A real boys-own type of story of derring-do, John Buchan’s novel The 39 Steps has received many a silver screen and small screen treatment (as well as remakes of the story). But it’s Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 version – a classic movie-thriller recipe – that is seen as the critical stand-out. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps’ stated screenwriter Robert Towne.
On the eve of World War I, Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) finds himself embroiled in murder and espionage as a British agent is murdered in his London apartment. Forced on the run, he heads for Scotland to save himself and prevent foreign agents stealing military secrets.
Very much Hitchcock’s precursor to his own North by Northwest, The 39 Steps is something of a thrilling evergreen as Hannay evades capture on the Queensferry rail bridge, across Scottish moorlands and at village election hustings. Very much a studio film, the loss of expansive open air vistas is more than made up for by the claustrophobic uncertainties of flight.
Rating: 66%
Director: Alfred Hitchcock (Rear Window, The Lady Vanishes)
Writer: Charles Bennett (Foreign Correspondent, The Man Who Knew Too Much), Ian Hay (Sabotage, Mad Men of Europe) – based on the novel by John Buchan
Main cast: Robert Donat (Goodbye Mr Chips, The Citadel), Madeleine Carroll (The Prisoner of Zenda, My Favourite Blonde), Lucie Mannheim (Bunny Lake is Missing, Tawny Pipit)
An Opinion or Two 