Hitchcock

Fantasy Bob is reminded that it is 60 years since Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho first hit the screens.  Even after all these years and many imitators, it remains the masterpiece of its genre.  The score by Bernard Hermann is near the top of anyone's list of film music, adding atmosphere and tension.

There is however nothing of particular interest to the cricketer, not surprisingly since it is set in Southern California.  The rest of Hitchcock's catalogue is similarly devoid of cricketing interest, except for one jewel in the crown.

The Lady Vanishes was released in 1938. It features the unforgettable characters Charters and Caldicott, played by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne who fuss and worry about the Test Match score as they journey through middle Europe. The characters are set up when the party is stranded in a hotel.  A call comes through from London.  Although it is not for him, Charters grabs the phone and asks what the Test score is.  Evidently the voice at the other end professes ignorance and Charters expostulates, 'How can you be in England and not know the Test score!' and puts the phone down.  Just what FB might do.

As the train trundles on, the pair's attempt to re-enact the dismissal of Hammond with the aid of sugar lumps.  they are indignant when the ladies at the next table interrupt them and ask for the sugar.  Later they are asked about this exchange, for the vanished lady was one of the ladies at the next table.  While they could remember relinquishing the sugar, neither could remember seeing the lady in question, 'We were deep in conversation.  We were discussing cricket.'  Met with the reply , 'Well I don't see how a thing like cricket can make you forget seeing people,' their indignation rises even more. 'If that's your attitude, there's nothing more to be said.  "Thing like cricket!"

As the mystery deepens around them, their primary concern is that any delay in the journey and their arrival in London could lead them to miss their opportunity to catch some of the action.  Of course fate has the last laugh.  They arrive in London eventually and hasten to find a train to Manchester (where the Test is being played) only to see the newspaper billboard 'Test Match Abandoned Floods.'

All very amusing and splendid light relief to the main action. The characters had an afterlife - Radford and Wayne played them again in 1940 in Night Train to Munich and in radio serials in 1941 and 42.  In 1985 the BBC made a mystery series Charters and Caldicott portraying them sleuthing in retirement.  FB confesses he missed that one but he understands it to be filled with cricketing references. 

FB still enjoys The Lady Vanishes and Hitchcock's version remains superior to all remakes.  But then he is the master. 

Nowadays, Charters and Caldicott's smart phones would keep them up to date ball by ball  So they and their obsessions seem of their time - except that FB can't help feeling that somehow they are actually in charge of things in modern Britain. Or maybe that's Psycho?