This is an early Alfred Hitchcock film (1938).

Storyline from IMDB:

Travellers on a trans-European train are delayed for a night due to bad weather in a small fictional country called Mandrika. The passengers cram into the small village hotel where socialite Iris Henderson meets an old governess called Miss Froy. Shortly after the journey restarts, Miss Froy disappears.

If you saw Flight Plan with Jody Foster, you can get a feeling for the basic plot of The Lady Vanishes, but the stories are only similar, not exactly the same.

I love Alfred Hitchcock movies, for the most part, but I have to say, this one was not one of my favorites. I don’t know if it was the similarity to Flight Plan, which I enjoyed, or because it’s an early Hitchcock and therefore, not up to the quality of some of his later stuff.

This is one of the Criterion Collection films, so presumably someone more qualified than I am has judged this to be one of the best films from this master story teller. I don’t want to give away the ending for those who want to see it and judge for themselves, but I was disappointed. I really didn’t feel it was up to the standards I expect from Hitchcock.

Storyline (from IMDB)

This film documents the coal miners’ strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA.

I’m not a big documentary watcher, but I did plan to watch these Criterion Collection movies, and this one was the top of someone’s list so I checked my Netflix instant screen and it was there.

I don’t know if this is the place to talk about how I feel about unions today, but it’s clear from this movie that these miners needed some kind of union because the mine owners did treat these people like animals. Their homes didn’t even have bathtubs or even running water. How can people live like this, and this was in 70s (they spoke about impeaching Nixon, so even before looking up the movie, I knew that). So, in the 70s, people in Kentucky didn’t have running water? That’s disgraceful.

As someone who grew up watching movies and TV, it’s hard to realize these are “real” people, not characters, so when the mine explodes and people are mourning the death of their fathers and husbands, it’s upsetting to know that we’re watching real emotions.

This is a hard film to watch, but maybe that makes it one that should be watched.

I watch a lot of television shows on Hulu and lately I’ve been seeing ads for “The Criterion Collection,” a collection of films that are supposed to be the best from all over the world.

I took a film class in college and since then have been interested in seeing films that other members of my family probably wouldn’t take the time to watch.

I decided to look up the Criterion Collection and see which ones were on the Netflix instant queue. I found a bunch and decided to watch one every Friday and blog about it.

Today’s entry is Unfaithfully Yours with Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell.

If you’re like me and assume, even after taking the film class, that classic movies considered “the best” are, by definition cerebral and dull or slow moving and only for the over educated or elitists – watch this movie.

It’s funny, romantic and surprising.

Rex Harrison plays a world famous conductor and Linda Darnell is his wife. They live a glamorous life, living apparently in a hotel surrounded by staff, family and hangers-on (who live in other hotel rooms). One night before a performance, Rex is approached by the husband of his wife’s sister – a boring bean counter of a man. Rex on the other hand is a passionate, romantic man and his wife’s sister often points this out to her husband.

Anyway, at some point, Rex had gone out of town and asked the sister’s husband to “keep an eye on my wife.” BTW, said wife is much younger, and frankly a little simpering and wishy-washy for my tastes, but whatever.

The bean counter guy takes this request seriously and since he can’t watch Linda Darnell all the time, he hires a detective. He’s come to Rex to give him the report, which apparently has something in it Rex might want to know about.

At first, Rex is insulted and rages against the hiring of said detective and nearly sets the hotel on fire when the house detective finds the pages he’s thrown out and brings them back. In an effort to show that he doesn’t care, he tried to burn the report and ended up burning the curtains.

Suspicion grows, even though Rex isn’t totally sure what’s in the papers, and he decides he has to find out. He meets the man who was hired to tail his wife and finds out that she spent 38 minutes in his male secretary’s room, in her negligee (!), while he was gone.

The rest of the movie revolves around his imagining ways to deal with the situation as he conducts his concert and what happens when he decides to put his plans into action.

I enjoyed this movie thoroughly and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys romantic comedies.