The Lady Vanishes - and so do Charters and Caldicott!

[peter]

Last night the BBC aired it's TV re-make of the classic story 'The Lady Vanishes' based more upon the original scource material (the book 'The Wheel Spins' by Ethel Lina White) than the '38' and '79' film adaptions by Hitchcock and Anthony Page respectively. This I'm afraid, was to the programs detriment. The humor and light touch of the earlier film versions was gone to be replaced by a boarderline expressionist piece in which the main charachters were neither likeable or interesting. The spoilt heroine had none of the charm or grace of Cybill Sheppard or Margret Lockwood, and we barely got to know Miss Froy before she dissapeared from the action. Most noteably absent however were the irrepressible duo Charters and Caldicott who so overtook both previous adaptions that they spawned a whole series of further films, radio and TV series of thier own.

In my oppinion any production bearing the above title should not have eschewed these two creations of comic genius. Always engaged in 'something for the Foriegn Office' (the tacit implication is that there might be an element of espionage in the work they do) in some far-flung corner of the Empire, these two crusty old buffers meander their way across the world forever attempting to garner news on what the latest situation is at Lords ("Cricket, man - cricket!") and trying to get home in time for the last days play. Wars may be brewing and governments topling but C & C have a firm grasp on whats really important. Played initially by Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne in the Hitchcock film, the two charachters while virtually joined at the hip, are always engaging in a light form of 'oneupmanship' with each other. Naughton Wayne who in this film playes Caldicott is brusk and punctillious while Radford's Carters is more amenable and accepting of the problematic nature of travel. Caldicott is in an almost contant state of supressed astonishment and outrage at the base stupidity of everyone but himself. In the later film Page interestingly (and correctly I believe) swaps the charachters so that Arthur Lowe's Charters is the more dominant of the pair and Ian Carmichael's Caldicott takes on the more passive roll. The pair always introduce themselves as a unit "Charters and Caldicott" and it only seems right that the first name should be that of the duo's putative leader (Caldicott by no means always agrees that Charters is the decision maker, but normally goes along with him after a bit of grumbling in order to keep the peace.)

Gosh how I love these two nit-picking, pernickety, but always fair and honourable men; how could the director of the BBC adaption - I repeat how could they have left them out!

[Iolanthe]

I've seen that! I've just read the plot on Wikipedia, but all I could remember is the lady writing her name on the train window and the two gents talking about cricket in a hotel lobby! Margaret Lockwood eh? There's a blast from the past. The thing is not to watch modern versions of beautiful films from the past, they just can't be beaten.

[I'm Murrin]

I think the key thing is that this wasn't an adaptation of the film, but of the original story - they just used the more well known title. The two characters you miss were invented specifically for the Hitchcock film. Regardless of how well the finished product worked out, I don't think it was wrong of them to leave out those characters if they were adapting the original text.

[peter]

I get that this was an adaption that focsed on the original material - but I would contest that that was 'The Lady Vanishes' at all. To lovers of the previouse adaptions what we saw last night was 'The Wheel Spins' and would have been better to have been labled as such. But of course I do understand why the decision was made to use Hitchcocks title.