History Film / TheLadyVanishes

* ImpairmentShot: The 2013 BBC version uses this as a drugged Iris is being taken off the train.

* NeutralFemale: {{Defied| Trope}}. A fight scene between Gilbert and one of the conspirators starts out with Iris standing on the sidelines before Gilbert tells her "stop standing there like a referee and help me." She does help and actually ends up being the one to knock out the bad guy.

* TooDumbToLive: The train car that the heroes are on has been diverted to the middle of nowhere and surrounded by armed Nazi soldiers. It's been made clear already that the soldiers aren't interested in working things out, which the passengers discovered when one tried to talk to them and was shot in the hand. Todhunter, in spite of all of this, still tries surrendering. He is promptly shot dead.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Dr. Hartz.

* HeelFaceTurn: The nun.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: In the shootout during the film's climax several villainous mooks are killed while very few of the train's passengers are killed. Justified in that the people on the train had cover while the mooks that died were in the open. The passengers who died ([[DisposablePilot both conductors]] and Todhunter) were both in the open when they got shot to death.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: With three exceptions--[[DisposablePilot the train conductors die from one bullet each]], and Todhunter makes himself too convenient a target.
* MacGuffin: The tune that Ms. Froy teaches Gilbert is actually a coded message that we never learn the significance of.

* HoYay: This could also count as GettingCrapPastTheRadar, because Caldicott and Charters appear to be a couple in every sense but the stated one. They not only share a room, but a bed (which at least one of them doesn't bother wearing a shirt in), and are paralyzed with fear by the maid's advances.

* MagnificentBastard: Gilbert to an extent, though after they're on the train, his bastard-status fades.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[spoiler: Dr. Hartz.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: The guitar player]] near the beginning.
** ChekhovsGun: Similarly [[spoiler: the tune he is playing, as it's the code that Froy was [[BringNewsBack bringing home]].]]

* DoomedDefeatist: [[spoiler: Todhunter]], who also proves to be TooDumbToLive.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: The nun]].
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: With three exceptions--[[DisposablePilot the train conductors die from one bullet each]], and [[spoiler:Todhunter]] makes himself too convenient a target.
* MacGuffin: The [[spoiler: tune]] that Ms. Froy teaches Gilbert is actually a [[spoiler: coded message]] that we never learn the significance of.

* WorthyOpponent: In a scene that's quite weird to watch these days, Nazi spy [[spoiler:Dr. Hartz]] cheerfully accepts his defeat and wishes our heroes good luck.

All right, there ''is'' foul play. But there's also a ScrewballComedy relationship between Iris and Gilbert. And two hilariously over-the-top Englishmen. This is probably one of Hitchcock's nicer films - think ''The39Steps''.

** Unofficially, the Jodie Foster film ''Flightplan'' bears quite a few similarities.

A 1938 film starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave, ''The Lady Vanishes'' is arguably the last great film directed by AlfredHitchcock before he went off to Hollywood. After receiving a nasty bump on the head, Iris (Lockwood) meets Miss Froy, a nice middle-aged lady on board a train travelling through Bandrika, a fictional country somewhere in central Europe. They get on nicely for a while, when suddenly... the lady vanishes ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin what a twist]]). Iris and the caddish-yet-loveable Gilbert (Redgrave) promptly try to locate her - but nobody seems to remember seeing Miss Froy. Did Iris just make her up? Or is there foul play at work?

All right, there ''is'' foul play. But there's also a ScrewballComedy relationship between Iris and Gilbert. And two hilariously over-the-top Englishmen. This is probably one of Hitchcock's nicer films - think ''{{The 39 Steps}}''.

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Ms. Froy]] turns out to be this.

* [[SuicidalPacifism Suicidal Pacifist]]: [[spoiler: Todhunter]], who also proves to be TooDumbToLive.

** ChekhovsGun: Similarly [[spoiler: the tune he is playing, as it's the code that Froy was searching for.]]