4/22/17 The Lady Vanishes

Firstly, the movie takes place on a train which are featured in many of Hitchcock's movies. This gives the movie a very distinct time and place in a kind of nostalgic sense. The train is populated with many different characters that are given their own stories. In this way, it is much like John Ford's Stagecoach. Watch for two character named Charters and Coldicott. They are completely obsessed with cricket and oblivious to everything else. These two characters show up in another movie which I will talk about when we show it.

Secondly, the movie has Hitchcock's favorite use of McGuffin. That is a device that drives the plot forward but the details of the device do not matter. In this case, it is a musical song with a coded message. The code is never explained, the message is never revealed, and the impact of the message never comes up. In short, a plot device so underdeveloped to make it look ridiculous. Hitchcock's point was that he didn't have to develop it.