The 39 Steps (1935)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Film Review

The absolute best of Alfred Hitchcock's British films is this exciting, highly entertaining adaptation of John Buchan's novel The Thirty-Nine Steps. It was the culmination of everything that Hitchcock had achieved in his preceding twenty or so films and a template for much of what was to follow.  Along with the subsequent The Lady Vanishes (1938) , this was the film that earned Hitchcock his international reputation and his one-way ticket to Hollywood.

To date there have been three other adaptations of the John Buchan novel - one released in 1958, directed by Ralph Thomas, one in 1978 by Don Sharp, and one by Robert Towne, to be released in 2009.  Hitchcock's version is unquestionably the best, although it is the one which departs most radically from the original novel.  The basic plot is one that recurs in several of the director's later films - notably Saboteur (1942) and North by Northwest (1959):  a sympathetic Mr Average is wrongly accused of a crime, finds the whole world turned against him and has to expose the real culprit to clear his name.  It's a familiar storyline, one that provides the bare bones for countless thriller novels and films, but somehow no one tells it better than Hitchcock.

This is a film that demonstrates how brilliantly Hitchcock exploits every aspect of filmmaking technique to craft a piece of cinema that scores highly on both the artistic and entertainment scales.  The composition of shots, the choice of camera angles, the startling use of lighting, the precise editing - all work to build suspense, create atmosphere and tell the story as efficiently as possible.  The result is a film that rushes ahead like an express train, with plenty of humour but also a great deal of tension and darkness.   Although the action slows down from time to time to allow the characters and the audience time to catch their breath, the pace is relentless, exhilarating, and fun.

The 39 Steps benefits from a superlative cast of talented British actors.  In his most memorable role, Robert Donat makes a debonair and very likeable Richard Hannay, an obvious forerunner of the suave James Bond-style action heroes in cinema's later adventure thrillers.  Donat has a natural sparkly rapport with his co-star Madeleine Carroll, which most manifests itself in the famous scene where they are handcuffed together in a hotel bedroom, one of funniest and most erotic scenes in any Hitchcock film.  Two other great actors, John Laurie and Peggy Ashcroft, bring a keen edge of realism to the film's most poignant scene, the one where Hannay unwittingly causes ructions in the crofter's cottage.

Although it was made six years after the arrival of sound recording, The 39 Steps has something of the feel of a silent film, and not just because it employs some of the expressionistic touches of Hitchcock's very early films.  It is a good example of pure cinema, telling the story using images rather than dialogue.  The oft-cited scene transition from the shot of a woman screaming to the shot of Hannay's train heading off to Scotland heightens the brutality of the killing and emphasises the nature of the threat that our hero is up against.  The spectacular chase sequences across the bleak Scottish moors remind us of Hannay's vulnerability and his seemingly hopeless isolation.  And the scene where the main villain reveals himself is so spine-chilling because it is so economically realised - a shot of a hand with one finger missing.  Only a director who had mastered his art in the silent era - as Hitchcock had - could have such an  innate appreciation of the potentialities of the moving image to tell a story and engage with an audience.   Maybe this is the thing that most made Hitchcock a great cineaste and why his films have such an enduring, universal appeal.

Film Synopsis

Not long after arriving in London, the Canadian Richard Hannay visits a music hall theatre to watch the star act, Mr Memory, a man who startles his audience with his infallible recollection of trivial facts.   During the show, gunshots are fired.  In the panic, Hannay leaves the theatre holding a woman he has never met before.  Identifying herself as Annabella Smith, the woman insists that Hannay takes her back to his flat.  There, she reveals that she is a secret agent who has just discovered that enemy agents are planning to smuggle vital military secrets out of the country.  Later that night, Annabella is murdered but leaves a vital clue - a map of Scotland with a town marked.   Hannay takes the first train to Scotland, but when Annabella's dead body is discovered, he is the obvious suspect and the police are not far behind him.  By a combination of luck and ingenuity, Hannay manages to evade capture and finally arrives at the location marked on the map, only to come face-to-face with the head of the enemy spy ring...