The Lady Vanishes is a British comedy mystery from 1979. It's based on the 1938 screenplay by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, they took the story from the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White. George Axelrod wrote the screenplay for this film and Anthony Page directed. It's a Hammer Films production and Michael Carreras is the Exec Prod.
The plot of the story follows the basic plot of the 1938 Hitchcock film but jazzes it up for the modern day. They also move most of the action to Germany, the original film has them in a fictional country. No matter, they still need to get over the border to escape the Nazis. Cybill plays the part Margaret Lockwood had and Elliot Gould plays the Michael Redgrave bit. Cybill plays a much more gregarious character, she's American, than the more staid and English one played by Margaret. George's character is also changed to an American. They're broader characters are fitting for the level of comedy in the film.
That guy with Cybill in the picture above is Arthur Lowe. Some might recognize him from Dad's Army and plenty of other TV shows and movies. Here he plays the part of Charters, Ian Carmichael plays his counterpart Caldicott. They are self absorbed Englishmen who are focused on getting home for the last days of the Cricket Test Match. Like the fellows in Hitchcock's film they act rather pompous and selfish but when push comes to shove, Charters picks up a gun and pops some caps into some Nazis. Over the years I've grown to like the pair of Cricket fans. They appeared in several movies, on radio and TV, they even have their own Wikipedia page. Arthur and Ian easily fill the shoes of Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford.
Angela Lansbury plays the May Whitty part of Miss Froy. As usual she's quite good. She helps Cybill after they meet on the train and then she disappears. Cybill goes looking for her after she's told there wasn't an English woman in the compartment earlier. She pulls George into her search and eventually they uncover a naughty Nazi plot.
They've got a fairly well written story that moves along quite well. I found Cybill's character kind of annoying but she gets the job done. I've never been a big Cybill fan. Good cast and plenty of nice locations. I still prefer the original but this wasn't too bad. I'd watch it again.
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