A lady disappears
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A lady disappears |
| Original title | The Lady Vanishes |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1938 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alfred Hitchcock |
| script |
Sidney Gilliat , Frank Launder |
| production |
Edward Black for Gainsborough Pictures |
| music | Charles Williams |
| camera | Jack E. Cox |
| cut | RE Dearing |
| occupation | |
| |
The Lady Vanishes (original title: The Lady Vanishes) is a British mystery - thriller from 1938 based on the novel (original title even before The Wheel spins) by Ethel Lina White from 1936. It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock .
action
Due to an avalanche, the train from Budapest to Basel is held in a mountain railway station in the fictional dictatorship of Bandrika ; travelers are forced to stay in an overcrowded inn. So two English cricket fans and a couple who want to end their adulterous vacation as soon as possible. Among the English hotel guests who have been staying for a long time and want to return home on the delayed train are the young Iris Henderson, daughter of a jam manufacturer who is about to marry an impoverished nobleman, the folk song researcher Gilbert Redman and the elderly music teacher and governess Miss Froy.
While Iris gets into a quarrel with Gilbert, who is staying above her, because of his disruptive research work, Miss Froy listens, apparently moved, to a local troubadour serenading under her window on the eve of her departure . As he is singing his last notes, the hands of a strangler approach him from behind - only recognizable as a shadow. The coin thrown out of the window by Miss Froy remains unheeded on the pavement, while Miss Froy, who apparently has not heard of the murder, closes the window and strains a melody to herself.
On the morning of her departure, Iris, who seems to be returning to her London fiancé rather half-heartedly, has an accident: A flower box falls on the head of the unfortunate woman from the first floor of the station building. The governess takes care of the dazed woman and helps her on the departing train.
Iris comes to in a fully occupied compartment, in which there are also the helpful old lady, a gloomy bandrician baroness (wife of the bandrician propaganda minister) and an Italian family, the head of which later turns out to be a magician on tour. The governess moved the ailing young woman to the dining car. There the ladies have to laboriously ask for the sugar for their tea from the two cricket fans who use it to simulate a move. When Iris remembers that she has not yet made the acquaintance of her companion, her introduction is prevented by the roar of an oncoming train, and Miss Froy writes her name on the steamed-up window pane.
Still battered after the accident, Iris nods again after returning to the compartment. When she wakes up, she misses her helper, Miss Froy. Questioning fellow passengers and train staff does not help them. Nobody wants to have seen Miss Froy, rather she is accused of hallucination from the blow on her head. Only Gilbert, her adversary from the hotel, takes her concern about Miss Froy's whereabouts seriously.
The accompanying doctor Professor Hartz, who, as an expert in brain surgery, took care of an accident victim who was bandaged beyond recognition at a later break, friendly explains the alleged memory impairment to Iris and Gilbert - especially since a woman is suddenly sitting in Iris' compartment who is not Miss Froy is said to have been mistaken for her hotel roommate by Iris because of the same clothes. Iris now doubts her memory herself.
The adulteress, disappointed by her lover, now confirms her encounter with the missing woman, which he initially denied for reasons of discretion. The cricket fans also wrestle with memories, of course only among themselves. When she visits the dining car again, Iris sees Miss Froy's writing on the window - enough to regain confidence in her memory. Her firm conviction and the packaging of Miss Froy's special tea that was disposed of as waste and stuck to the train window for a short time now also remove Gilbert's doubts about Iris' story. Nothing changes in that when the adulterous lady who was called to witness, now again, under pressure from her lover, pretends to recognize Iris' companion in Miss Froy's "doppelganger".
While searching for clues in the baggage car, Iris and Gilbert get into a scuffle with the magician, who reveals himself to be a co-conspirator when he pretends that Miss Froy's glasses found by Iris are his own.
Gilbert finally comes up with the solution for the disappearance of the old lady and her whereabouts: When the patient was supposed to be taken over, the “doppelganger” was still in the bandage cover - but now Miss Froy! They invade Dr. Hartz 'absence into his train compartment and find there, in addition to the "accident victim", a nun in striking high-heeled shoes. The attempt to look under the bandages, however, is first made by the nun and Dr. Hartz stopped. The latter tries to kill the couple with poisoned drinks, but his plan fails because of the suddenly awakened conscience of the "nun" (an English woman whose bandrician husband has died): Gilbert and Iris can free Miss Froy from her cocoon and instead of her again bandage the stunned "doppelganger".
Dr. Hartz finds out about the deception at the train station in the capital Morsken, the last one before the border, when he removes the bandage from the supposed Miss Froy in the ambulance. He had the train decoupled from the English wagons and diverted to a siding leading into a forest. Here, the inmates have to defend themselves in a wild shootout against the now militarily supported agents, whereby the adulterous, pacifist gentleman is the only one on their side who gives his life when he wants to surrender. Miss Froy, who has identified herself as a British secret agent, is put back on her dangerous mission through the compartment window after she has quickly taught Gilbert the message encoded as the melody of the serenade. After the train has started and rerouted again, travelers can happily return home.
On arrival at London Victoria Station , Iris hides from her fiancé at the last second and, together with Gilbert, with whom she has long fallen in love, goes to the Foreign Office to deliver the melodious secret message. To his horror, the folk song researcher realizes that he has forgotten her - but Miss Froy plays the melody in the office at the same time on a grand piano.
History of origin
The screenwriter Frank Launder, who was under contract with Gainsborough Pictures, suggested the novel by Ethel White as possible material for a film adaptation in May 1936, shortly after the book was published. When the production company agreed to this, Launder was busy with another film and so his colleague Sidney Gilliat was commissioned to work out a treatment . After its completion, Launder joined him and wrote the final screenplay with Gilliat until August 1936.
Originally, the US American Roy William Neill , who worked in England, was intended to be the director. A team headed by an assistant director was sent to Yugoslavia to shoot some outdoor shots. But there was an incident in which the Yugoslav authorities confiscated the script and expelled the team from the country - in the first version, a shot was described on the first page that provided for a quick cut from marching soldiers to waddling geese. The Yugoslav authorities viewed this as an affront to their army, which was played up to a minor political incident, especially in the tabloids.
This setback - and the waning enthusiasm of Roy William Neill - ultimately led to the film project being put on hold for the time being. Hitchcock, who read the script in October 1937, had the two writers make minor changes that accelerated the pace in the first and last acts. So the script could finally be finished in a very short time.
The entire film was shot in a studio only 30 meters long. With rear projection recordings and model tricks, Hitchcock succeeded in making these restrictions barely visible.
In 1978 there was a remake under the German title Tödliche Message with the protagonists Elliott Gould and Cybill Shepherd as well as Angela Lansbury as Miss Froy and Herbert Lom as Dr. Hartz.
One of the many comical elements of the plot are the two original British cricket fans, played by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne , whose only topic and goal is to get there on time for a cricket match in their homeland. The film made the duo so popular that a separate (television) film series was dedicated to the two characters ( Charters & Caldicott , 1985, six episodes).
A lady disappears on German television for the first time on January 3, 1972 at 9 p.m. on ZDF .
side note
During the initial tracking shot from the train station over the alpine village to the inn, three signs can be recognized by the latter: Gasthof Petrus, Josef Stedl , Bürgen Brau and Wiazen Bier . However, the landlord's name is Boris and the fantasy language Bandrikisch seems to consist of Romance and Slavic elements.
Cameo
Shortly before the end of the film, Hitchcock walks through the frame at London train station. See also Hitchcock's cameo .
synchronization
The German dubbed version of A Lady Disappears was made in Munich in 1971. Werner Uschkurat wrote the dialogue book and Lothar Michael Schmitt was responsible for the dialogue direction .
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice |
|---|---|---|
| Iris Henderson | Margaret Lockwood | Renate Pichler |
| Gilbert Redman | Michael Redgrave | Klaus Kindler |
| Miss Froy | Lady May Whitty | Ursula War |
| Dr. Hartz | Paul Lukas | Ernst Kuhr |
| Eric Todhunter | Cecil Parker | Paul Bürks |
| Mr. Caldicott | Naunton Wayne | Fred Maire |
| Mr. Charters | Basil Radford | Thomas Reiner |
| nun | Catherine Lacey | Karin Kernke |
| Signor Doppo | Philip Leaver | Bruno W. Pantel |
| Madame Sorrow | Josephine Wilson | Ingeborg Lapsien |
Reviews
Audiences and critics alike received the film enthusiastically. Hitchcock has been called "England's Greatest Director" and received the New York Critics' Prize in 1938 in the categories of "Best Picture" and "Best Director". Orson Welles is said to have watched the film eleven times and James Thurber twice as often.
"It is characteristic of Hitchcock that he lets the audience in on his secrets at an early stage and then piles one exciting sequence on top of the other as his characters slowly approach the truth in the most threatening way."
“Even with a medium as synthetic as film, it is possible to recognize the handwriting of a master. The Lady Vanishes is as much the creation of a personal imagination and art as a picture by Cézanne or a score by Stravinsky. "
"Exciting spy comedy that shows the early Hitchcock of the English period as a master of surprise."
The British Film Institute voted A Lady Going 35th on its list of the best British films of all time in 1999 .
DVD release
- A Lady Vanishes (The Lady Vanishes) . FNM 2007
literature
- Ethel Lina White: A lady disappears (OT: The Lady Vanishes , previously also The Wheel Spins) . Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-08220-6
- Robert A. Harris, Michael S. Lasky, eds. Joe Hembus : Alfred Hitchcock and his films (OT: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock) . Citadel film book from Goldmann, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-442-10201-4
Individual evidence
- ↑ A lady disappears from the German synchronous file
- ^ Robert A. Harris, Michael S. Lasky: Alfred Hitchcock and his films . Ed .: Joe Hembus. Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1976.
Web links
- The Lady Vanishes in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- The Lady vanishes at Internet Archive Movies (English original, public domain, 1.1 GB)
- The Lady Vanishes atRotten Tomatoes(English)