Description

The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British Thriller (genre) film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas and May Whitty. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder based on the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White, the film is about a beautiful English tourist travelling by train in Europe who discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is helped by a young musicologist, and the two proceed to search the train for clues to the old woman’s disappearance. The film features Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, who for the first time, play the characters Charters and Caldicott, two single-minded cricket enthusiasts who are rushing back to England to catch the last days of a Test cricket.
The Lady Vanishes is Hitchcock’s penultimate film made in the United Kingdom before his move to the United States. It was made in the Gainsborough Studios in Islington, London. Following three films that did not do well at the box office, the success of The Lady Vanishes confirmed the opinion of American producer David O. Selznick that Hitchcock indeed had a future in making films in Hollywood.

Cast

• Margaret Lockwood as Iris Henderson
• Michael Redgrave as Gilbert
• Paul Lukas as Dr. Hartz
• May Whitty as Miss Froy
• Cecil Parker as Mr. Todhunter
• Linden Travers as “Mrs.” Todhunter
• Naunton Wayne as Caldicott
• Basil Radford as Charters
• Mary Clare as Baroness
• Emile Boreo as Hotel Manager
• Googie Withers as Blanche
• Sally Stewart as Julie
• Philip Leaver as Signor Doppo
• Selma Vaz Dias as Signora Doppo
• Catherine Lacey as the Nun
• Josephine Wilson as Madame Kummer
• Charles Oliver (actor) as the Officer
• Kathleen Tremaine as Anna