91. The 39 Steps (1935)

Running Time: 82 minutes
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Written By: Charles Bennett, from novel by John Buchan
Main Cast: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim

MORE HITCHCOCK SUSPENSE THROWN INTO THE '1001'

While not quite as good as the previous Hitchcock entry in the "1001" book, "Blackmail", "The 39 Steps" does a good job of producing a suspenseful flick, with some added romance to boot.

The film starts in a London Music Hall, when a man by the name of Mr. Memory takes the stage to answer any and all questions presented by the audience. Here, the principle character is introduced, Richard Hannay, a Canadian on holiday in England. Upon leaving the Music Hall, Hannay is approached by a woman, who asks him if she may go home with him, and after some brief questioning, he admits her to. Later, the woman is revealed to be Annabella Smith, a spy who is being chased by a group of agents, who are trying to steal top British military secrets, known only as the 39 steps. She also warns Hannay of a man, who is masterminding all of this, and is known only by his pinky finger, which is missing the tip. At first, Hannay doesn't believe her, but she gives him the proof, in the form of two men standing on the street corner below his apartment. Hannay agrees to hear the rest of her story, and provides her with a meal and a place to sleep for the night.

In the middle of the night, Hannay is awoken by Ms. Smith charging into his room with a map in hand, and keeling over on his bed, with a knife hanging out of her back and her final words, warning him that he may be next. Upon looking at the map, he finds that it's of Scotland and has a spot marked on it. The next morning, knowing that the police will surely suspect him of killing Ms. Smith and certain that they'll never believe that fantastical spy story that he was told the previous night, Hannay sneaks out of his flat, past the two men, who still lie waiting for him on the corner of the street. He hops a train and heads straight for Scotland and to the location marked off on the dying woman's map. It is here where the pursuit by the police begins, and in a last ditch effort to elude them, Hannay tries to convince a woman to help him hide, but to no avail. He still ends up getting away from the police and ends up having to go by foot to the Scotland town. Upon arriving at the location marked off on the map, Hannay soon realizes that it was foolish of him to come, as the location that was marked off, is the home of the evil mastermind with the missing tip of his finger.

This film was a lot of fun, but I do have a few complaints. I think "The 39 Steps" was another case of the hype being bigger and better than the film. You always hear about "The 39 Steps" and how it's one of Hitchcock's early masterpieces, possibly even his first masterpiece, but it simply doesn't hold up to those statements, despite it being very good. Like I said earlier in this post, I enjoyed "Blackmail" a lot more than I enjoyed this one and you hardly ever hear anything about that one. That really is my only big complaint, as "The 39 Steps" is filled with suspense, great camera shots (the shot of Hannay and his pursuers' silhouettes running up the side of a mountain comes to mind), a great leading lady (the gorgeous Madeleine Carroll) and even a great leading man (Robert Donat), and the two together make for some pretty good chemistry. I also noticed a lot of points in the movie that were more than likely stolen by other movies: At one point Hannay makes his escape while pretending to be marching in a parade. This scene reminded me of a very similar one in "The Fugitive". There's another scene where Hannay is mistakenly forced onstage to give a speech, while the evil spies are in the audience after him, but not wanting to cause a ruckus. This reminded me of a similar scene in the film "Fletch". Of course, the whole scenario of Donat and Carroll being handcuffed together, was later done to death in a countless number of films and even television, so this movie obviously inspired many films and filmmakers to come.

RATING: 7/10 Not a bad film at all and I can definitely see this one growing on me in due time.

NEXT UP: Bride of Frankenstein...More Frankenstein fun, but this time we get the bride instead of the groom. I have it here from Netflix and the review will be up tomorrow.

February 3, 2010 8:12pm