The Lady Vanishes (1938) on Netflix
In a mountainous European country, Iris Henderson boards a train home to be married. She takes tea with Miss Froy, an elderly governess, and after a nap finds her gone.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.7/1062,038 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes98%
Trailer
Plot summary
Iris Henderson has been vacationing in a mountainous European country and is on her way home to be married when an avalanche halts the railway. She and the other travelers spend the night in a village hotel, among them Miss Froy, an elderly governess, the musicologist Gilbert Redman, and the cricket fans Charters and Caldicott. Boarding the next morning, Iris is struck by a flowerpot pushed from a window above, and Miss Froy helps her aboard. Iris wakes in a compartment beside Miss Froy, and the two take tea in the dining car. After a nap, she finds the old woman absent. Fellow passengers insist no such English lady was ever there, and Dr. Egon Hartz, a brain specialist, says the blow to her head may have left her imagining things. Iris begins searching the train.
Cast
- Emile Boreoas Hotel Manager
- Sally Stewartas Julie
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was first planned as The Lost Lady with Irish director Roy William Neill, and producer Edward Black sent a crew to Yugoslavia for background shots. Yugoslav police found their country portrayed badly in the script and expelled the crew, so Black scrapped the project.
- Hitchcock first considered Lilli Palmer for the female lead but chose Margaret Lockwood instead, then relatively unknown, who was under contract to Gainsborough and being built into a star by producer Edward Black.
- Michael Redgrave, a rising stage star, was reluctant to leave the theater for the film and was persuaded to take it by John Gielgud; the part, his first leading screen role, made him an international star.
- According to Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne, Hitchcock and Michael Redgrave did not get along: Redgrave wanted more rehearsals while Hitchcock valued spontaneity, and the two never worked together again.
- Charters and Caldicott, the cricket-obsessed characters created for the film, became popular in their own right, appearing in a series of films, radio programmes and a much later TV series.
- When The Lady Vanishes opened in the UK it was an immediate hit, becoming the most successful British film to that date.
