The Lady Vanishes

Hitchcock’s earlier works have a different energy than the time considered to be his prime. They’re a little more light-hearted, energetic, less about twisted figures and dark psychology. If you don’t know, it can be kind of jarring. But as I’ve been exploring Hitchcock’s filmography, I’ve come to expect it and appreciate the difference in eras. The Lady Vanishes is very much of that earlier era. It’s a breezy little movie with great chemistry between the leads about a woman whose companion disappears and the other passengers insist the companion was never there. One of the things I really liked was how all these side characters that have minimal impact on the plot, but are given an odd amount of character, like the two stodgy British guys who are only concerned with cricket, or the couple carrying on an affair and how if they’re discovered it’ll ruin the man’s chances of becoming a judge. The mystery unfolds at a nice pace and the twists are enjoyable. It doesn’t reach for the stars, and it’ll never be mentioned along the class of Psycho or Rebecca or Vertigo, but it does overachieve, and that’s good enough for me.