Top 250 Challenge: 222

The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Number 190 on IMDb's Top 250

In an "uncivilized" Alpine region of pre-World War II Europe, a motley group of tourists eager to get back to England is delayed by an avalanche blocking the railway tracks. Among the passengers are Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), a young musicologist who has been studying the folk songs of the region; Iris (Margaret Lockwood), a young woman of independent means who has spent a holiday with some friends but is now going home alone to be married; and Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty), an elderly lady who has worked some years abroad as a governess.

When the train resumes its journey, Iris and Miss Froy strike up a conversation, while the remaining passengers in the compartment appear not to understand a word of English. Iris lapses into unconsciousness (the result of an earlier encounter with a falling flowerpot meant for Miss Froy). When she reawakens, the governess has vanished. Iris is shocked to learn that the other passengers claim Miss Froy never existed. Even the other English travelers deny ever seeing her, for their own reasons. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Two of the supporting characters, the hilariously singleminded cricket fans Caldicott and Charters (played by Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford), proved so popular with audiences that they starred in a movie of their own, Crook's Tour (1939), and appeared in several more Gilliat-and-Launder-scripted movies, Night Train to Munich (1940) (also starring Margaret Lockwood), Millions Like Us (1943) and Passport to Pimlico (1949) (although they are re-named Straker and Gregg). They were resurrected again for a BBC television series, Charters & Caldicott, in 1985. The set that the movie was shot on was only ninety feet long. Gilbert says he once drove "a miniature engine on the Dymchurch line". The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway is a real-life miniature (1/3 normal size) railway in southeast England, which in 2003 still uses steam locomotives and carries passengers over 13 miles of route.

This is one of Hitchcock's lesser known films, heck I didn't even realize it was Hitchcock's until I saw the opening credits. It is not a typical Hitchcock film coming well before his biggest films of the 50s and 60s. This film is actually very funny at times and even includes a fight scene that could easily have come from a Bob Hope movie. It was also pretty good at developing some of the minor characters and explain why they, for their own personal reasons, denied seeing Miss Froy.

Next Up: Throne of Blood