THE THIRTY NINE STEPS

UK, 1935, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle, Peggy Ashcroft, John Laurie, Helen Hay, Wylie Watson.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The 39 Steps was a beloved classic novel, written by John Buchan, a film of espionage and counter-espionage between the wars. It was one of Hitchcock’s earliest sound films and certainly established him as a classic director of action and pursuit suspense thrillers. At this time he also made Sabotage as well as his first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Robert Donat was a very dignified screen presence and gives a certain gravity to the portrait of Richard Hannay. Madeleine Carroll is the woman who betrays him but who is handcuffed with him and shares his pursuit through Scotland. The film culminates in the confrontation with Mr Memory, who has the clues to the solution of the problem and the thirty-nine steps.

The story was so popular that it was remade in the 1950s with Kenneth More, in the late 1970s with Robert Powell. American writer-director Robert Town (Chinatown, Ask the Dust) had plans for a remake in 2006.

1. A Hitchcock classic, why? Impact in the mid-thirties, now?

2. The reputation of John Buchan and his novel? Hitchcock changing so much of the plot and the style, yet getting Buchan's approval? The particular characteristics of Hitchcock's style? In his British days, in the mid-thirties? A formative work and the similarities with so many of his other espionage films, innocent victim films, chase and journey films?

3. The style of British film-making in the thirties: sets, studio work, black and white photography, angles, light and darkness, music?

4. How interesting and involving the plot? How credible? The audience easily being able to suspend disbelief, being involved in the suspense, the mystery? The pace of the film and the events? Audience excitement and involvement, with the people, with Richard Hannay? Espionage and themes?

5. Robert Donat's style as Richard Hannay? A popular hero of the thirties? Canadian background, the outsider in England, the precarious predicaments in which he found himself? His visit to England, the preparation with the theatre for the finale? Hannay's kindness, the suspense of the killing? The puzzle? The men following and their lurking outside? The importance of Hannay's escape, the humour and the comedy of the way he made his escape? His becoming a victim of the Preen, of the police? The innocent victim and the decisions as to what he should do? How well drawn was the character of Hannay throughout the film? How much a stereotype involved in dangerous situations?

6. The impact of the journey, the train ride, the businessmen talking and the bizarre nature of their wares? The buildup of fear and discovery? The encounter with Pamela and the irony of the later developments? The humour of their being pushed together, later chained together?

7. The importance of the visit to the crofters? The atmosphere of their house, the suspicions of the husband, the anxiety of the wife? The bond between husband and wife and hostility, religiosity, harshness? The communication by non-verbal means, by looks? The tension with the newspaper? The help from the wife? The male/female relationship? The husband and his absence and his looking in the window? Critics have praised the atmosphere of this sequence. Why?

8. The build-up of the journey throughout Scotland, people searching for Hannay? Hannay searching for the truth? The Scottish background, the espionage background? Was it clear or not? The people an ordinary, and yet sinister? The house an ordinary and sinister? The build-up to Professor Jordan and the sudden revelation of his missing finger? The atmosphere of tension and the presence of Professor Jordan's wife? The people in the house and Hannay’s response, danger? Pamela and her presence?

9. The character of Pamela and the strong-minded, cool blonde heroine? Her suspicions of Hannay, revealing the truth? The build-up of the relationship in the train, the house? The irony of their being handcuffed together? Plausibility? The importance of the escape, the danger, the control of each other? Men/women relationship? The night and her discovery of the truth, belief in his innocence, helping him?

10. How well did the film build up to the climax at the Palladium? Mr Memory and his character, his act in the theatre? The inevitability of his revealing the truth? Hannay's asking the questions? The build-up to the violence and the death of Mr Memory and the pathos of his death scene? The build-up to the taking of the criminals?

11. How good an adventure film-maker is Hitchcock? His skills at suspense? His blend of comedy and suspense?