Next on my review agenda will be another twenty films, or so, from merry ole England, all worthy films, though some worthier than others, naturally. They'll run a gamut from the thirties to the nineties. The present one brings back fond memories for me. For several years, when I was a kid, my favorite television show was Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which featured short mysteries and thrillers in the master's mode. I can still hear the show's theme song (Grieg's "In the Hall of Mountain King" from Peer Gynt) rattling through my brain and see the maestro's ominous shadow filling in the tracing of his visage. Hold on a minute while I lock the doors.

Historical Background: Before Alfred Hitchcock began making brilliant films for Hollywood, beginning in 1940, he had already spent twenty years mastering his craft in England. Hitchcock was born on August 13th, 1899, in London, the son of a poultry and fruit merchant. The family was Catholic and Hitchcock attended St. Ignatius College, a Jesuit college. Hitchcock entered the film industry in 1920, starting out as a designer of film titles during the silent era, working at Players-Lasky, a branch of Paramount. He quickly worked his way up to head of his department. In 1922, Victory Motion Picture, a company newly formed by Michael Balcon and Victor Saville, bought up Players-Lasky. Hitchcock was retained, in the new organization, as an assistant director and art director. Hitchcock contributed in both those capacities to the first feature film made by Balcon, Woman to Woman (1923).

In 1925, Hitchcock was promoted to director. His first solo feature film in that capacity was The Pleasure Garden (1925), a British/German co-production. The Lodger (1926) was the first film that Hitchcock himself considered representative of his own work. It was also the first film in which Hitchcock himself made a brief cameo appearance, a practice that he would then continue and turn into one of his numerous signature peculiarities. Although Hitchcock continued to make one film after another, it wasn't until Blackmail (1929) that he again matched the success of The Lodger. Blackmail was the first ever British film of the sound era.

Hitchcock's status as the master of the thriller genre developed especially from his work between 1934-1938, during which time he directed a superb series of fine thrillers, despite being hamstrung by very limited budgets. First in this series was The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), which Hitchcock himself so admired that he would later remake it, as an expensive color production, in 1956. This is one instance in which the remake was neither substantially better nor worse than the original and each of the two versions has its champions. The 39 Steps (1935) was an even better film. The Secret Agent (1936) was good, but not as good as its two predecessors. Next were Sabotage (1937) and The Young and the Innocent (1937). Then, capping off Hitchcock's British period, The Lady Vanishes (1938). It was this film that earned Hitchcock an invitation from David O. Selznick to go to Hollywood. Hitchcock made one last quickie in England, the forgettable Jamaica Inn (1939), but would not return again to work in England until some thirty years later, when he made Frenzy (1972).

Hitchcock was well aware, in the thirties, of the technical superiority of the films emerging from Hollywood, in comparison to the state of the art existing then in Britain. He was anxious to find out how much better his films could be with the better facilities available in Hollywood studios. Nevertheless, he was taking a bit of a gamble, considering that he was just reaching new heights of appreciation within the industry for his work in his native country. Did the gamble pay off for Hitchcock? Well, the story of Hitchcock's career is no Hitchcock mystery. His first film for Hollywood, Rebecca (1940), won the Oscar for Best Picture and also earned Hitchcock a nomination as Best Director. He then went on to make such masterpieces as Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Stage Fright (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964), and Family Plot (1976), some of which most readers will have seen.

The Story: The story begins in 1938 in an over-crowded alpine hotel where a bevy of English tourists find themselves stranded for the night, when an avalanche causes their train to be delayed until morning. This at least gives viewers a chance to meet the bizarre cast of characters as they scurry to find accommodations for the night. A young socialite, Iris Matilda Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), is there with her two girlfriends, Blanche (Googie Withers) and Julie (Sally Stewart), for a ski holiday. Iris is due back in London for her wedding. She really doesn't care very much for the man she's engaged to marry, but as she explains to her friends, "I've no regrets. I've been everywhere and done everything. I've eaten caviar at Cannes, sausage rolls at the dogs. I've played baccarat at Biarritz and darts with the rural dean. What is there left for me but marriage?"

Also desperate to get home are two cricket fans, Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) and Charters (Basil Radford). They want to be back in time for the Test Match in which England is competing. The hotel is booked, however, and the best that Boris (Emile Boreo), the mousy hotel manager, can offer is the maid's quarters. The maid, Anna (Kathleen Tremaine), is a buxom blond beauty who returns to her room, from time to time, to get a hat or to change, shamelessly, but it's all wasted on Calidcott and Charters, who are a pair of blushing prudes.

Another pair from England, Eric Todhunter (Cecil Parker) and "Mrs." Margaret Todhunter (Linden Travers), is pretending to be a married couple on their honeymoon, but are really a married man and his mistress, having an affair. Eric has promised Margaret that he'll divorce his wife and marry her, but he's really more concerned that a scandal would ruin his chances of getting a coveted judgeship. Then there's Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty), a pleasant cherub faced older woman, who dresses in tweed and is returning to England after six years working as a governess. She sits with the cricket-loving gentlemen during dinner, but they have little in the way of common interests.

Iris has the best room in the inn – except that the people on the floor above her are making a racket. It's Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave), a young ethnomusicologist, who has three of the locals engaged in some kind of noisy foot-stomping dance to old peasant folk tunes that he has written down in his studies. Iris asks the manager, Boris, to quiet them down, but Redman refuses and throws Boris out. Iris then bribes Boris to have Redman ejected from his room. Redman is no pushover, however. He invades Iris's room and makes himself quite at home, threatening to spend the entire night there. When Iris starts to call the manager again, Redman counters that he'll tell everyone that she invited him in, thus thoroughly spoiling her reputation. Iris finally calls Boris and says that she'll take the room upstairs as well as her own, so that Redman can have his old room back. As he departs, he and Iris both declare how much they dislike one another. Love is in the air!

Meanwhile, Miss Froy, in her own room, is taking in the night air at her chamber window, before retiring for the night. Beneath her balcony, a Tyrolean street singer serenades her with a lovely ballad, which she hums along with the crooner. Suddenly, mysterious hands reach out from the shadows and strangle the singer to death. Miss Froy has already turned away from the window and does not notice.

In the morning, the various stranded tourists whom we've met hustle to board the trans-European express train that will be taking them home. Iris spots Miss Froy and offers to help her with her luggage. A flowerpot falls from a second story window sill, grazing the side of Iris's head, almost causing a serious accident. As it is, Iris is somewhat dazed. Miss Froy insists that they sit together in the same compartment so that she can make sure that Iris is okay. When the train is underway, Iris and Miss Froy stop by the lunch car for tea. When they return to their compartment, Iris decides she'll nap. They're sharing a compartment with German Baroness Isabel Nisatona (Mary Clare) and an Italian magician, Signor Doppo (Philip Leaver), his wife Signora Doppo (Zelma Vas Dias), and their child.

The plot immediately thickens when Iris awakens. Miss Froy is nowhere to be seen. The conductor comes around to collect tickets and Iris tells him that there was another woman, Miss Froy, sitting opposite her. The Baroness, Magician, and other occupants of the compartment deny, however, that there was anyone else in the compartment. Iris is baffled by their denials but they attribute the difference of opinion to Iris having been woozy from the blow to her head. Iris goes looking for Miss Froy throughout the train, but has no luck. The cricket-loving Brits deny having ever seen Miss Froy because they don't want a search to delay their getting home on time for the cricket match. Eric Todhunter denies having seen her because he doesn't want to be identified as a witness, if something has gone wrong, which might expose him to scandal if it comes out that he was traveling with a mistress. Iris encounters a neurosurgeon from Prague, Dr. Hartz (Paul Lukas), who attributes Iris's "faulty recollection" to a hallucination. Only Redman takes any interest in helping Iris out, though even he is initially skeptical and is merely trying to help her set her mind at ease. Though Iris still has no use for Redman, she's ready to take help where she can get it.

Gradually, Redman, at least, is won over to Iris's point of view, by small bits of evidence and the suspicious behavior of some of those on the train. For the most part, viewers learn new information only as it is revealed to Iris and Redman, but, at a crucial moment, we learn the identity of the prime culprit before the protagonists, further heightening the suspense. I won't add more about how things work out, except to say that having solved the puzzle, Iris, Redman, and some of the others find themselves in a dangerous situation from which they still must extricate themselves. Thus, the film turns briefly from mystery to an action/adventure kind of scenario, near the end.

Themes: Hitchcock was sometimes criticized, as a director, for avoiding weighty or politically-relevant subject matter in his films. Most of his work is purely for entertainment. This film is one rare exception from the master, who must have been inordinately invested in the question, in 1938, of whether or not England should prepare for war against Hitler. It's perfectly possible to enjoy this film purely as a thriller, but the underlying political content and context is unmistakable. The lady vanishing represents the threat in Europe and the vanishing nations, annexed by Hitler. Caldicott and Charters represent the isolationist faction in Britain who would prefer to pay attention to diversions, like cricket matches, than deal with ugly political realities. Eric Todhunter, on the other hand, represents the pacifist element, intent on avoiding violent conflict at all costs. It's clear that Hitchcock felt that neither pacifism nor isolationism were sustainable positions. History, of course, proved him right, though in 1938, his view was not especially prescient.

Production Values: The screenplay was written by Naunton Wayne and Basil Redford, based on a novel by Ethel White. It's something of a genre hybrid, combining mystery and thriller elements with a solid streak of droll British humor. There's even a bit of coy romance between Iris and Gilbert thrown in for good measure. Hitchcock manages the film's pace beautifully, allowing the tension to build inexorably. This is very much the kind of script for which Hitchcock ultimately became world-renowned. The only thing this film lacks in relation to Hitchcock's more famous movies is the polish that might have been provided with a more adequate budget. The very beginning of the film is painfully amateurish, with an "aerial" shot of an alpine village that is all too obviously composed of model houses, vehicles, and stick figures. Nevertheless, the story is both witty and intriguing and moves along at an entertaining clip. The eccentric characters are highly amusing and each of the main ones is given a unique motivational drive. The plot is clever, though not especially believable. Hitchcock keeps it at least logical, possible, and free of excessive coincidence.

Except for the film's opening, the sets are pretty good. Both the ski resort and the train look quite realistic. Since most of the film is shot in either the overcrowded lobby of the hotel or on the train, the cameramen had to work in very tight quarters. The cinematography establishes a claustrophobic feeling and never lets go of it. There are a few nice visual flourishes, such as a name written in the mist on a window, appearing and disappearing depending on the background lighting. There's a great shot, when one of the characters sticks his head out of a train window.

One of Hitchcock's great strengths (among several) as a director was his ability to cast his films based on finding precisely the right person to match each part. Margaret Lockwood, for example, was a great choice for the part of Iris, providing the right balance between assured self-confidence and vulnerability. She's neither an ingénue nor a super-sleuth. Her other work included The Stars Look Down (1939) and Night Train to Munich (1940). She and Michael Redgrave have just the right chemistry to go from a distinct distaste for one another to incipient romance. Watch Redgrave carefully and you'll see a performance with a lot of nuance to it. This was his first film, as well, but he went on to a successful career in such movies as The Stars Look Down (1939), The Browning Version (1951), The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), The Innocents (1961), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Battle of Britain (1969), and The Go-Between (1971). As it happens, three of those films are on my agenda for review during the next month.

The bulk of the comic element of this film comes from Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford. Wayne appeared elsewhere in Night Train to Munich (1940) and Passport to Pimlico (1949). Radford's resume includes Young and Innocent (1937), Night Train to Munich (1940), The Winslow Boy (1948), Whisky Galore! (1949), and Passport to Pimlico (1949). I should mention also Dame May Whitty, who was delightful as Miss Froy. She appeared in Night Must Fall (1937), Suspicion (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Lassie Come Home (1943), Madame Curie (1943), The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), Gaslight (1944), and Green Dolphin Street (1947). Finally, you can spot the obligatory Hitchcock cameo, if you look closely, near the end of the film at Victoria Station in London. He's the man walking past with a cigarette.

Bottom-Line: This film was poorly remade in 1979, with Elliott Gould and Cybill Shepherd. If purchasing Hitchcock's version on DVD, you might want to consider a nifty boxed Laserlight 2-DVD special edition (See Two DVD-Set) that combines it with The 39 Steps, another masterpiece from the same time period. The film was digitally remastered for this edition from the best available source material. It looks very good. There's an introduction to the film by Tony Curtis and a theatrical trailer for another Hitchcock film, Shadow of a Doubt. The Laserlight DVD provides a choice of four languages for the soundtrack (English, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese) and three optional subtitles selections (Spanish, Chinese, Japanese). This is classic Hitchcock that only lacks a little bit of the luster of his best films.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older