The 39 Steps (1935)

Two of the most beautiful shots in all of 30's cinema. Firstly, just before Annabella staggers in dying a nightmarish and eerie shot of an open window, the draperies blowing and a nude male bronze figure perfectly poised to attack with a sword. It never fails to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.The other shot and one of the most beautiful shots in world cinema, is the death of Mr. Memory as a line kicking chorus girls in diminishing perspective stretch down the middle of the shot, brilliantly lit, the raucous music hall music blaring away. I must have rewatched this scene a 100 times.Hitchcock and Fellini both shared a love for variety shows and music halls as they knew them in their youth. The opening scene is full of character and life and humor. ("How do you cure pip in chickens?") Peggy Ashcroft's small, intense role as the crofter's wife was exquisite and so sad. She had the most expressive face and eyes.I love all the wonderful things about this film that everyone else does but thought I would just mention a few very, very special moments that mean a lot to me.

After witnessing a strange incident in a music hall which leads to the murder of a mysterious woman, a man is wrongly accused of the crime and goes on the run to Scotland in an attempt to uncover the mystery of The 39 Steps.This was the British film that truly established Alfred Hitchcock's reputation internationally. The one new thing that it brought to the table was the idea of combining a thriller with comedy elements. In the mid 30's this was a new concept and so what we have here is an espionage based chase film which also successfully combines battle of the sexes comedy and witty dialogue. It's a film too which could be described as a Hitchcock template, with a plot-line that he would return to many times in the years after its release. The innocent man, wrongly accused of a crime and accordingly put into a dangerous situation, while trying to prove his innocence – this is a story-line that became a cliché after a while but it was here that Hitchcock first utilised it. This is overall still a very entertaining film with some great set-pieces such as the suspenseful scenes on the Forth Bridge, the comic interplay between the leads in the hotel and the witty dialogue in the political meeting. All-in-all, a fine early offering from Hitchcock.

A man in London tries to help a counterespionage agent. But when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to both save himself and also stop a spy ring which is trying to steal top secret information.Of the four major film versions of the novel, Hitchcock's film has been the most acclaimed. In 1999, the British Film Institute ranked it the fourth best British film of the 20th century; In 2004, Total Film named it the 21st greatest British film of all time, and in 2011 named it the second greatest Best Book to Film Adaptation. There is really no denying that Hitchcock's version is best. Who else has even come close. The other honors are a bit harder to understand. This is not even Hitchcock's fourth best film, let alone the fourth best in all of British history...Where Hitchcock's previous film, "The Man Who Knew Too Much", had costs of £40,000, The 39 Steps cost nearly £60,000. Much of the extra money went to the star salaries for Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. This is ironic in retrospect. Few today (2015) know of Carroll or Donat, whereas Peter Lorre went on to become quite famous for his image and voice.

Forget the other two film versions (from 1959 and 1978) as well as the long-running stage adaptation that has graced the London stage for several years now. Hitchcock's version of the John Buchan classic still has the power to surprise and astonish eighty years after its premiere.Basically it has very little to do with the Buchan source-text: Hitchcock merely takes the title ("The Thirty-Nine Steps") as a pretext for constructing a highly entertaining comedy-thriller that's not without its sinister overtones - for example the sado- masochistic implications of Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) and Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) being chained together by the hands as they try to escape the clutches of Professor Jordan (Godfrey Tearle) and his gang. The two roam the Scottish Highlands and even spend the night together in a sequence notable for its sexual subtext.As with many of Hitchcock's British thrillers, THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS is replete with memorable supporting performances. As a noted stage actor of his day, Tearle comes across as polite, well-mannered and calm; the only indication we have of his sinister nature is the fact that one of his fingers has been severed (emphasized in a deliberate close-up). John Laurie is a suspicious Highland crofter, interested more in money than in sheltering Hannay and Pamela; his surly characterization contrasts with that of Peggy Ashcroft as his spouse, a tidy yet sympathetic woman (even if her Scottish accent is a little forced).The thriller comes to a head in an old-style variety theater, where Mr. Memory Man (Wylie Watson) is forced to admit the secrets of the Thirty-Nine Steps in the middle of his stage act, interrupting the performance and startling a packed house. Hitchcock shows a masterly grasp of popular culture of the time; the combination of sweat, dirt, good fellowship and classlessness that prevailed in variety theaters, contrasting starkly with the class-ridden world outside.Shot on a low budget, with some location shooting in Scotland as well as a memorable sequence where Hannay escapes on a train, this THIRTY-NINE STEPS is a unique cinematic experience.