THE 39 STEPS
UK, 2008, 90 minutes, Colour.
Rupert Penry- Jones, Lydia Leonard, David Haig, Patrick Malahide, Patrick Kennedy, Eddie Marsan, Alex Jennings.
Directed by James Hawes.
The 39 Steps is based on the popular novel by John Buchan. It is set in 1914, rumours of the outbreak of World War One, the focus on a Canadian who has worked in Africa and is now in England, becoming involved in espionage at the beginning of the war.
Alfred Hitchcock made the classic film of the novel – but it is many ways different from the novel. It has a classic status with performances by Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. In the 1950s it was remade as a colourful thriller with Kenneth More. Twenty years later it became an equally colourful adventure with Robert Powell.
This film goes back to the novel – and with its being made for TV, it is more modest in scope. There are no spectacular scenes on the Firth Bridge or the climbing of Big Ben. The movie’s introduction of the character of Mr Memory is absent from this version.
Rupert Penry- Jones is sufficiently upstanding and stiff-upper-lip as Richard Hannay. Lydia Leonard is a vigorous Victoria. David Haig is the benevolent uncle who is the traitor. Patrick Malahide the sinister professor. Character actor Eddie Marsan has a strong if short role at the beginning of the film as the agent who is killed but has the secret of the thirty-nine steps.
The action of the film takes place in London, on a train to Scotland and then in the Scottish towns and Moors. There is a climax, at the thirty-nine steps, in an old castle building where there is a rendezvous with a German submarine which will take the plans of British naval strategy to Germany. The plan is thwarted.
1.The novels of John Buchan? Richard Hannay as a British character (Canadian origin)? The different films of The 39 Steps? This film with its television style?
2.England in 1914, the atmosphere before World War One, the appeasement camp, the preparation for war camp? Espionage and German spies throughout the United Kingdom? London, Scotland? Costumes and décor, the period? The score?
3.Espionage, Germans in England, their hopes for the future of England? Their plans? Naval strategy? The role of the Secret Service? The murders?
4.The title, the reference to the steps at the end, for the getaway?
5.Richard Hannay and his type, Canadian working in Africa, in London? His wanting to move away? The encounter with Scudder? His flat, the pursuit, the invitation to breakfast, the notebook? The agents arriving at the door, the shooting, Hannay’s gun? Hannay and his escape?
6.The police, not believing his story, his engineering the escape, on the fire escape, the girl helping him and diverting the police? The information in the papers, going to the station? In the train, the parson and the cricket scores? The ventriloquist and his helping Hannay, the disguise?
7.In Scotland, the chases, the plane and its attempt to strafe him? The encounter with Victoria and her brother? Going to the political rally, the brother and his appeasement to Germany? Hannay and his speech? The uncle hosting the meeting? The arrival of the police?
8.The police, the disruption, Hannay taking Victoria, their taking the German agent’s car? His being linked with Victoria, listening to her feminist comments, the role of the suffragettes, their arguments? Hannay and his old-fashioned views? Their being taken to the oubliette? The explosion, their escape, hearing Victoria’s uncle pleading with the professor?
9.The professor, Victoria knowing him? The nest of spies, the agents going to London, the pursuit of Scudder, wanting the notebook? Victoria and her pick-pocketing it? The naval plans? Victoria and her memory, her uncle and his memory?
10.Hannay and his character, the relationship with Victoria, the escape, the night in the house, Victoria’s brother, his helping out with the car, confiding in the uncle – and realising that he was the traitor?
11.The truth about Victoria, the Secret Service, Captain Kell? The truth about the uncle, the professor?
12.The notebook, the code, the Roman numerals, Hannay solving it and explaining it? The thirty-nine steps, the chase, the shootouts, the arrival of the submarine? The death of the uncle?
13.Victoria being shot? Hannay’s grief?
14.The outbreak of the war, the visuals of the war? Sarajevo? Hannay going to war, glimpsing Victoria?
15.A satisfying espionage and chase film, television style?
