Hitchcock showing as part of the Margaret Lockwood season at BFI Southbank, was made in the run-up to the last war and has debates over appeasement and engagement scribbled lightly all over it, while at the same time remaining funny, creepy (in a way already peculiar to Hitchcock) and always entertaining, both in the moment and in the realisation that you’re enjoying a particularly witty and playful script."
- Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Paul Lukas & Fay Wray
'Grand Galop Chromatique' by Franz Liszt performed by Valentina Lisitsa
'The Lady Vanishes' is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most influential motion pictures. It can be seen as a chief source of inspiration to Wes Anderson when making 'The Darjeeling Limited' (2007) and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' (2014). Films like Ray Gower's 'Dark Corners' (2006), Brad Anderson's 'Transsiberian' (2008), David Fincher's 'Gone Girl' (2014) and Tate Taylor's 'The Girl On The Train' (2016) also exhibit the influence of Hitchcock's work. Anthony Page's film 'The Lady Vanishes' (1979) is quite different to the original. 'The Lady Vanishes' was remade for television in 2013.
ed. and the assorted cast of fellow travelers as well as the leads !
