Michael Redgrave
Alfred Hitchcock (Director)
Here goes that familiar feeling again. My resistance to watching a film made before 1950. Even a film that I know is critically adored and even though I have watched 8 during this project and I have ranked them all 4 stars or higher. There is something in my brain that attempts to prevent my from putting in the DVD's or pushing the "PLAY" button on my Netfilx Streaming.
The film that brings this up again is Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. It is the story about a young woman who is helped out on a train by a sweet old lady. But upon awaking she finds that the woman has not only disappeared, but that no one on the train will admit to having ever seen here. See begins to think something sinister is happening. The plot goes as far as to replace the elderly woman with a different woman altogether and the characters on the train act like nothing has changed. The young woman is helped out on her quest to reveal the truth by a rude, snobbish man she met the night prior at their hotel.
What can I say I was blown away. I never thought that story telling in the 30's could have been this rich and well constructed. I complain on this blog all the time about how you can do whatever you want to do on screen if it is in service to the story.
Hitchcock is called "the master of suspense". This movies only further proves that, but he goes further. He is the master of cinematic storytelling. He really knows the scripts and how he want to convey those words into pictures in a manor that will captivate, intrigue, scare, intimidate, provoke, revolt, seduce and mesmerize. I get a feeling every time I watch one of his films that I am in good hands. That I am going to be told a story that might frighten the hell out of me, but that the director is going to be there to hold my hand through it.
This movie open on what is clearly a model. This was my worst nightmare come true. I was afraid that the production value was going to be so low that I would not be able to overlook the obvious sets. Once we got to an interior my phobia's were washed away. We spend the first act in an overbooked hotel due to an avalanche where most of the major characters are introduced and their back stories are explained in a very natural, organic way. There is also some great humor in this first act. humor that I found to be extremely racy for its time. The second act takes place on the train where the mystery begins and get explored. The set up and all the back story now comes into play and I was memorized. The third act comes with a major revelation that was out of the blue, but even tied in more of the elements from the first two acts.
I'd like to take a moment to talk about the use of the camera. Hitchcock never "got luck" once in his movies. He puts his camera exactly where he wants it and he uses every frame of every shot to carve some kind of emotion from you. Again, I was blown away by how effective the framing and shot selection was. He captures expressions in close up that will still today frighten the crap out of you. Just an expression, highlighted with just the right light from just the right angle. No special effects, no CGI, no lavish makeup. Just a look.
Hitch's films remind me of watching someone sleepwalking. There isn't any prevalent sense of danger in watching someone sleepwalk, but there is an uneasy feeling knowing that this person isn't truly in control of their own body. They are sort of like a zombie. There is a ghostly aura around a sleepwalking person. Hitch's films capture that felling. It is an uneasy feeling that the more you try to keep it from effecting you the more you are sucked in. It's like quicksand.
I loved this movie. I give The Lady Vanishes ★★★1/2.
