Reed Does Hitchcock

Scaramouche2004

In Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, Margeret Lockwood, travels by train across an unnamed and supposedly 'fiticious' Bavarian country, came across some pretty nasty bad guys who surprisingly spoke with thick Bavarian accents and who all belonged to some sort of evil oppressive regime which had completely overrun our unnamed and supposedly 'fictitious' part of Bavaria.

Any idea what country this was meant to be? Any idea who these evil swine were meant to be? Well unless your a bit dense, of course we do.

However with Mr.Chamberlain still desperately trying to ensure 'Peace in our Time' across Europe, it would have been damned unsporting and deuced Un-English of us to have mentioned the fact in the film that this Bavarian hot spot was in fact Germany and the pretty nasty bad guys were in fact Nazi's working for the greater good of their Fuhrer.

Carol Reed however rectified that problem good and hearty when the long expected war was finally declared by practically remaking the entire film. This time however this early form of political correctness was abolished as Reed openly brands and nationalises our 'Baddies of former suspect origin', and adds plenty more 'Boo Sucks to you Fritzy' to a scale that Alfred Hitchcock's peace-time effort could only hint at.

Margeret Lockwood, who presumably not having learnt her lesson on the dangers and pit-falls of cross continental train travel in oppressive and dangerous locales, joins the fun again as Anna Bomasch the daughter of a Czech scientist trying to flee Germany by catching a Night Train to Munich with a British spy and half the German army.

Rex Harrison, the least man you'd expect to portray a brave and dashing British spy, plays MI5 man Gus Bennett/Dickie Randall and he carries out his role admirably and turns in a good and sometimes witty performance.

Paul Henreid billed here as Paul VON Henreid, plays Karl Marsen a die-hard Nazi who first meets Bomasch in a concentration camp. He has been planted their in order to befriend her and organise the escape which he hopes will eventually lead to her father, a scientific inventor who the Germans want to 'employ'

Taken in by Marsen, they flee to England and find her father under the watchful eye of Dickie Randall, undercover as seaside song plugger Gus Bennett. However when Marsen shows his true colours and Bomasch and her father are kidnapped and return to Berlin, Randall must also venture into 'The Lions Den' in order to rectify his mistake and get them back.

Posing as a high ranking German officer Randall's plan is to quickly make contact, make one quick car journey to an open field just outside town and return to England in time for tea and crumpets. His plans however, go disastrously wrong when the powers that be decide that Herr Bomasch and his daughter must be taken immediately to Munich on the 'Night Train'

Randall now having pulled rank and influence in order to travel with them, must decide on his next move to get the Bomasch's out of Germany. This is not going to be easy, for travelling on the same train in escort is Marsen and a company of his stormtrooper buddies.

Other veterans from The Lady Vanishes are Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne who reprise their roles from the Hitchcock movie as Charters and Caldicott, the two cricket obsessed English asses. To add an extra twist and a bit more suspense, it transpires that Caldicott is an old college friend of Randall who having recognising him could unwittingly give the game away at any moment.

Although this is a great film in it's own right with suspense in all its forms and everything you would expect from a wartime thriller, comparisons between this and The Lady Vanishes are pretty hard to ignore.

Don't get me wrong this is not an absolute remake of The Lady Vanishes as the stories are slightly different. Apart from the fact that the action takes place on a train filled with more than its fair share of goodies, baddies, and spies as it winds it's way through a hostile country carrying Miss Lockwood as a pretty but scared heroine in danger, Naughton Wayne and Basil Radford as Charters and Caldicott being all English and........

.....okay forget it.......it IS a remake pretty much.

score 6/10

Scaramouche2004 7 August 2006

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1441800/