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| Director: | Alfred Hitchcock | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name: | The Lady Vanishes (1938) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Starring: | Margeret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Googie Withers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
by Tim Rathbone (26/09/2009)
I am ashamed to say that this is only the second Hitchcock film I have ever watched, (the first being Topaz) and I have not seen any of the more well known ones for certain.
Old black and white films tend to have a stigma attached to them in a lot of people's minds as being stuffy or whimsical and whilst this example is not without its whimsy or swooning leading lady it is an entertaining piece of film making. It has some genuinely funny moments, some naturalistic performances and an ambitious setting given the limitations of technology and budgets imposed on filmmakers at the time.
Alfred Hitchcock's super-sharp humour is self-depricating of British attitudes to women, foreigners, cricket and international relationships in the 1930's and is indicative of our nation's ability to laugh at itself. This effect is amplified by the distance exerted between a 1936 film and a 2009 audience and it allows you to laugh at the absurd belief in the indestrucibleness and impenatrableness of the British colonial sovreignty. Add to all this that you actually care about the characters and they are all individuals, even if some of them, (the italian and swiss ones in particular), are characitures. The setting has a refreshingly cosmopolitan feel, (there is no "nothing-else-except-America-exists syndrome" going on here), and you actually come away feeling... refreshed [is the only word I can think of].
I think that my experience was enhanced even further by being afforded the opportunity to see this film in the cinema. I really did come out appreciating what filmmaking used to be about. It used to be fun, a romp, an adventure... and not the dense, oh to serious, selfish, saturated and humourless quagmire it has become.
If you are after something slightly different from your usual movie watching experience and want to renew your faith in the possibility of a film being a joy, put yourself in a 1930's mind-set and watch this!
Rest assured that I will now be making it my mission to at least watch the biggies like The Birds, The 39 Steps, Psycho and North By Northwest and possibly more, (Hitchcock was a very prolific director).
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