The Lady Vanishes (1979 film)

The Lady Vanishes
Directed byAnthony Page
Screenplay byGeorge Axelrod
Based on
Produced byTom Sachs
Starring
CinematographyDouglas Slocombe
Edited byRussell Lloyd
Music byRichard Hartley
Production
company
Distributed byThe Rank Organisation
Release date
  • 8 May 1979 (1979-05-08)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£2-2.5 million[1][2]
Box office£49,121 (UK)[3]

The Lady Vanishes is a 1979 British mystery comedy film directed by Anthony Page and written by George Axelrod, based on the screenplay of 1938's The Lady Vanishes by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, in turn based on Ethel Lina White's 1936 novel The Wheel Spins. The film stars Elliott Gould, Cybill Shepherd, Angela Lansbury, Herbert Lom, and Arthur Lowe and Ian Carmichael.

A remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 film of the same name, the plot follows two Americans travelling by train across 1939 Germany. Together, they investigate the mysterious disappearance of an English nanny also travelling on the train. The remake's setting is essentially similar to Hitchcock's, but is openly set in pre-Second World War Germany rather than in the original fictional country. The Austrian fountain of Oberdrauburg by Hellmuth Marx is part of the setting. In addition, both leads have their nationality changed from British to American.

The film[4] was the last production by Hammer Films for 29 years, until Beyond the Rave (2008).

  1. ^ Tom Johnson and Deborah Del Vecchio, Hammer Films: An Exhaustive Filmography, McFarland, 1996 p379
  2. ^ "The lucrative case for believing in yesterday". The Guardian. 18 December 1978. p. 11.
  3. ^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 302. Figures are distributor's gross.
  4. ^ David Huckvale, James Bernard, composer to Count Dracula: a critical biography (2006) 238