- Messages
- 14,902
- Reaction score
- 2,428
- Trophy Points
- 228
The official BFI 35th Best British film ever made...
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Alfred Hitchcock doing an Agatha Christie style mystery on a train but the fairly preposterous premise is perhaps closer to the more outre Sherlock Holmes plots (there is a Sherlock reference at one point). The 'how' and the 'who' of the thing is pretty obvious (the 'why' is never really revealed), the joy is more in seeing how all the characters deal with the situation. Plus the witty dialogue has a gag rate higher than most all-out comedies, the best being the banter between two Cricket-obsessed English twits, who turn out to be stalwart and dependable in the end (*).
(*They were so popular that the two appeared in several other films, radio shows and their own TV show).
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Alfred Hitchcock doing an Agatha Christie style mystery on a train but the fairly preposterous premise is perhaps closer to the more outre Sherlock Holmes plots (there is a Sherlock reference at one point). The 'how' and the 'who' of the thing is pretty obvious (the 'why' is never really revealed), the joy is more in seeing how all the characters deal with the situation. Plus the witty dialogue has a gag rate higher than most all-out comedies, the best being the banter between two Cricket-obsessed English twits, who turn out to be stalwart and dependable in the end (*).
(*They were so popular that the two appeared in several other films, radio shows and their own TV show).