{ "id": "epb65pj78q", "slug": "the-lady-vanishes-1979-film", "title": "The Lady Vanishes (1979 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families", "label": "Shared-title version families", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families.british-literary-stage-families", "label": "British literary and stage adaptation title families", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families.british-literary-stage-families" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Lady Vanishes (1979) is Hammer Films' final feature, a remake of Hitchcock's 1938 thriller directed by Anthony Page, starring Cybill Shepherd, Elliott Gould, and Angela Lansbury; a critical and commercial disappointment.", "snippet": "The Lady Vanishes (1979) is Hammer Films' final feature, a remake of Hitchcock's 1938 thriller directed by Anthony Page, starring Cybill Shepherd, Elliott Gould, and Angela Lansbury; a critical and commercial disappointment.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families.british-literary-stage-families", "markdown": "# The Lady Vanishes (1979 film)\n\n**The Lady Vanishes** (1979) is a British comic mystery film directed by Anthony Page, a remake of [Alfred Hitchcock](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-hitchcock)'s 1938 thriller of the same name, in which an American heiress traveling by train through prewar Germany insists that a friendly elderly Englishwoman who has vanished from the train ever existed. It was the final feature film produced by [Hammer Film Productions](https://www.edgepedia.org/hammer-film-productions), with [Cybill Shepherd](https://www.edgepedia.org/cybill-shepherd), Elliott Gould, and Angela Lansbury in the leading roles.[1](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1970s/the-lady-vanishes/) • [2](https://ca.hammerfilms.com/blogs/news/the-forgotten-faces-of-hammer-cybill-shepherd-part-one)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / screenwriter | Anthony Page (director and producer); screenplay by George Axelrod[1](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1970s/the-lady-vanishes/) |\n| Production | A Hammer film presented by The Rank Organisation; budget of £2 million; filmed at Pinewood Studios and on location in Austria, September to November 1978[1](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1970s/the-lady-vanishes/) • [2](https://ca.hammerfilms.com/blogs/news/the-forgotten-faces-of-hammer-cybill-shepherd-part-one) |\n| Lead cast | Cybill Shepherd as Amanda Kelly, Elliott Gould as photographer Robert Condon, Angela Lansbury as Miss Froy, Herbert Lom as Dr. Hartz[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011814-lady_vanishes) |\n| Source | Remake of Hitchcock's 1938 film, based on Ethel Lina White's novel *The Wheel Spins*[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079428/faq/) |\n| Premiere | Royal premiere on 8 May 1979 at the Odeon Leicester Square, London[2](https://ca.hammerfilms.com/blogs/news/the-forgotten-faces-of-hammer-cybill-shepherd-part-one) |\n| Critical scores | Metascore 42 (mixed or average), with all 5 collected critic reviews rated mixed or negative; Rotten Tomatoes 33% from 6 critics, 43% from audiences[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-lady-vanishes/critic-reviews/) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011814-lady_vanishes) |\n| Historical position | Hammer's final feature film, closing a production history running from 1935 to 1979[6](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/hammer-production-timeline/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe story is set in 1939, weeks before the start of World War II.[7](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/8331) As war looms in Europe, a group of travelers gathers at a hotel in Bavaria. While waiting for her train, the American heiress Amanda Kelly drinks too much and performs an impersonation of Hitler that offends Nazi stormtroopers looking on; a scuffle breaks out and she receives a heavy blow on the head.[1](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1970s/the-lady-vanishes/)\n\nAboard the train to Switzerland, Amanda has breakfast with Miss Froy, a cheerful British nanny, and the two become friends. After Amanda sleeps off her condition, Miss Froy has vanished, and the fellow passengers she questions insist that the lady never existed.[1](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1970s/the-lady-vanishes/) Unsure whether the disappearance is imagined or part of a more sinister plot, Amanda teams up with the American photographer Robert Condon to discover the truth.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011814-lady_vanishes)\n\n## Production\n\n**Origins at Hammer.** Michael Carreras, Hammer's producer, had spent about three years trying to get the project off the ground, and the film represented the direction he thought he could take the company. It was originally envisioned as a picture for United States television, but the Rank Organisation, which held the story's remake rights, ultimately financed it as a cinema feature. Hammer followed its familiar practice of casting American actors in the lead roles to ensure transatlantic appeal, as it had done in earlier decades with performers including [Barbara Payton](https://www.edgepedia.org/barbara-payton), Dan Duryea, and [Bette Davis](https://www.edgepedia.org/bette-davis).[2](https://ca.hammerfilms.com/blogs/news/the-forgotten-faces-of-hammer-cybill-shepherd-part-one)\n\n**Shooting.** The production had a budget of £2 million and was directed by Anthony Page, who also produced. Filming ran from 11 September to November 1978 at [Pinewood Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/pinewood-studios) in [Buckinghamshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/buckinghamshire) and on location in Austria, with train scenes shot on the Klagenfurt–Rosenbach railway line in [Carinthia](https://www.edgepedia.org/carinthia) and at Marylebone Station in London, in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Railways.[1](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1970s/the-lady-vanishes/) Cybill Shepherd was seven months pregnant with her first child at the royal premiere.[2](https://ca.hammerfilms.com/blogs/news/the-forgotten-faces-of-hammer-cybill-shepherd-part-one)\n\nThe film premiered royally on 8 May 1979 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. Sources differ on the subsequent general release date: the Hammer Graveyard production record gives a UK release of 5 May 1979, while British Comedy Guide lists Sunday 3 June 1979.[1](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1970s/the-lady-vanishes/) • [8](https://www.comedy.co.uk/film/the_lady_vanishes_1979/)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe remake was poorly received by critics. On Metacritic it holds a Metascore of 42, classified as mixed or average, with all five collected reviews rated mixed or negative; Time Out wrote that the film \"continually begs\" comparisons with Hitchcock's original by \"trampling heavily over its predecessor,\" and Philip French in *The Observer* called it \"a rather charmless remake\" that added \"nothing of value.\"[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-lady-vanishes/critic-reviews/) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds 33% from six critics and 43% from audiences.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011814-lady_vanishes)\n\nThe reception was not uniformly hostile. The Hammer Graveyard record describes the film as \"mauled by the critics and ignored by the paying public,\"[1](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1970s/the-lady-vanishes/) but the DVD Talk review states that it flopped mainly in the United States while garnering mostly very good reviews in Britain, and judges it a legitimate and entertaining remake that is remarkably faithful to Hitchcock's film, with some scenes, such as Miss Froy's disappearance and the reappearance of her name spelled out on a dining car window, recreated line-for-line and shot-for-shot.[7](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/8331) In a contemporary survey of late-1970s British film, Alexander Walker grouped it with *The Thirty-Nine Steps* as \"ill-advised remakes of Hitchcock classics, rendered even more pallid by comparison with the earlier films.\"[9](https://storage.vernonpress.com/files/web/bab4beb8-45a7-4662-92ce-be3d22eeeb6a/1537766942.pdf)\n\n## Relation to the 1938 original\n\nThe 1979 film follows the same premise as Hitchcock's version: a young woman befriends an elderly traveler on a continental train, the woman disappears, and every other passenger denies her existence.[10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/7cf138fa-9eb7-571e-b1b4-82d821ea9504/the-lady-vanishes) The remake changes the leads from the original's British couple, Iris and Gilbert, to two Americans, the heiress Amanda Kelly and the photographer Robert Condon, and moves the setting to [Nazi Germany](https://www.edgepedia.org/nazi-germany) on the eve of war.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011814-lady_vanishes) • [11](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-lady-vanishes-2) Time Out argued that where the 1938 film had anticipated a Europe at war, the remake used hindsight to disadvantage, its picture of 1939 Europe reflecting market demands rather than the period, and that [Arthur Lowe](https://www.edgepedia.org/arthur-lowe) and [Ian Carmichael](https://www.edgepedia.org/ian-carmichael), as the cricket-loving Charters and Caldicott figures, provided the film's most solid work.[11](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-lady-vanishes-2)\n\nThe contrast with the original's standing is sharp: Hitchcock's film holds a 98% Tomatometer score and a Metascore of 98, and its success helped spur Hitchcock's departure for Hollywood.[12](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011813-lady_vanishes) • [13](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-lady-vanishes-1938/critic-reviews/) The 1979 film has since found a more favorable audience among some viewers; the Hammer Films retrospective notes that after years of unfavorable comparison with the original, \"in recent years it's become a favourite of many,\" and that the film's production is now closer in time to its wartime setting than to contemporary audiences.[14](https://hammerfilms.com/blogs/news/the-forgotten-faces-of-hammer-cybill-shepherd-part-two)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Lady Vanishes – The Hammer Graveyard](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/cinema-releases-1970s/the-lady-vanishes/)\n2. [The Forgotten Faces of Hammer: Cybill Shepherd – Part One, Hammer Films](https://ca.hammerfilms.com/blogs/news/the-forgotten-faces-of-hammer-cybill-shepherd-part-one)\n3. [The Lady Vanishes (1979), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011814-lady_vanishes)\n4. [The Lady Vanishes (1979) – FAQ, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079428/faq/)\n5. [The Lady Vanishes critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-lady-vanishes/critic-reviews/)\n6. [Hammer's Production Timeline – The Hammer Graveyard](https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/hammer-production-timeline/)\n7. [The Lady Vanishes (1979) DVD review by Stuart Galbraith IV, DVD Talk](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/8331)\n8. [The Lady Vanishes (1979), British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/film/the_lady_vanishes_1979/)\n9. [British film culture of the late 1970s (academic chapter, Vernon Press)](https://storage.vernonpress.com/files/web/bab4beb8-45a7-4662-92ce-be3d22eeeb6a/1537766942.pdf)\n10. [The Lady Vanishes (1938), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/7cf138fa-9eb7-571e-b1b4-82d821ea9504/the-lady-vanishes)\n11. [The Lady Vanishes (1979) film review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-lady-vanishes-2)\n12. [The Lady Vanishes (1938), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011813-lady_vanishes)\n13. [The Lady Vanishes (1938) critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-lady-vanishes-1938/critic-reviews/)\n14. [The Forgotten Faces of Hammer: Cybill Shepherd – Part Two, Hammer Films](https://hammerfilms.com/blogs/news/the-forgotten-faces-of-hammer-cybill-shepherd-part-two)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Shared-title version families › British literary and stage adaptation title families*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lady-vanishes-1979-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lady-vanishes-1979-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Lady Vanishes (1979 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lady-vanishes-1979-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Lady Vanishes (1979 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lady-vanishes-1979-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lady-vanishes-1979-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lady-vanishes-1979-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Lady Vanishes (1979 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lady-vanishes-1979-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Lady Vanishes is Hammer Films' final feature, a remake of Hitchcock's 1938 thriller directed by Anthony Page, starring Cybill Shepherd, Elliott Gould, and Angela Lansbury; a critical and commercial disappointment." }