The 1930s were, thanks to the Great Depression, a rather miserable time for most people in the world. As always, having a huge pile of money made you more likely to have a good time instead, and that included people like the protagonist of The Lady Vanishes, the 1979 British comedy thriller directed by Anthony Page. Amanda Metcalf-Midvani-Von Hoffstaeder-Kelly (played by Cybill Shepherd) is a rich American heiress and multiple divorcee who not only escaped poverty but can afford the luxury of travelling to various exotic locations around the world. In August 1939, she ends up in Bavaria and, before embarking on the train bound for Switzerland, takes too much drink and wakes up the next day on a train, being tended to by a charming elderly Englishwoman named Miss Froy (played by Angela Lansbury). When Froy disappears, none of the other people on the train remember her, and some even try to convince Amanda that Froy was nothing but a product of her imagination. The only one unwilling to dismiss Amanda’s claims completely is an American photographer, Robert Condon (played by Elliott Gould), and he joins her investigation. It soon turns out that the whole affair might be connected to the diplomatic crisis involving Nazi Germany and that Froy might actually be a British spy.
The film is based on The Wheel Spins, a mystery novel by Ethel Lina White, which was originally adapted for the screen in 1938 by Alfred Hitchcock in what turned out to be the biggest hit of the pre-Hollywood phase of his career. The producers of the new version, despite having colour photography, a bigger budget, authentic locations, and actual trains at their disposal, didn’t actually try to compete with the Master of Suspense. While the 1938 film was a serious thriller using the background of the approaching Second World War and the audience’s fears to great effect, the new version is made as a 1930s Hollywood screwball comedy, with Cybill Shepherd made to look and act like their star Carole Lombard. The idea could have worked, if not for Shepherd’s complete lack of chemistry with Elliott Gould, who was terribly miscast in his role. The humour doesn’t quite work, and the audience’s knowledge that the war will actually start deprives the film of necessary tension and suspense. There is some good acting, most notably in supporting roles and especially in the case of Angela Lansbury, but this isn’t enough to compensate for the generally disappointing impression. The Lady Vanishes failed at the box office and became the last film made by the legendary British production company Hammer Films until the late 2000s.
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