Saturdays with the Stars: Margaret Lockwood

Each month of 2021 we will be taking a look at the leading ladies of some of Alfred Hitchcock's many celebrated classics; we'll be doing this series chronologically to when they first entered Hitchcock's filmography.  Last month we looked at the sad-eyed stardom of Sylvia Sidney.  This month, we'll look at possibly the most obscure actress we're going to profile this year, though at certain points of the 1930's and 40's, had you not known her name in casual conversation, you would have gotten some strange looks from those you were talking to for not knowing a headlining actress.  This month, our star is Margaret Lockwood.

Lockwood, though a British citizen, was born in India (when it was still under British rule).  She grew up in a comfortable background (her father was a railroad administrator), and started acting at a young age, eventually joining the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts & then eventually making a lot of B-Grade pictures (with the exception of Carol Reed's directorial debut Midshipman Easy), with increasingly bigger roles.

This all changed in 1938 when Lockwood appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes in the lead role.  It was a huge coup for Lockwood, then a relative unknown, and was considered by many to be one of the finest films of the year.  Lockwood was pretty stingy when it came to public interviews, so I can't find any direct quotes from her on the making of The Lady Vanishes, but reports about the film indicate that Hitchcock was a fan, and it was actually her young leading man Michael Redgrave whom Hitch despised on the set.

Lockwood is unique in the actresses we've profiled in Saturdays with the Stars in that she worked primarily in English-language films, but most of her best-known work was in British films, and while they were a big deal in the UK, didn't make a similar splash here.  Films like The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady were both huge hits in Great Britain, but didn't make much impression in the states, and so I'm genuinely curious what she's like as an actress, as she had an impressive career with a number of major stars (everyone from James Mason to Shirley Temple) sharing top billing alongside her.   Her reluctance to embrace fame in Hollywood (she was offered the lead in Forever Amber, which eventually went to Linda Darnell), chanced her into a series of flops that ended her career as a leading woman by the early 1950's.  This month, though, we're going to acquaint ourselves with not only The Lady Vanishes but also Margaret Lockwood herself, and the unusual career in pictures she crafted.