Customer Reviews

Lady Vanishes [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Why pay the $125 quoted here when this entertaining thriller is readily available on DVD from Region 2 (Europe) retailers. Armed with a region-free player and you have access to a whole wealth of movies that are not released yet in Region 1 for example HIGH ROAD TO CHINA (Region 2), SILVER BEARS (Region 4) and THE FOURTH PROTOCOL (Region 2) to name just a few.
In regards to this entertaining movie I actually prefer this version to the original Hitchcock classic, it is made highly enjoyable and entertaining due to the presence of so many famous faces from British and American television. Witness the two cricket fans - who can watch this scene and not think about the two actors in their familiar DAD'S ARMY roles?
Cybill Shepherd would later go on to much success in the show MOONLIGHTING and of course Angela Lansbury eventually found worldwide fame for her turn as the female sleuth in MURDER SHE WROTE. Here Lansbury plays a nanny turned spy who is attempting to get back to Britain with some vital information.
Set in pre-WWII Germany this movie chronicles the trip of Cybill Shepherds character back to the UK to be reunited with her fiance. On the train she befriends a Ms. Froy and another American (played by Elliott Gould). However, things go awry when Ms. Froy seemingly vanishes into thin air and nobody on the train seems to have any memory of her. Is Shepherds character losing her marbles - Gould certainly seems to think so...that is until he spots something out of the train window for a fleeting second.
Its a superb story and very satisfying. I really enjoy this charming thriller.

Underappreciated as it is, this remake of the Hitchcock's 1938 classic truly embodies my idea of how a well-crafted and entertaining movie should be. The story is able to make flesh creep and the screenplay even manages to improve on the original plotline by taking some bold departures but sticking all the way to the master's spirit and style. (E.g. the very effective motif of the Hitler-moustache - and the whole idea of transferring the story to nazi Germany.) The settings - real train, real land -, the camera work, the music are all great, adding to the thrill of the ride. The cast is a jackpot, Cybill Sheperd throwing out sparks. All in all: this is a highly ingenious remake that makes the old original seem pale and puerile by comparison. I'm sure Hitchcock himself wouldn't had done it better, if he'd considered a self-remake (as it was the case with The Man Who Knew Too Much). I want this on DVD!!!

09/19/01 - I saw this movie (1979) version for the first time this morning on Showtime. I really enjoyed it. Cybil Shepard reminded me of Carole Lombard. She was great. The whole cast was wonderful to watch. I want to add it to my viewing (fun category) collection. Sit back and enjoy. Every movie is not there to go down in history ... some are there just for fun viewing. I give this movie five stars for fun viewing.

This is a very effective remake of Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES, Alfred Hitchcock's last British-made movie before plying his trade in America.

Cybill Shepherd plays madcap heiress Amanda, who gets caught up in a whirlwind adventure of danger and espionage, when her train companion Miss Froy (Angela Lansbury) mysteriously disappears en route through Germany.

Unbeknownst to Amanda and the rest of the passengers, the seemingly innocent and quaint Miss Froy is on a mission to deliver an important code to the British Intelligence. The decision to place the story at the eve of World War 2 makes the adventure and tension even more palpable.

Cybill Shepherd and Elliott Gould put a refreshing 'screwball' spin to their performances while Angela Lansbury is sensational as Miss Froy. The rest of the cast includes Herbert Lom, Arthur Lowe, Rosalind Knight, Ian Carmichael and Madge Ryan.

Running alongside a train in a slinky white satin dress Cybill Shepherd makes your blood boil! This remake of a classic is better than the original! Cybil shows she can actand is not just a pretty face! Rarely shown on tv if you can get a copy of the tape Sit back and enjoy!!

This is a war era comedy movie, where a Rich Young Lady (played bt Cybil Shepard) is on her way to get married to another rich man but love and espionage enter the picture and Cyil Shepard gets involved in a basic spy thriller and her love takes a detour. Adding to the comedy end is famed actors Elliott Gould and Angela Lansbury , Herbert Lom and of course, The wonderful Cybil Shepard, but I dont want to tell you anymore, as you really have to see the movie.I own both the original and this one and do enjoy the comedy Much Better.

I really love this film and I'm going to do an exam at Sorbonne University about that film....I would like to write more, but my english is the worst in the world..
Enjoy the film!

The 1979 remake of THE LADY VANISHES has gotten a bad rap, and one which I don't think it entirely deserves. It's for sure not as atmospheric as Hitchcock's 1938 masterpiece, not as suspenseful, not as laced with witty, cutting banter, and frankly not as good. But that doesn't mean it's unwatchable. I saw it again just now, and it diverted me.

It more or less mimics the original plot, with the more memorable scenes lifted shot for shot, dialogue for dialogue. Maybe the most glaring misstep is the swapping of the British leads for American ones, some stuffy and important (and wrong!) studio head having deemed that having Yanks in would draw better in the States. And maybe the right American actors would've done the film justice... but not an indifferent Cybill Shepherd and a mild Elliott Gould. Together, they exhibit the chemistry of a pushy missionary and a short-tempered cannibal.

Cybill Shepherd looks stunning in her white satin gown which she wears for the entirety of the film, and that's me having gotten all the leading lady compliments out of the way. Shepherd plays Amanda Kelly, the "much married madcap American heiress" currently holidaying in pre-World War II Europe. Amanda is one of those spirited girls who laughs at scandal. She certainly doesn't shy away from making a public drunken spectacle of herself, and it's many minutes into the film before she wipes off that Hitler mustache. In any other mystery story, she would've gotten the easy nod as the murder victim. Here, a hungover, concussed Amanda Kelly boards a train in Bavaria enroute to England to get married (for money).

Angela Lansbury is very sweet as the British governess/music teacher, Miss Froy, who befriends Amanda on the train but who then mysteriously vanishes. Amanda's frantic search leads nowhere fast, what with everyone onboard denying the nanny's existence. As in the 1938 film, not everyone who lies about Miss Froy is being sinister. Half actually collude because of personal dilemmas. Like the self-important British gent out with his mistress and fearful of a scandal. Or the two die-hard cricket fans - Charters and Caldicott - who are more concerned with making the match on time and don't care for the train to be delayed. The longer Amanda Kelly is disbelieved - and maybe she shouldn't have copped to having had that whiskey and soda - the more shrill she gets. I'm trying to be impartial, but Margaret Lockwood played the role with so much more class and decorum, and I think she was sexier by miles. Some tension is also lost in that while there came a point in which Lockwood's character actually wondered if she were delusional, Shepherd's at no point loses her conviction.

Elliott Gould has this easy-going way about him but he doesn't match Michael Redgrave's effortless charm. He's actually pretty nebbish here, and I can't help but yearn for Redgrave's British aplomb and dry wit. Gould plays Robert Condon, the Life magazine photographer who skeptically comes to Amanda's rescue. Despite his misgivings, he rises to the occasion.

The plot itself is involving, with a solid supporting cast. The tone is suitably light. The thriller elements are expertly served up. Really, judged on its own merit, this version counts as a fun comedy thriller, even though I felt the two leads could've stepped it up a bit more. I guess, for me, there's just no getting rid of Hitchcock's shadow.

Also, that all-important tune our heroes are supposed to remember for Queen and Country... is pretty damn forgettable.

This review applies to the Dutch Region 2 DVD currently available from amazon.uk that has BOTH movies (1938,1979) not the VHS tape showcased here. For the time being it is the only available DVD version until whoever owns the U.S. rights decides to release it here which is highly unlikely. That's the bad news. The good news is that the widescreen print used for this transfer is absolutely gorgeous, much better than the pan and scan VHS. But enough about the DVD, on to the movie itself. Whenever you remake a classic film especially one with the Hitchcock name attached to it, there are bound to be a number of unfair comparisons which is what happened when this film was originally released in 1980 (the same fate befell the 1978 THE 39 STEPS which I reviewed earlier).

Cybill Shepherd had yet to appear in MOONLIGHTING (the white dress she wore in this film got her the job) and her career was still suffering from what Peter Bogdanovich did to it. Elliot Gould was reaching the end of his career as a marquee name so both were ideal fodder for dissatisfied critics. They may not have been the ideal casting choices but they work well together in the screwball comedy approach that screenwriter George Axelrod (THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH) adopted. Then there is Angela Lansbury who is simply perfect as Miss Froy, the title character. Throw in Herbert Lom, Arthur Lowe and Ian Carmichael as Cricket lovers Chalders and Caldicott and Douglas Slocombe's gorgeous Austrian location photography and you have a very enjoyable 2 hours. There is also the fact that the 1938 setting makes it a period piece so that it hasn't become dated like the first film.

At the beginning of the review I referred to the film as being ill-fated as indeed it was. Not only was it unfairly compared to the Hitchcock original and was the last feature film of Cybill Shepherd's for many years, but it bombed at the box office big time and turned out to be the last film produced by England's legendary Hammer Films which went into receivership while the film was in release (FLASH: a revived Hammer Films is planning this Fall to release their first film since LADY VANISHES, an English language version of the Swedish vampire film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN). While it's certainly no masterpiece, the 1979 THE LADY VANISHES deserves better treatment than it has received so far. Just check out the other reviews and see how much people have enjoyed it when they finally got a chance to see it.

This is an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock's 1937 suspense film. Their was no longer any diplomatic reason to censor the identity of that central European power. The heroine how had an American nationality (Cybill didn't do accents). The story echoes an Eric Ambler novel from that era. A person who is just going about their own business finds themselves involved in a dangerous intrigue; and survives.

Who could suspect an elderly music teacher as a spy? They could fade into the background. Using a song to convey a message is an example of a plain language code. The topic of this film is making a person disappear and replacing that person with a substitute to prevent the trick from being discovered. This has been used in other stories to promote a deception ("The Prisoner of Zenda").

Could a wealthy heiress who chose to travel alone in Europe actually be another government operative? Recall that newspaper reporter in "Foreign Correspondent". Or was her travel done for personal pleasure and to escape her society? This film shows how the right to bear arms was exercised by travelers in those days. One of the first effects of Nazi rule was to prohibit and confiscate firearms in order to oppress the people. (The Nazis were the mercenaries of the big corporations.) Who could have imagined these laws would come to Great Britain and America after the war?
Note how this plot can explain the mystery of JFK's body. At Dallas the experienced doctors said he was shot from the front. At Washington the inexperienced doctors said the shots came from the rear. A substitution of a JFK double would explain this.