The Lady Vanishes, and Young and Innocent

Hah!

What I did do was go jogging (I did so yesterday, too), do a bunch of laundry, do some programming at work (yes, we got today off for Presidents' Day, but I'm working on a baseball-related app using the stats from Sean Lahman's Baseball Archive which I wanted to make progress on), and then went to the Stanford Theatre for more Hitchcock films.

Before the films I went to the burger joint Taxi's in Palo Alto for dinner. (I thought about going to the Peninsula Creamery again, but I decided that was more food than I really wanted - or needed!) I've been reading the children's book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in America as "...and the Sorcerer's Stone". I guess Americans don't believe in philosophy. I have the British edition with the original title, however), which has gotten very good reviews, even from some adults. In the booth across the aisle from me were a couple of young boys, and one of them every so often would ask me, "Where did you get that?" (My mother gave it to me for Christmas), and "Is that the fourth one?" (No, it's the first one. I bet the different cover and title confused him). It was pretty cute.

Anyway. I did in fact meet Subrata for the movies. He'd been playing Bridge all weekend and got there just barely ahead of me.

First up was The Lady Vanishes (1938), which is the earliest (I'd say) great Hitchcock film I've seen, and the earliest which is recognizably a Hitchcock film (as opposed to just having certain Hitchcockian elements). It opens in a village in central Europe where a number of travellers are stranded overnight by an avalanche. In a series of witty and enlightening scenes, we're introduced to most of the characters: Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), a young woman returning to England from travelling with friends to get married; Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave), a whimsical character studying ethnic music and dance; Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty), an Englishwoman who's been employed as a nanny for several years; a pair of English gentleman intent on returning for a cricket match, and several others.

The next day, with the pass cleared, they all board a train out of the area, and Iris strikes up a friendship with Miss Froy. She observes that their companions in their booth are not very friendly, and have tea together in the dining car. Due to having an object hit her on the head before departure, Iris feels unwell and takes a nap. When she wakes up, Miss Froy is gone, and no one remembers seeing her! Not her companions, not the other passengers, not the conductors. A doctor on the train pronounces that the blow to her head probably made her imagine things, and later a woman turns up wearing clothes like those Miss Froy was wearing, but it's not Miss Froy! Despite their mutual antipathy towards each other, Iris employs Gilbert Redman to help her learn the truth.

It's a very well constructed film, with elements of confusion and suspense familiar in later Hitchcock films. (The "making you think you didn't see what you saw" trick is of course key in North by Northwest). What happened is not too hard to figure out, though why it happened is not so obvious (and the revelation is actually a little disappointing). But overall it's a clever and rewarding film. Unlike the earlier films, I'd see this one again.

Unfortunately the same can't be said of Young and Innocent (1937), in which young artist (?) Robert Tisdall (Derrick de Marney) finds a woman murdered on a beach in a small town. It turns out to be someone he knows, and who willed him over a thousand pounds. Circumstances conspire to make it appear that he was the murderer, and he escapes to try to prove his innocence. He meets the Chief Inspector's daughter, Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam), whom he persuades to help him, with her rickety old car, and they head across the countryside to learn the truth, with the law only slightly behind them most of the way.

de Marney plays his role entirely too coolly, and many of the scenes are played for humor rather than suspense. Pilbeam (who has top billing) doesn't seem to be an especially good actress; her main credentials seem to be that she's cute (she was barely 18 when the film came out). And, ultimately, the evidence that clears Tisdall seems entirely too tenuous; he's saved basically by the true villain spontaneously confessing. It's not a really bad film, but nothing to go out of your way to see.

Still, a worthwhile night just to see The Lady Vanishes.