Lady Vanishes

UPC: 715515090315

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Suitable for Children]

Summary: The Lady Vanishes, Alfred Hitchcock's comedy-thriller, came at the end of his British period; this film's success brought Hitchcock to the attention of Hollywood. He would complete only one other British production, Jamaica Inn, before crossing the Atlantic to working for David O. Selznick on Rebecca. The film concerns the young Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), heading home on a train after spending the holidays in the Balkans. Iris becomes friends with a kindly old lady, Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) after Iris gets hit in the head with a flowerpot meant for Miss Froy. On the train, recovering from the blow, Iris falls asleep. When she awakens, Miss Froy has vanished, replaced by someone else in Miss Froy's clothing. Iris talks to the other passengers, a bizarre collection of eccentrics who think that Iris is crazy for insisting on there even being a Miss Froy -- everyone denies having ever seen the old woman. Finally, Iris finds a young musician, Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), who believes her and the two proceed to search the train for clues to Miss Froy's disappearance. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Category: Spy Film

Awards: Best Director – New York Film Critics Circle

Features: Audio commentary featuring film historian Bruce Eder
Crook's Tour, a 1941 feature-length adventure film starring Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as Charters and Caldicott, their beloved characters from The Lady Vanishes
Excerpts from Fran?ois Truffaut's legendary 1962 audio interview with director Alfred Hichcock
Mystery Train, a video essay about Hitchcock and The Lady Vanishes by Hichcock scholar Leonard Leff
Stills gallery of behind-the-scenes photos and promotional art

Lady Vanishes

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 12/06/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 96 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Region: Blu-ray region A (North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia)

Brendon Hanley

It's easy to forget, with all his successes, that Alfred Hitchcock's career suffered quite a few periods of commercial decline. Following his two international breakthroughs, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935), the director produced three films with relatively disappointing box-office returns. In 1938, he broke out of this slump with the popular and entertaining The Lady Vanishes. The director's penultimate movie before leaving England, it's a very light picture, more dependent on comedy than almost any of his previous films. A good deal of the humor comes from the interplay between the definitively British tourists Charters and Caldicott, played indelibly by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, that the actors would reprise in several other films. Despite (or perhaps because of) its "Englishness," The Lady Vanishes made quite a splash in America, securing Hitchcock a place in Hollywood. The charming script by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat was based on the popular Ethel Lina White novel, The Wheel Spins. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Alfred Hitchcock  Actor 
Kathleen Tremaine  Actor 
Charles Oliver  Actor 
Zelma Vas Dias  Actor 
Edward Black  Producer 
Sidney Gilliat  Screenwriter 
Alfred Hitchcock  Director 
Frank Launder  Screenwriter 
Louis Levy  Composer (Music Score) 
Alma Reville  Screenwriter 
Margaret Lockwood  Actor 
Michael Redgrave  Actor 
Paul Lukas  Actor 
Dame May Whitty  Actor 
Cecil Parker  Actor 
Linden Travers  Actor 
Mary Clare  Actor 
Naunton Wayne  Actor 
Basil Radford  Actor 
Emile Boreo  Actor 
Philip Leaver  Actor 
Catherine Lacey  Actor 
Josephine Wilson  Actor 
Googie Withers  Actor 
Sally Stewart  Actor 

Country: UK