The Lady Vanishes marks the first appearance in the Criterion DVD list of genre masterpieces that may not carry Big Important Themes or have some deep, penetrating insight to offer, but are just kick-ass thrill rides made by masters of the craft. These films are trickier to rank, but I'll get to that shortly.
After two bona fide top tier masterpieces it's interesting to see this film pop up so early in the collection. The odd thing about The Lady Vanishes, a film that I've seen before and remember loving, is that it's a secondary (or even tertiary) Hitchcock work. If you're new to Hitch and need a place to start, you're going to go for Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest, The Birds, The Man Who Knew Too Much, or any number of his other films. In fact, it's going to take a long-ass time until you get around to this one, yet this may be one of his most unabashedly entertaining films. It's definitely one of his funniest, with the humor cranked up higher than usual here, especially in the opening scene, which plays out more like a character-establishing comedy set piece than a prelude to a spy thriller.
This is a great film, and with regard to ranking, pretty easy going. Seven Samurai is in an untouchable spot for the time being, but Grand Illusion is a film that I expect to shift positions. Thus, how do I choose between Grand Illusion and The Lady Vanishes? For me, there are a number of boxes I need to tick off when ranking a film, and Grand Illusion wins out for me because while it isn't a roller coaster ride like The Lady Vanishes, it's still a funny, smart, brilliantly acted and written piece of cinema that touched me at times. A general problem that I have with Hitchcock's films, even though I love them, is that aside from adrenaline, I'm rarely emotionally moved by his work. Also, aside from his technical brilliance, I don't usually find his films all that deep. Granted, his obsessions are fascinating, and as with every filmmaker, there are underlying themes to his filmography. Hitch just didn't set out to change the world, so personally, I can't put any of his films in the same category as something like Grand Illusion.
This brings up an interesting "problem" that I've thought about with this list. This is a personal ranking, and I'm not going to be swayed by arguments like "well Godard is important so you can't rank his films that low." I don't enjoy watching his films, so I'm probably going to banish most of them near the bottom of my ranking. Same with a lot of Italian Neorealism, which I understand is important but for me is the definition of movie watching as homework. However, the real test of how the hell I'm going to do this is when I get to something like Robocop, which is my favorite action film and something I can watch over and over again. Having a battle between Robocop and Seven Samurai is moronic as hell, but if I'm going to rank the Criterion Collection, then that's something I'm going to have to figure out. And before someone calls bullshit with today's ranking, I enjoyed watching Grand Illusion more than The Lady Vanishes, and will probably watch it again before I give this one another go. So shove it, imaginary combative reader.
Current ranking:
1. Seven Samurai (1954)
2. Grand Illusion (1937)
3. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Next time: I see if I remember more than the woman with cartoonishly large breasts from Fellini's Amarcord. My first viewing was "meh," but will I like it more now? Let's hope so.
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