Lady Vanishes (Criterion) (1938)

"Accept no substitutes for this blissful original.  Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail
"It's a flawless mix of paranoid suspense, pacing, timing and even comedy.  Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

Editor's Note The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, weaves a knotty yarn of intrigue in this early outing. Young, beautiful, and spoiled Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood) is wrapping up a ski vacation before unenthusiastically returning to London to be married. In the hotel, she meets an elderly governess en route to home, Miss Froy (Dame May Witty), as well as an unbearably rude music scholar named Gilbert (Michael Redgrave). Then, just before boarding the train, Iris receives a blow to the head and is taken under the protective wing of Miss Froy. Their conversation is polite and uneventful. Iris finally dozes off and when she comes to, Miss Froy is nowhere to be found, and no one on the train recalls seeing the governess. Thwarted at every turn in her search, Iris finds only one ally, the unbearable but handsome Gilbert. As their search begins to seem futile, Iris starts to suspect she is losing her mind. Then several people on the train--including a shifty physician and a mysterious nun--reveal nefarious motives beneath their innocent facades.

	Mary Clare
	Linden Travers
	Dame May Whitty
	Cecil Parker
	Googie Withers
	Margaret Lockwood
	Naunton Wayne
	Michael Redgrave
	Basil Radford
	Paul Lukas
	Jack Cox - Cinematographer
	Alma Reville - Screenwriter
	Louis Levy - Composer
	Edward Black - Producer
	Sidney Gilliat - Screenwriter
	R.E. Dearing - Editor
	Frank Launder - Source Writer
	Alfred Roome - Editor
	Alfred Hitchcock - Director

When a young woman on a train meets a charming old lady who promptly disappears, the other passengers deny having seen her, leading the young woman to suspect conspiracy. Hitchcock's final low-budget U.K. production before leaving for Hollywood stands as an extremely deft cocktail of comedy, romance, and suspense. Sight and Sound
"Ingeniously scripted by Launder and Gilliat....[The film] makes very inventive use of the confined space..." 10/01/2003 p.75

Entertainment Weekly
"[A] thrilling riddle of a film set within the gathering storm of war." -- Grade: A- 11/30/2007 p.121

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "Hitchcock's penultimate British movie....Every character turns out to be different from how they first appear." 02/01/2008 p.49