Why so much hype?

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

It may open with possibly the worst model shots in all of cinema but in every other respect Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" isn't just one of his enduring masterpieces but possibly the greatest comedy-thriller ever made. It feels almost superflous reviewing it now but here goes. For anyone who may have been living on Mars these past eighty years this is the one set, for the most part, on a train and dealing with the sweet old lady who disappears and who isn't all she first appears to be. Hitchcock made it in 1938, the setting was a Europe heading into war and naturally there are villains and spies.It also comes as close to perfection as movies possibly can with a ridiculously good script by Launder and Gilliat and the kind of cast that only comes along once in a lifetime. Margaret Lockwood was already a star in Britain when the film was made but she was never better than she is here. Michael Redgrave, a star on stage, was making his screen debut and his is a lovely, dashing comic performance while the supporting cast are sublime. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne are Charters and Caldicott, the cricket-mad Englishmen abroad; they made such an impression they were to reprise their roles in "Night Train to Munich" and "Millions Like Us".May Whitty, or to give her her full title, Dame May Whitty is Miss Froy, the lady who vanishes while potential villains, spies and adulterers include future Oscar winner Paul Lukas, Mary Clare, Cecil Parker, Linden Travers and the great Catherine Lacey as the nun in high heels. In 1979 it was remade by Anthony Page in full colour but none of the subtlety, suspense or comic timing of the original. That version was watchable but this is absolutely essential.

Producer: Edward Black. A Gainsborough Picture, made at Gaumont British Islington Studios, released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Great Britain: 2 January 1939.Not copyrighted in the U.S.A. New York opening at the Globe: 24 December 1938. U.S. release by Gaumont British: 1 November 1938. Australian release through G-B-D/20th Century-Fox: 8 December 1938. 8,609 feet. Running times: 96 minutes (U.K.), 78 minutes (USA). (The complete version is available on a superb ITV DVD). SYNOPSIS: The Trans-Continental Express lies snowed-up at a wayside station in the South European State of Bandrika. Its passengers have been forced to herd together in a Gasthaus. The discomfiture of Iris Henderson is completed when, from a room above, Gilbert, a collector of folk dances, enlists the aid of the hotel staff to perform a local polka. Another victim of Gilbert's efforts is Miss Froy, a mild little English governess. Iris, by bribing the manager, has Gilbert ejected from his room.At the station next morning a flower box falls and catches Iris a glancing blow on the head. Iris sways, but declares she is all right.No sooner has the train started than Iris faints in Miss Froy's arms. The old lady brings her around and takes her to the dining car for tea, afterwards bringing Iris back to her compartment, where she falls asleep. When she wakes there is no sign of Miss Froy. She asks the people in the compartment if they have seen an English lady. "No!"NOTES: Best Directing of the Year — New York Film Critics.Number 7 on Frank Nugent's list of the Ten Best of the Year for The New York Times.COMMENT: How do you approach a classic? Pleasurable anticipation? Or dread that you're going to be disappointed? Maybe a mixture of both? It was like that for me when I first saw The Lady Vanishes in a cut version back in 1953. I remember going home from the theater with the impression that the movie had dated a fair bit, particularly in its pacing and its acting. So much of the footage was devoted to silly, time-wasting, irrelevant side issues like whether a couple of imbecilic stage Englishmen would get back to London in time for some stupid cricket test; whether the heroine would ever stop talking and whether the rather boorish hero would stop concentrating on himself long enough to start doing something. These detours and full stops were not enlivened by acting that can only be described as stagy, theatrical, mannered, artificial, over- emphatic. Lockwood, Redgrave, Parker, Wayne, Radford were the worst offenders. They tended to swamp the more realistic, more charismatic players like the quietly assured Dame May Witty and the atavistic- ally menacing Paul Lukas. While Hitchcock's staging of the straight thriller material was exciting, he seemed as bored as me by the endlessly romantic and explanatory and humorous passages as well as by the juvenile bang- bang-bang climax (such a let-down after all the splendid suspense that had gone before). Mind you, for all its absurdities and superfluity's, The Lady Vanishes is still worth seeing. Just don't expect a Rebecca or even a Young and Innocent. P.S. Viewing the superb Network ITV DVD causes me to revise the above opinion. It's not only the momentum of the screenplay that is severely disrupted by the cuts but the clever balancing act that allows all its components to re-in force each other. Furthermore, chipping away at Dame May Witty's part lessens her importance and deprives the viewer of vital information.

Hitchcock directs this very originally and interestingly written motion picture adaptation of a book and all in all this is a very entertaining train ride, with bumps along the road both literally and figuratively, and an ability to keep the viewer constantly interested and genuinely intrigued as to what is actually going on. We're given a host of twists and turns and the development never ceases to be highly dynamic, while the acting is very good with notably the two main and the doctor characters, the dialog as always in Hitchcock films of very sound quality, and it seems just about the right length - such films turn dull after too many twists and lingering plot.The only concern one may have with this is that towards the last quarter of the film, although it's all innate to the storyline the final act resembles very little of what's been going on for the whole bulk of the film and this sort of venturing outside the atmosphere worked so hard to set initially, if one considers the name of the film, the mystery etc... it could feel a bit like this train has gone off track, despite the coherence in story, the atmosphere certainly borrows another path perhaps a bit too different.7.5/8ish.

For me personally, this film is over rated. It's good but not superb. A persons taste in films is completely subjective - it's all a matter of personal preferences.I found this one cute - not a thrilling psychological thriller as I was lead on to believe the film to be - once everyone entered onto the train. It is a (comedy) thriller but not as great as I was looking forward to, I was hoping the film would become very serious once the gang entered the train. Now don't get me wrong the film is good for what it is: a comedy thriller.The film has manatee written all over it to me, IDK maybe it's the comedy that has me feeling that way because I prefer serious thrillers for the nighttime mainly.6.5/10