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Film Description
Actress Margaret Lockwood was Britain's leading box office star of the 1940s. Rising to fame in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Tha Lady Vanishes in 1938, Lockwood became synonymous with villainess roles, such as the highly successful The Wicked Lady. This box set commemorates her contribution to cinema with six of her greatest performances under some of Britain's best directors.
Features The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938), Love Story (Leslie Arliss, 1944), in which a concert pianist with a serious heart problem meets a pilot who is going blind, The Wicked Lady (Leslie Arliss, 1945), in which a woman steals her cousin’s fiance then embarks on a career of crime, Bank Holiday (Carol Reed, 1938), which follows a series of people enjoying the seaside on a 1930s British Bank Holiday. Also includes Highly Dangerous (Roy Ward Baker, 1950), in which an entomologist is sent to a Communist country to collect specimens for British Intelligence, and Give Us the Moon (Val Guest, 1944), set post WWII, in which a lazy young man refuses to work and joins group of people with similar views.
This set showcases the likeability and versatility of one of Britain’s most beloved movie stars, Margaret Lockwood. Alongside her best-known film, The Lady Vanishes, a... more >
This set showcases the likeability and versatility of one of Britain’s most beloved movie stars, Margaret Lockwood. Alongside her best-known film, The Lady Vanishes, and her signature role, as Gainsborough’s Wicked Lady, are four very different movies: a multi-threaded comedy-drama, a classy soaper, an engaging spy caper and a home-grown screwball comedy.
Unsurprisingly, the best movie here is The Lady Vanishes, Hitchcock’s wonderful train-bound thriller, with bride-to-be Lockwood and musician Michael Redgrave facing foreign spies, drugged drinks and nuns in high heels as they unravel a mystery. Comedy, romance and suspense gel perfectly, and the gallery of supporting characters includes those recurring national treasures Charters and Caldicott.
The Wicked Lady is ridiculous but wildly entertaining, with Lockwood irresistible as the husband-stealer turned highwaywoman who finds her match in James Mason’s devilish robber. Florid direction and zesty performances make this one a must.
Misery abounds in Bank Holiday, a portrait of unhappy lives nearing melting point on a sweltering August day. Lockwood and John Lodge communicate their characters’ thoughts with economy and subtlety. A stark and original film, it has a lovely coda.
Love Story, a wartime melodrama, boasts the familiar sight of Rank darlings Lockwood and Patricia Roc scrapping over a man. Margaret plays a dying pianist, whose last days of happiness with mysterious loafer Stewart Granger are threatened by chain-smoking actress Roc. Highly Dangerous is a sprightly Cold War thriller: tense and involving, with good chemistry. But the nicest surprise is Give Us the Moon, a delightfully unpredictable screwball comedy from Val Guest. Peter Graves plays a moneyed layabout who falls in with a group of displaced Russian swindlers, led by fantasist Nina (Lockwood).
There’s little plot, but dozens of laughs and Jean Simmons is terrific in her first film, as an unschoolable anti-capitalist with a yen for cigarettes. < less
