The Lady Vanishes
Director: Diarmuid Lawrence
Year: 2013
Rating:
4.0
Was this TV remake
of the classic The Lady Vanishes from Hitchcock really needed any more than
the 1979 version with Elliot Gould and Cybill Sheperd? In that one
Gould and Sheperd seemed to think they were in a Woody Allen movie. In this
one they cut out the heart of the film - no romance, no comedy nor the two
cricket loving Englishmen nor the train being attacked nor Miss Froy being
a spy. But the thing is this one actually follows the book - The Wheel Spins
- as opposed to what Hitchcock did. For which I am grateful. I think Hitchcock's
version is wonderful. That is why he was a genius. This one is just boring.
A screechy pampered English woman on the verge of a breakdown. Through the
whole film. All twitchy, irritable, rude, privileged, chain smoking. So much
so that I didn't care if she found Miss Froy - who they seem to hint is a
lesbian.
Iris is on vacation in central Europe with
her equally annoying English twit friends. Everyone in the hotel hates them
and wishes them gone. They all leave the next day except for Iris who wishes
some Me time. She goes out for a walk and gets lost and asks a shepherd where
the hotel is. When he doesn't understand her, she is furious that he doesn't
speak English. I already hate this woman. The next day she decides to leave
and finds herself in a carriage with a group of foreigners and an older English
lady, Miss Froy (Selina Caddel) who chats her ear off. Iris falls asleep
and when she wakes Miss Froy is gone, everyone tells her there never was
an English lady in the carriage. Tuppence Middleton who plays Iris acts as
if she is in Lady MacBeth. She gets two other English men to help - sort
of - they don't really believe her, but she is attractive. Just give
me a few minutes with Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave to bring my
annoyance level down. To be fair, perhaps if I had not seen the original
this would have been palatable but she would still have gotten on my every
nerve.
