Hitchcock films cannot successfully be remade. EVER! They have tried. They were all failures. So why on earth would anyone expect this to be a Hitchcock remake?
It's based on a book, so just like any book there will be other theatrical (or television, in this case) versions.
I can't believe that anyone is surprised by this.
Random Thoughts: http://goo.gl/eXk3O
Agree.
I think the problem has been created by calling this production The Lady Vanishes rather than The Wheel Spins. Comparisons could have been avoided by naming it after the book.
Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!
This was an adaptation of the novel but it was not as good as the Hitchcock one.
Its that man again!!
I agree that Hitchcock films cannot be made by anybody else to his degree of mastery. But I don't think some are complete failures. I think Hammer's remake of 'The Lady Vanishes' in 1979 was fun.
Hitchcock's film is much more famous than the book. In fact I am going to admit that I had never heard of the book before seeing this 2013 tv film. But this current film uses Hitchcock's title to get people's interest. It doesn't use the book's title which wouldn't have stirred anywhere the same interest. So if this production are going to cash in on Hitchcock's title, then that may be the reason a lot of viewers were expecting something a bit more Hitchcockian.
I quite agree that this is not a "re-make". Had they tinkered with Hitchcock's screenplay and used it to produce a film, it would be a re-make of the Hitchcock, but they didn't and it isn't. It's a different (and to my mind inferior) adaptation of the book.
I don't, though, agree that re-makes are "all failures". Hitchcock himself re-made his own version of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and the re-make was better than the original.