The Lady Vanishes
Charters (Basil Radford) and Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) as the gay (?) cricket obsessed couple in The Lady Vanishes (1938).
The Lady Vanishes was made in 1937 and released in 1938.
Cast
Margaret Lockwood... Iris Henderson
Michael Redgrave... Gilbert
Paul Lukas... Dr. Hartz
Dame May Whitty... Miss Froy
Cecil Parker... Mr. Todhunter
Linden Travers... 'Mrs.' Todhunter
Naunton Wayne... Caldicott
Basil Radford... Charters
Mary Clare... Baroness
Emile Boreo... Hotel Manager
Googie Withers... Blanche
Sally Stewart... Julie
Philip Leaver... Signor Doppo
Selma Vaz Dias... Signora Doppo (as Zelma Vas Dias)
Catherine Lacey... The Nun (as Catherine Lacy)
Josephine Wilson... Madame Kummer
Charles Oliver... The Officer
Kathleen Tremaine... Anna
Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) fighting with Signor Doppo (Philip Leaver) on the train.
Watch The Lady Vanishes Online
MacGuffin
Hitchcock explaining to Truffaut what the MacGuffin is: "It's the device, the gimmick, if you will, or the papers the spies are after. [...] the "MacGuffin" is the term we use to cover all that sort of thing: to steal plans or documents, or discover a secret, it doesn't matter what it is. And the logicians are wrong in trying to figure out the truth of a MacGuffin, since it's beside the point. The only thing that really matters is that in the picture the plans, documents, or secrets must seem to be of vital importance to the characters. To me, the narrator, they're of no importance whatever.
Hichcock Films with a MacGuffin
- The 39 Steps (the mechanical formula for the construction of an airplane engine)
- The Lady Vanishes (secret hidden in a melody)
- North by Northwest (microfilm containing government secrets)
- Torn Curtain ("Gamma Five" project, concerning an anti-missile missile)
- Similar to, but no MacGuffins are: Number Seventeen (the necklace), The Man Who Knew Too Much (assasination), Notorious (uranium)
Bird Motif in Hitchcock's Films
Birds are often an ominous sign in Hitchcock's films and/or representatives of evil and horror.
| The Lodger, 1926/1927 | |
| Blackmail, 1929 | Alice has a canary bird twittering ominously after the murder |
| Sabotage, 1936 | The bomb is made in a bird shop. fabrikeres i en fugleforretning. "The birds will sing at 1:45" Who Killed Cock Robin? |
| Young and Innocent, 1937/1938 | When the two women see the body, they turn away and Hitchcock cuts to extreme close-ups of gulls and then back to the women again. |
| The Lady Vanishes, 1937/1938 | A bird cage in the inn is seen right after the camera has entered through the window Charters calls Miss Froy «a queer sort of bird» in the restaurant at the inn When Droppo and Gilbert starts to fight there is a bird in front of the camera. |
| Saboteur, 1942 | When Pat is begging her uncle to give up Barry, a bird is seen in the same frame. |
| Foreign Correspondent, 1940 | Van Meer is talking a lot of birds. |
| To Catch a Thief, 1954/1955 | |
| Vertigo, 1957/1958 | Novak wears a Hummingbird pin on her lapel. |
| Psycho, 1959–60/1960 | Norman Bates is stuffing birds. Birds are predominant in the dialogue scene in Norman's office. |
| The Birds, 1962/1963 | The birds are attacking. |
| Topaz, 1968-69/1969 | Gulls are stealing the French loaf that the Cuban resistance people had hidden their cameras in. This reveals them to the Cuban militaries.
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| Family Plot, 1975/1976 | Mrs "Rainbird" is the reason Blanche starts her investigation. |
