Remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller, starring Elliott Gould, Cybill Shepherd and Angela Lansbury. American heiress Amanda Kelly is taken ill on a train ride back to England and befriended by a kindly British nanny, Miss Froy, who mysteriously disappears, and no one except Amanda can remember seeing her. Together with photographer Robert Condon, Amanda attempts to solve the mystery of the vanishing lady in a race against death.
This watchable remake of the much-loved 1938 Hitchcock classic is slicker than the original - gone are the amateur model shots - but was given critical short shrift on its release in 1979. It may lack the charm and the atmosphere of impending war that gave the original so much power, but there are other fringe benefits. As before, Miss Froy (Angela Lansbury in high-camp mode) goes missing on a train, leaving hapless Elliott Gould and flighty heiress Cybill Shepherd trying to find her. The two stars are upstaged somewhat by lovable old coves Arthur Lowe and Ian Carmichael in the Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne roles of cricket-mad Charters and Caldicott. However, the detective duo also revel in a brash and breezy chemistry, and swap the sort of snappy banter that Shepherd was to refine to great effect when she co-starred with an unknown Bruce Willis in hit TV series Moonlighting six years later.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Robert Condon | Elliott Gould |
| Amanda Kelly | Cybill Shepherd |
| Miss Froy | Angela Lansbury |
| Dr Hartz | Herbert Lom |
| Charters | Arthur Lowe |
| Caldicott | Ian Carmichael |
| Mr Todhunter | Gerald Harper |
| Baroness Kisling | Jean Anderson |
| Mrs Todhunter | Jenny Runacre |
| Trainmaster | Vladek Sheybal |
| Jenny, the Nun | Madlena Nedeva |
| Helmut | Wolf Kahler |
| Miss Rose Flood-Porter | Madge Ryan |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Anthony Page |
