The Great Movie Review: The Lady Vanishes

For this category, mystery thrillers, I went to the Netflix recommendations within the mystery/thriller genre and selected two of the movies Netflix rated highest for me: "Shutter Island" and "The Lady Vanishes." Both were presented as options, but seeing as how both Kyle and Micah had already seen "Shutter Island," "The Lady Vanishes" it was!

It was nice to return to Hitchcock, the director whose movies were our first foray into this film journey. I love mysteries and I love movies that keep you guessing along the way, so this was a good pick for that.

Filmed in 1938, "The Lady Vanishes" was one of the last movies Hitchcock directed in the UK before taking his film work to America. The set up of the movie is simple: a young lady named Iris (Margaret Lockwood) strikes up a friendship with an older woman named Miss Froy (May Whitty) aboard a train. Iris takes a nap and when she wakes up, her friend is gone. Not only that, but everyone else on the train insists that there never was such a woman.

The first portion of the film keeps you guessing, wondering if Iris is crazy or if the older woman really did exist. Mysteries set in an enclosed place, like a train, are already more interesting because you know there are a limited number of suspects and a limited number of places for a missing person to be held.

I won't ruin the film by going into too much detail, but I will say that things get a little sillier after the initial shock of the disappearance of Miss Froy. The story begins to take a few wild turns, and some of the characters behave quite peculiarly (even those who are never suspects). The climax of the film includes a long, drawn-out gun battle that never makes you feel that the main characters are really in jeopardy. In addition, there are several guns that are fired for an incredible number of rounds- and remember, this is 1938.

I will say that the conclusion, despite having a twist I didn't see coming, didn't fully satisfy me, as I thought Hitchcock would have had something a little more spectacular up his sleeve. As it is, though, "The Lady Vanishes" is a fairly entertaining little film that any Hitchcock buff should be sure to see. It's not at the caliber of a "Rear Window" or even "Strangers on a Train," but it beats the likes of "The Man Who Know Too Much" and "To Catch a Thief" easily.