March 20

To celebrate Michael Redgrave’s birthday, I watched The Lady Vanishes. The story starts off in a European town Avalanches have covered the tracks with snow and people are stranded. One man is Michael Redgrave. He is cataloging dances and songs. He is playing and a couple is dancing in his room. It happens to be the room above Margaret Lockwood. She complains. She ends up bribing the manager to kick him out of the room. Michael goes to her room and plans to spend the night in her room unless she gets his name cleared with the manager. She does and he goes back to his original room. The next day the tracks are cleared and the people can leave by train. Right before the train leaves Margaret gets hit on the head by a flower pot, she is dazed but fine. An older woman Dame May Whitty assists her on the train and helps her and they go the dinning car for tea. Later when Margaret wakes up May is gone. The passengers in the compartment deny there was another woman. She goes throughout the train and to the authorities to find her, but people state they did not see an older woman and due to the bump in the head, they think she made it up and was causing a scene. When going through the car she comes across Michael. He sees she is not well and upset and agrees to help her. They go through the train and try to find her.

Eventually Michael sees a nun with high healed shoes. She is nursing a woman with bandages covering her face. The doctor treating her comes in and forces them out of the room and to the dining car. After they leave he tells the nun to go to the steward and put something in their drinks. The doctor then takes them back to another compartment where he tells them that it is May, and he is going to operate and she will not survive. Michael pretends to pass out and the doctor locks them in. Michael climbs out the window into the next compartment. The nun, who is English, states that she didn’t put anything in their drinks and helps him. Another suspicious woman comes in they wrap her face and put her in May’s place. Michael takes May to the next compartment where she hides and they go back into their passed out positions.

The train stops. The patient is taken off the train. The doctor unwraps the face and finds out that it is not May. He then confers with the police and the car is uncoupled. Michael thinking they are safe finds out the rest of the train is gone and they are not going in the right direction. They go into the dining car where the English are having tea. Michael tries to convince them of what is going on, but no one believes him. The nun tied up and gagged comes in and the train stopped. A military man comes on board, apologizes and asks them to leave the train. The nun tells Michael it is a trick and not to leave. He hit’s the military man on the head with a chair, knocking him unconscious. Men approach the train and there is shooting. May gets away into the forest. It is decided to get the train started and go back. Michael and another man climbs up over the top and goes into the engine. With an unloaded gun they get the engineer to start the train. As they are going backwards the soldiers get in their cars and follow, shooting. They kill the two engineers and Michael drives the train and they make it over the border. May as it turns out is a British agent.

There is not a lot of in the film. You know the woman was the train, you know who knows she on the train. You know who is who, but you don’t know why they are lying. That is what makes the film very suspenseful. In the Criterion Collection version there is a documentary on the film. It goes over all the hidden aspects and symbolism that Hitchcock put in the film about what was going on in England before the world war started pacifism and such. I didn’t get that at all.

This is the first time I have ever seen Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford. They are really great. They are part of the comic relief. In the same documentary it is mentioned that the characters are homosexual. Again I did not get that. I have never been good at symbolism. I watch films for enjoyment. I don’t look for hidden meanings or messages.