Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 06:58, 25 September 2009

The 39 Steps is a Template:Fy British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. The film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll.

There have been four major film versions of the book. Hitchcock's original has been the most acclaimed, and remains so today: In 1999 it came 4th in a BFI poll of British films, while in 2004 Total Film named it the 21st greatest British movie of all time.

Plot

Canadian Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) is at a London music hall theatre, watching a demonstration of the superlative powers of recall of "Mr. Memory" (Wylie Watson) when shots are fired. In the ensuing panic, he finds himself holding a frightened Annabella Smith (Lucie Mannheim), who talks him into taking her back to his flat. There, she tells him that she is a spy, being chased by assassins. She claims to have uncovered a plot to steal vital British military secrets, masterminded by a man with the top joint missing from one of his fingers. She mentions the "thirty-nine steps", but does not explain its meaning.

That night, Smith is fatally stabbed with Hannay's bread knife, but manages to warn him to flee. He sneaks out of the watched flat disguised as a milkman and takes a train to Scotland, where she had told him she was going to visit a man. He sees the police searching the train and learns from a newspaper that he is the target of a nationwide manhunt as a murder suspect. In desperation, he enters a compartment and kisses the sole occupant, the attractive Pamela (Carroll), in an attempt to escape detection. She however frees herself from his unwanted embrace and alerts the policemen. Hannay jumps from the train onto the Forth Rail Bridge and escapes.

He stays the night with a poor crofter (farmer) (John Laurie) and his young wife (Peggy Ashcroft), who realizes Hannay is on the run, but keeps quiet. The next morning, he leaves, wearing the farmer's Sunday coat, and calls at the house Annabella had told him of. There he tells his story to the seemingly respectable Professor Jordan (Godfrey Tearle), who then reveals that he is missing part of a finger. Jordan shoots Hannay and leaves him for dead, but luckily, the bullet is stopped by the farmer's hymnbook, left in a coat pocket.

Hannay goes to the local police, but they refuse to believe his story, since they know Jordan well. Hannay jumps through a window and escapes into the crowd. He tries to hide himself in a political meeting, but is mistaken for the introductory speaker; he gives a rousing impromptu speech (without knowing a thing about the candidate he is introducing), but is recognised by Pamela, who gives him up once more. He is handcuffed and taken away by "policemen". Hannay eventually realises they are agents of the conspiracy when they bypass the nearest police station. When a flock of sheep blocks the road, one of the henchmen handcuffs him to Pamela, but he escapes, dragging the unwilling woman along.

They travel across the countryside and stay the night at an inn, the girl still not believing Hannay's story. While he sleeps, she manages to slip out of the handcuffs, but then eavesdrops on one of the fake policemen on the telephone downstairs; the conversation confirms Hannay's assertions.

She returns to the room and sleeps on a sofa. Next morning, she tells him what she heard, and is sent to London to pass it on to the police. No secret documents have been reported missing however, so they do not believe her. Instead, they follow her to get to Hannay.

She leads them to Mr. Memory's show at the London Palladium. When the performer is introduced, Hannay recognises his theme music - it's the annoyingly catchy tune he hasn't been able to forget for days. Hannay puts two and two together and realises that the spies are using Mr. Memory to smuggle the secrets out: he has them memorised. As the police take him into custody, he shouts out a question: "What are the 39 Steps?" Mr. Memory compulsively begins to answer, "The Thirty-Nine Steps is an organisation of spies, collecting information on behalf of the foreign office of ...." Jordan shoots him and tries to flee, but is apprehended. The dying Mr. Memory recites the information stored in his brain, a design for a silent aircraft engine.

Adaptation

The film departs substantially from Buchan's novel, introducing a love interest. In this film, The 39 Steps refers to the clandestine organisation itself, whereas in the book and in the other film versions, it refers to physical steps, albeit located in different places and with different significances to the plots. When in the film Annabella (who is a man called "Franklin P. Scudder" in the novel) tells Hannay she is travelling to meet a man in Scotland, Hitchcock is avoiding one of Buchan's wild, unexplained implausibilities: the way in which Hannay, with the whole country to hide in, chances to walk into the one house where the spy ringleader lives.

Cast

• Robert Donat as Richard Hannay
• Madeleine Carroll as Pamela
• Lucie Mannheim as Annabella Smith
• Godfrey Tearle as Professor Jordan
• Peggy Ashcroft as Margaret, the crofter's wife
• John Laurie as John, the crofter
• Helen Haye as Mrs. Louisa Jordan, the professor's wife
• Frank Cellier as Sheriff Watson
• Wylie Watson as Mr. Memory

Hitchcockian elements

The 39 Steps is the first in a line of Hitchcock films based upon the idea of an innocent man on the run, including Saboteur (1942) and North by Northwest (1959).

Alfred Hitchcock cameo: A signature occurrence in almost all of Hitchcock's films, he can be seen tossing some litter while Robert Donat and Lucie Mannheim run from the theatre at the beginning of the film.

Adaptations to other media

Hitchcock's film version of the 39 Steps was adapted as a radio play on Lux Radio Theater on December 13, 1937, starring Robert Montgomery and Ida Lupino.

References

Notes

1. The BFI 100
2. Spoto, Donald (1999). The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Da Capo. p. 145. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |unused_data= (help); Unknown parameter |http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title= ignored (help)

Bibliography

• The Great British Films, pp 24 – 26, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 080650661X

External links

• The 39 Steps is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
• The 39 Steps at IMDb
• The 39 Steps at the TCM Movie Database
• Template:Amg movie
• The 39 Steps at Rotten Tomatoes
• Criterion Collection essay by Marian Keane
• The Thirty-nine Steps at Project Gutenberg - John Buchan's original novel
• Free audio recording of The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan's original novel.
• The 39 Steps Eyegate Gallery

• 1935 films
• Black and white films
• British films
• Chase films
• English-language films
• Films based on novels
• Films directed by Alfred Hitchcock
• Films set in Scotland
• 1930s thriller films
• Spy films