The Lady Vanishes story
The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder based on the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White, the film is about a beautiful English tourist travelling by train in continental Europe who discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is helped by a young musicologist, the two proceeding to search the train for clues to the old lady's disappearance.
13 total · 6 major · 7 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| communicating with someone who speaks a different language | major | there were recurring instances of Anglophones trying to communicate with continentals who, outrageously, did not understand English |
| foreign point of view | major | a variety of British people were commenting on what they found on the continent |
| infatuation | major | especially Gilbert and Iris became besotted and decided to marry in the end |
| secret agent occupation | major | It transpires that Miss Froy was a spy, and everything that happened around her was connected to that fact. |
| what if a killer was after me | major | it transpires that evil people were in fact after Miss Froy, and then everyone, with murderous intent |
| what if I told the truth and nobody would believe me | major | Iris became upset when no one she interviewed would admit to having seen her with Miss Froy |
| conflict of privacy preferences | minor | two Britih gentlemen were greatly flustered when a hotel maid began undressing in front of their eyes |
| corruption in society | minor | Iris bribed a hotel manager |
| cricket | minor | Charters and Caldicott were obsessed with the game of cricket. |
| espionage | minor | Miss Froy was a spy with an important message for Britain's foreign office |