The Lady Vanishes (1979 film)

Infobox Film
name = The Lady Vanishes


image_size =
caption =
director = Anthony Page
producer = Tom Sachs
writer = George Axelrod (adaptor)
starring = Elliott Gould
Cybill Shepherd
Angela Lansbury
Herbert Lom
Arthur Lowe
Ian Carmichael
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = 1979
runtime = 97 minutes (US) /
95 minutes (UK)
country = America and UK
language = English
budget =
amg_id = 1:28078
imdb_id = 0079428

"The Lady Vanishes" is a 1979 remake of a 1938 film of the same name. It was directed by Anthony Page and adapted by George Axelrod. It starred Elliott Gould as Robert (Gilbert), Cybill Shepherd as Amanda (Iris), Angela Lansbury as Miss Froy, Herbert Lom, Arthur Lowe and Ian Carmichael.

ynopsis

It is August 1939, in Bavaria. A lady in tweeds is whistling a tune while walking along some villages lanes. A taxi drives past heading towards the station to catch the train for Switzerland. On finding the train has been delayed by troop movements, the two occupants head to the local hotel only to find the whole hotel is full because of the train disruptions and they must sleep in the upstairs lounge. Other guests in the hotel include a German doctor by the name of Egon Hartz, Rober Condon (an American journalist), several English people and a group of American and English socialites led by "much married madcap American heiress" Amanda Metcalf-Midvani-Von Hoffsteader-Kelly. In addition to these is the late middle-aged lady in tweeds called Miss. Froy. She says she is from Brighton, 'well, Hove actually, just down the coast'.

During the evening, Amanda (while drunk) gets on a table and does an impression of Hitler. This is much to the dislike of some German soldiers who take an objection to this and knock her off the table top. She is attended to by the kindly Dr. Hartz. The next morning, Amanda is due to travel back to London alone for her wedding to Sir Rupert Ogilvy-Gore. However, she oversleeps and has to leave without her luggage and still wearing her evening dress from the previous night (she also still has her painted Hitler moustache). While on the bus, she is joined by the reclusive English couple Mr. & Mrs. Todhunter. Mrs. Todhunter is annoyed that they had taken dinner in their room the previous night because she does an excellent Mussolini impression.

When they arrive at the station, Amanda boards the train and sits an a compartment with four Germans. She is asked to leave as all 6 seats are reserved, but stays. Shortly thereafter, they are joined by Miss. Froy. When the train leaves, Amanda and Miss. Froy strike up a conversation, while the remaining passengers in the compartment appear not to understand a word of English. They leave the compartment together to go to the dining car for tea (stopping on the way to wash off Amanda's moustache). On route to the dining car, Miss. Froy stumbles into the compartment of the English couple "Mr. & Mrs. Todhunter" (who it transpires are having an affair). In the dining car, the pair are seated by a waiter and Miss. Froy provides her own tea, Herriman's Herbal Tea, "as drunk by a million Mexicans" while Amanda prefers a large whiskey. While in the dining car, Miss. Froy writes her name in the dust of the window after Amanda miss hears it as Freud when the passing of another train drowns out their conversation. During tea, Miss. Froy annoys two English gentleman returning to England for the test match by asking to borrow their sugar (which is being used to illustrate a cricket match). Miss. Froy tell Amanda about her job as a children's governess and music teacher. They reserve two places for the first sitting of lunch. After returning to the compartment, Amanda lapses into unconsciousness (the result of her earlier fall from the table top while imitating Hitler coupled with the whiskey). When she reawakens, the governess has vanished. Amanda is shocked to learn that the other passengers in the compartment (Baroness Kisling, her two servants and their daughter) claim Miss. Froy never existed. Even the other English travellers deny ever seeing her, for their own reasons, the Todhunters for fear of their names being drawn to attention and the 2 gentlemen (Caldicot & Charters) who are worried about missing the Test match after further delays this may cause.

Everyone, including a foreign doctor, Dr. Hartz, declares that she must be hallucinating due to her accident. Unconvinced, Amanda starts to investigate, joined only by a skeptical Robert Condon (a reporter), with whom she eventually falls in love. At this point the train stops to pick up a badly burnt and heavily bandaged automobile accident victim. After the train starts off again, Robert and Amanda question all the people who have seen Miss. Froy, but they draw a blank until Mrs. Todhunter comes forward to say she has seen Miss Froy (hoping to have her name drawn into so as to cause a scandal, which would cause her and Mr. Todhunter's spouses to divorce them). After this, the girl from Amanda's compartment appears to say that Miss. Froy has returned. Amanda and Robert return to the compartment to see someone dressed like Miss Froy seated there, however when she turns around it is not Miss. Froy. This lady is Frau Kummer. The Baroness says she did not equate Amanda's English nanny with her German friend. Robert announces that he can settle this as there is someone else on the train who has seen Miss. Froy/Frau Kummer. Unfortunately while this has been going on, Mrs. Todhunter has told her lover what she has done. Mr. Todhunter says that while her husband (the Major) would divorce her, he would not leave his wife (Iris). With this in her mind, Mrs. Todhunter identifies Frau Kummer as the same woman she saw wearing tweeds early on.

Feeling dejected, Amanda takes Robert to the dining car where she orders four double whiskeys each. Amanda then tells Robert a bit about her life and her three marriages for money (the money being her grandfather's, whose will settles $1 million on her when she marries). During this conversation, Amanda notices Miss Froy's name on the window just as they enter a tunnel. By the time they come out into the open, it has been wiped off. Amanda becomes annoyed & frustrated at Robert's disbelief and tells him about Herriman's Herbal Tea. Robert regrets allowing her to drink. Amanda then pulls the emergency cord in a fit of hysteria.

After the train has restarted and with the threat of being thrown off the train at the next stop, Amanda returns to her compartment alone. After closing her eyes for a rest, the Baroness and her servants try to throw her out of the window. She struggles to breaks free and rushes out of the compartment towards Robert. Meanwhile, some rubbish has been thrown out of the dining car and a gaudy tea label for Herriman's Herbal sticks briefly to the window of Robert's compartment, which he is sharing with two English ladies and Dr Hartz. He rushes out to find Amanda and they embrace in the corridor. After this, they search the train and end up in the baggage car, where they find the broken glasses of Miss Froy. The man servant of the Baroness appears and he takes the glasses from Robert. A struggle ensues and with some help from Amanda (a Dutch Rub and an Indian burn), the man servant is pushed off the train (taking their evidence with him). At this point, Robert remarks on Amanda's shapely and well formed legs.

After this, they head off to tell all of this to the one person they can trust, Dr Hartz. While waiting for him, they notice that the Nun (who came aboard with the patient) is wearing high heels. They surmise that Miss Froy was lured to the baggage car and held captive. Frau Kummer (who neither saw board the train) must have come aboard disguised as the patient, then dressed in Miss Froy's clothes, with Miss Froy becoming the bandaged patient. Dr Hartz returns and tells them to wait in the next compartment while he orders some drinks. While the two of them wait, Dr Hartz returns to the Nun. He asks her to order some drinks and gives her some Hydrosil to put in their drinks to put them to sleep. He returns to the compartment where Amanda and Robert are waiting. He tells them the patient is Miss Froy and she will be leaving the train at Murrenbach (the next station). He also tells them that the drinks they have just had have been drugged. He leaves to get ready to get off at the next station.

Robert climbs out of the window and into the compartment where the Nun and Miss Froy are. The Nun speaks perfect English and tells Robert that she did not drug their drinks. She also confirms that Dr Hartz is with his aunt, the Baroness, making their final plans and that she is not a Nun but his wife. Robert calls them Nazis to which she replies that they are not, they are just scared that there is an anti-Nazi among them, General Von Reider (Miss Froy's employer). They unbandage Miss Froy. At this point Frau Kummer appears so they bandage her up in Miss Froy's place (against her will). Robert and Miss Froy return to the next compartment.

At Murrenbach, Dr Hartz, the patient, the Nun and the Baroness leave the train and board a waiting ambulance where General Von Reider's eldest son (an SS officer) is waiting. While waiting for the train to leave the identity of the patient is discovered. Unbeknown to Amanda, Robert and Miss Froy, the rest of the train after their carriage is uncoupled, leaving only their car and the dining car when the train starts off again, on a diverted route. After the train pulls off, pleased that they will soon be over the Swiss border, Amanda and Robert kiss. Miss Froy heads to the toilet to tidy herself up and to give them some privacy. She notices that the rest of the train has been uncoupled and goes back to tell them. They agree that there is only the carriage they are in and the dining car (between them and the engine) but that there wouldn't be anyone there right now. Miss Froy points out that it is teatime so all the English people will be there. The 3 of them go to the dining car. At first no-one believes that the train has been uncoupled. Just as they confirm this, the train stops in a clearing. Helmut Von Reider, the SS officer, approaches the train asking for Miss Froy. After some argument in the dining car they say that they will not send her out. Helmut announces that anyone wishing to leave the train may do so now and all of the German passengers and staff leave. It turns out that Robert and Mr Todhunter have revolvers, which Robert and Charters start firing, in response to German shots. Mr Todhunter goes outside waiving a white handkerchief in truce and is shot by the Germans. While this is going on, Miss Froy reveals to Amanda and Robert that while she is not a spy the General has given her a message: a tune to take to a Mr Calandar in Whitehall. They memorise Miss Froy's tune. She leaves and apparently gets shot while escaping.

Robert decides that they need to get the train started, head back to Murrenbach, switch the points and ram it across the Swiss border. He and Caldicot head to the engine while Charters will, at the right moment, jump down and switch the points. They start the train and head back to the station. However Charters has been mildly wounded in the shoot-out so Amanda jumps down to change the points. While she throws the switch, she is shot at by Helmut and Dr Hartz, who have followed them back from the clearing. Helmut is shot in the arm by Charters. As the train moves off again Amanda (still in her full length evening dress) runs beside the train and is scooped up by Robert in the nick of time. They leave Dr Hartz, the Baroness and Helmut on the trackside as they head for Switzerland.

On returning to London, they all go their separate ways. Sadly for Calidcot and Charters, the Test match has been abandoned due to flooding. On seeing her fiancee, Sir Rupert Ogilvy-Gore, waiting to greet her, Amanda hides and decides she won't marry him, but will instead marry Robert. They get into a cab and head for Whitehall. On arriving there, in the excitement of their feelings for each other, they forget the tune. After a few unsuccessful attempts they hear Miss Froy's tune and walk into the next room to see Miss Froy playing the tune on the piano. They both join in humming it and she turns round to see them both and they all embrace.

Differences from the original

The setting of the remake is essentially similar to the earlier film, but:
*it is set in the same timeframe as the original (the months immediately before the Second World War) but is openly set in Germany rather than in the fictional Alpine county of the original.
**the train journey is this time through the Bavarian country towards the Swiss border. Most of the passengers make it safely into Switzerland, after a shootout with their Nazi pursuers.
*both leads have their nationality changed from English to American
**the female lead's name is changed from Iris to Amanda. She is still a rich woman, but here she is not an engaged Englishwoman but a much-married (but now divorced) American heiress to a large fortune.
**the male lead's name is also changed from Gilbert to Robert, and his occupation changed from musicologist to photographer and journalist.
*Miss Froy is still a secret agent, who has been living as a governess to a rich and influential family, but this time the family is German and headed by the anti-Nazi General Von Rieder, who has entrusted her with the tune.
*Overall, the film is played as more like a screwball comedy than the comedy thriller approach of the original.
*Unlike the 1938 version Amanda's "hallucinations" are the product of a fall from a table top during an ill-received Hitler impression combined with a hangover from the previous night.
*Also in the remake Miss Froy really is a governess, rather than this being a cover story, and does not confess to being a spy (as in the 1938 version) - she is returning home in the face of a looming war, entrusted with the tune from her employer von Rieder.