has Gilbert kicked out of his room, so he brazenly moves into hers—with her still in bed.) In spite of their venomous barbs— actually, because of it—we have little doubt they will be in each other’s arms by film’s end. And then there’s the sweet old lady that befriends Iris, Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty), who delights in the local customs, particularly a folksong that she hears in the background and mimics. It is this song that becomes the macguf- fin of the piece, as the singer is quickly, silently dispatched and we are later to discover its sig- nificance as a secret code that spies will kill to protect. After this preliminary business,
the rest of the film takes place on a train. And as it pulls out of the station and picks up speed, so does the plot. Trains are recurrent in Hitchcock films (STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, NORTH BY NORTH- WEST, SHADOW OF A DOUBT to name a few), which stems from the director’s boyhood wander- lust and lifelong interest in travel—but also because there is no better environment for a mys- tery than a train. You are at once moving and trapped; you don’t know who or what may lurk in the many compartments, births and narrow passageways; plus the sound of the track provides a steady rhythm of tension. (Other than the opening and closing titles, there is no music score, but one doesn’t miss it because of the constant sounds the train supplies.) It is in this claustropho- bic milieu that Iris wakes from a nap to find her friend, Miss Froy, gone—and not only can she not be found after a cursory search, but nobody on the train remem- bers ever seeing the old bird. A doctor (Paul Lukas), who seems a little shady, politely suggests Iris may be out of her right mind; but the heroine remains steadfast, partnering with the smitten Gilbert
to sleuth for Froy and blow the cover on the spies who have kid- napped her.
The film is alternately scary (the heroine’s predicament has the feeling of a nightmare in its early stages, rife with menacing POV shots of passengers who once seemed ordinary and friendly, but take on sinister as- pects as the heroine’s paranoia ramps up), exciting (Hitchcock ends with a shootout, not found in the book), and funny. The droll Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne provide the lion’s share of comic relief as the Laurel & Hardy-like Charters & Caldicott, a couple of grown up school boys obsessed with cricket. (The two would make a career out of play- ing these same characters or slight variations on them in sub- sequent films, including the Brit- ish ghost anthology DEAD OF NIGHT.) And Hitchcock plays a lengthy fight scene between Gil- bert and a shady stage magician as pure comedy, with Iris offer- ing feeble support from the side- lines and various magic props coming into play. Years later, Hitchcock’s 1956 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH would contain a similarly prop-heavy fight scene in a taxidermy shop. Atypical of movies then, the fight in THE LADY VANISHES is lengthy, illus- trating just how difficult it is to knock somebody out. It’s a light- hearted prelude to the extremely ugly, protracted physical confron- tation between Paul Newman and Wolfgang Kieling in TORN CUR- TAIN (1966)—the director’s ulti- mate and most horrific example of his attempts at realism. This marks Criterion’s third time in the station with this title after a 1998 DVD and a 2-disc DVD remaster in 2007, which in- cluded substantially more extras. The new Blu-ray edition improves upon the 1998 transfer consid- erably, but offers only a slightly
brighter and more film-like im- age compared to the 2007 up- grade. A fine layer of grain is now visible, contrasts are better judged, and a bit more detail has emerged. Of the supplemental features, the audio commentary by film historian Bruce Eder is especially worthwhile, providing his usual mix of in-depth produc- tion history with canny analysis. Also included are excerpts from Truffaut’s 1962 interview with Hitchcock, in which the director reveals that only one coach was built for the shooting. “The rest was perspective.” (The film was Hitchcock’s heaviest up to that time in terms of miniatures and rear screen projection.) He also talks at length about “that scene I have seen many times before: the drink with the drugs in it,” and his solution to make it more in- teresting and suspenseful by “shooting through the glasses.” Giant props were utilized in or- der to get the intended effect, a technique Hitchcock would use again in SPELLBOUND (1945), this time with a giant prop hand and gun.
Extras are rounded out by a documentary (MYSTERY TRAIN), a stills gallery and an entire bo- nus feature—the Charters & Caldicott adventure, CROOK’S TOUR (1941, 80m 54s).
LIFEFORCE
1985, Scream Factory, 116m/100m 59s, $29.93, BD+DVD By John Charles
While exploring Halley’s Comet, a British/American space expedition discovers three naked humanoids incased in clear coffins amidst several thousand dessicated bat-like creatures. Mission commander Carlsen (Steve Railsback) decides to bring the seemingly dead woman and two males back to
49
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116