Summer of Hitch Love: The Lady Vanishes in Cumberland, Maryland and some people just shouldn't watch movies (Rope)

The Lady Vanishes is one of my favorite British Hitchcock films and remains a real crowd-pleaser.  Well, the ol' girl (as in Dame May Whitty) will be doing her vanishing act this summer in Cumberland, Maryland at the New Embassy Theater.  The information:

A film of suspense, intrigue, and comedy, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938) is the next film on the New Embassy’s cinema lineup. Each showtime will include a 50/50 raffle as well as a Spot Hitch contest.

Showtimes for The Lady Vanishes are Saturday, August 06 at 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm. Sunday, August 07 at 2:30 pm. Regular ticket price for adults is $5.00, children 5-12 years old are $4, under 5 years old are free, and the theatre is air conditioned. Snacks and refreshments are available from the lobby’s Passport Cafe. The Embassy is located between Liberty and Mechanic Streets at 49 Baltimore Street in Cumberland Town Centre. Advanced tickets sales and group discounts are available by calling (301) 722-4692.

The Lady Vanishes is Hitchcock’s penultimate British thriller before he jumped the Pond for Hollywood. It is adapted from the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White. It stars Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, Dame May Whitty, and features Googie Withers, who passed away on July 15, 2011. Because The Lady Vanishes was so successful, Hitchcock was in a position to negotiate a strong contract once he established himself in America.

In other Hitchcock news:

Poster from Hitchcock's Rope.

PJ lifestyle (a site that has 11,000 likes on Facebook, but of which I know nothing) has a poll on Hitchcock favorites, but also links to a blog that shares this fascinating report:

By Brian Hamacher
NBCMIAMI.com
updated 7/19/2011 1:55:07 PM ET

A relative of the Port St Lucie teen accused of beating his parents to death with a hammer before throwing a house party says the murders have shocked and devastated the "normal family."

Dave Zanoni, whose wife is the niece of victims Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley, said he couldn't believe it when he picked up the phone and heard of the shocking deaths.

"When we received the phone call, we thought it was a terrible car accident or something, we had no idea it was going to be what it turned out to be," Zanoni said. "I just can't believe it, I'm waiting to wake up from the nightmare."

Police say that nightmare unfolded Saturday, when 17-year-old Tyler Hadley allegedly attacked his parents with a hammer. By the time it was over, both were dead, having suffered blunt force trauma to the head and torso.

Just as shocking as the alleged murders, police say the teen threw a house party just hours after the deaths, with between 40 and 60 people attending, apparently unaware the Hadleys' bodies were behind the locked door to the master bedroom.
Sound familiar?  The blogger aptly titles his post "Reminder: Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope Not How-To Guide".  Take a look if you need a quick refresher on the plot Alfred Hitchcock's Rope.

Also:

A reminder, the Nyack HopperHappens Psycho event has been rescheduled for Monday evening.  See here for details.

And finally:

Poster from The 39 Steps

Some summer of Hitch love to Peter Bogdanovich and his terrific blog over at Indiewire, Picture of the Week.  This week's picture is The 39 Steps, directed by Hitchcock and written by Charles Bennett.  Mr. Bogdanovich probably doesn't remember our conversation outside the Herrick Library years ago, but I'll never forget.  Like Scorsese, Bogdanovich is as close as we come to having something like the credentials Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut had in the French New Wave-- respected film artists and historians/critics.

In Wednesday's post, the director recalled talking to Hitchcock about The 39 Steps: 

In the ‘60s, when I asked Hitchcock about The 39 Steps, he responded: “What I liked about it were the sudden switches and the jumping from one situation to another with such rapidity. [The star Robert] Donat leaping out of the window of the police station with half a handcuff on, and immediately walking into a Salvation Army Band, darting down an alleyway and into a room. ‘Thank God you’ve come, Mr. So-and-so,’ they say, and put him onto a platform. [A bit later borrowed by Graham Greene for The Third Man.] A girl comes along with two men, takes him in a car to the police station, but not really to the police station—-they are two spies. The rapidity of the switches, that’s the great thing about it… but it really takes a lot of work. You have to use one idea after another…” He could have been describing North by Northwest, which he did often refer to as “the American 39 Steps.” Read the entire blog here.