The challenge of remaking a classic film beginswith the question, “Why do it?” With the recent remake of The Lady Vanishes (out on DVD), the answer is that the screenplayis true to the otherwise forgotten novel (Ethel Lina White’s The Wheel Spins) that was the source forAlfred Hitchcock’s 1938 classic. Hitchcock took great liberties while thedirector of the new version, Diarmuid Lawrence, was determined to be faithful.
A polished period production in the “MasterpieceTheatre” mode, the latest Lady Vanishesstars Tuppence Middleton as protagonist Irish Carr, a wealthy youngEnglishwoman on holiday in Yugoslavia. Unlike Hitchcock’s protagonist, the newIris is not especially warm and endearing but is an arrogant snot—borderline hostileto anyone not from her posh young “smart set.” That adds another dimension toher difficulties, sharpening her predicament on the long train ride home thatoccupies much of the picture. No one believes her story that an elderly Englishspinster has someone disappeared on the train. The new movie’s Iris is deservingof a “Yeah, whatever” response to anything she says or does.
Hitchcock played The Lady Vanishes as a light spy caper. The new version is darker, involvinga conspiracy among a sinister group of passengers, inadvertently abetted by theself-centered unconcern of most everyone else. The remake probably won’t causefilm buffs to forget the original, but it could prompt them to see theHitchcock film in a new light.
