Matt Greene This adventure-comedy-romance throws an unwitting hero into an unexpected caper, it's a clear predecessor to North by Northwest. It's one of the earliest examples of how Hitchcock used the camera in inventive & compelling fashion in order to help tell the story. Donat is a great mixture of William Powell's smug humor, Cary Grant's charming befuddlement, & Harrison Ford's brutish determination; the further in his story goes, the more hopeless his plight seems.

ElMaruecan82 M-U-S-I-C-H-A-L-L. Letters light up, one after another... Hitchcock is literally spelling out the word for us like a ringmaster who wants to get his audience's attention. Or the God of filmmaker who after years of experimentation could finally say "let there be light". So light appeared. And a jingle started. And another ringmaster presented to a warmed up audience "Mr. Memory": a man whose brain memorize information like data in a computer. You've got to admire the sarcastic (and quite realistic) way his talent is welcomed by the unimpressed crowd, many quips and witty questions highlight the talent of the screenwriters more than Memory's intellectual power... but it also foreshadows one of the film's fundamental theme: serious people not being taken seriously.As a matter of fact, all the fundamentals of a Hitchcock classic inhabit "The 39 Steps". What else can you say you about the tale of a gentleman caught mistaken for a murderer and forced to escape from the Police in order to prove his innocence and prevent some security secrets from being stolen by a spy organization and meanwhile handcuffed to a blonde woman. The film might be the adaptation of an early century novel from John Buchan, but Hitchcock made it HIS baby. More than any director, he knew that filmmaking wasn't an innocent art and had to draw its audience by tickling the most shameful instincts, his first film opened with 'respectable' smoking-clad men lustfully drooling over sexy dancers, that said all. And the plot here is set when a mysterious but pretty woman invites herself to a man's apartment, she does act suspiciously but is there a single man fool enough not to let a beautiful woman (or any kind of women actually) in his house? Hitchcock was an expert when it came to gray areas, he identified a thin line between the movie experience and voyeurism, but his greatest invention was the "mistaken identity". When he wanted to cast Ivor Novello as a bad guy for "The Lodger", the studios refused in order to protect his matinee idol image. And then he resourcefully made him a good man mistaken for a villain, one of his most popular trademarks. Before Hitchcock, cops and killers were belonging to separate worlds, Hitch conceived characters deprived of that element of obviousness, even villains could start as good guys.And there were good villains all right in his previous movies, Peter Lorre was simply superb in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" but does anyone remember Leslie Banks? Hitchcock knew audience wasn't interested in "boring hero" prototypes and by casting Robert Donat as Hannay, suave wisecracking but determined gentleman, he invented the type of protagonist Cary Grant would be a delight to watch play. Donat's handsomeness isn't just eye-candy, it makes sense in the first scene (an ugly man would have been more suspicious if he was approached by Lucy Mannheim) and creates a wonderful misunderstanding in the prayer scene with Peggy Ashcroft. That scene alone shows how Hitchcock can do so much with economical efforts, the grouchy peasant (John Laurie) is reciting a prayer and Hannay looks at a newspaper front-page saying he's wanted by the Police. The wife notices it and looks at him scared, he tries to reassures her and the husband take their stares as flirtation. Not only Hitchcock is a master of silent verbalism but he also allows supporting characters irrelevant to the plot shine and give us glimpses of their lives little. The same goes with the couple of innkeepers. The plot matters but it doesn't matter at the expense of details.And that's the Hitchcock mark, he's perhaps the first director to have audience think "that's typical Hitchcock" (like the wonderful moment where a corpse is discovered) and it's precisely because he created that bond with the audience that he could get away with a few implausible things, for the sake of thrills and fun, like a Tintin adventure. Hitch was a pragmatic director who knew his priorities. Still, the contrivance from the novel that he fixed was the one that made Hannay jump in the lion's den, in the film it wasn't a coincidence and done in a simple and effective (and wickedly funny) way.Escapism is the key to understand Hitchcock, who had a unique flair for the ways to arouse audience. One of his most notable inventions here is the use of the McGuffin: the plot device that drives the story while being irrelevant, we never know the object but we know the stakes and that's enough. And so much for plausibility, Hitchcock employs the McGuffin all along without being enslaved to it. His attention is in the mix of tricks, thrills and fun, not to mention the naughty stuff. So if the plot allows him to create new archetypes such as the villain with a notable physical trait (or lack of), there was also the character wonderfully played by Madeleine Carroll, the seminal icy sophisticated blonde. Hitch was a man of paradox and loved women who played it cool, who resisted, yet who were full of sensuality. Carroll is handcuffed with Donat at some point and they must pretend to be a couple, in one of the most memorable scenes, she must take her stocking off while her partner's hand is almost touching her knees. There was no Code Hays in Britain but look how Hitch pretends the focus is on the way the stockings will be taken off without the man's hand touching the leg, while most viewers will rather watch her beautiful legs. It's pure sexual tension in delightful 30's fashion, not to mention the fun parallel between marriage and imprisonment.In fact, what makes "The 39 Steps" so fresh is how Hitch never ceases to surprise you step by step, and just when you think it will all lead to some spectacular climax on the top of the 39th one, you realize that all along you were climbing on the Penrose Stairs.

Rainey Dawn This film is a great example of why we love to watch Alfred Hitchcock. Not only is this a good mystery-thriller (written by John Buchan, Charles Bennett, & Ian Hay) but it is well directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He was always very good at making his films very suspenseful (even his silent romantic films had trace elements of suspense in them).The film is exactly as the plot reads - but so much better than described: Richard Hannay is a visitor to London and finds himself mixed up in a case of murder with secret agents on his tail and he is determined to break up this massive spy ring.If you like spies/secret agent films, a murder mystery, and/or Alfred Hitchcock then you might like this film - it's one of Hitchcock's best movies and worth watching.8/10

Blake Peterson What are the 39 steps? we ask ourselves at a near constant pace during The 39 Steps. Unlike the ambiguities of The Birds or Suspicion, we do eventually find out the answer to the question that so harshly eludes us. But like The Birds and Suspicion, we have a director at the front of the film that makes us care about the answer. If it was devoid of its smart suspense, surely the results would not be so startlingly entertaining. The 39 Steps comes fairly early in Alfred Hitchcock's lustrous career, arriving in 1935 (keep in mind his last movie was released in 1976) and acting like a sample of the more assured wronged man/chase movie/adventure romps of the Master of Suspense's future. I was reminded of later masterpieces, like Saboteur and North by Northwest, two wronged- man on-the-run actioners that slid along with electric thrills and winking humor that felt at ease in the tense atmosphere.Robert Donat portrays Richard Hannay, a young man confronted with murder and intrigue at a rate most normal folks would faint at. One night, Hannay attends a sideshow highlighting "Mr. Memory" (Wylie Watson), a performer with startling memorizational abilities — ask any question (besides a personal one), Mr. Memory will know the answer with the detail of a much tended to Wikipedia page. Hecklers attempt to damage the wonders of the scene, but just as things are beginning to turn around, shots are fired, causing a massive panic and the thud of a dead body. Hannay finds himself comforting an attractive woman, Annabelle Smith (Lucie Mannheim), in the midst of the ruckus. He takes her back to his flat in sympathy, but just because it's 1935 doesn't mean that some people aren't hoping to get just a little bit lucky.Before anything can happen, though, Annabelle reveals her true motive — she is not just a woman who trusts that men will take her back to their apartment and not try anything questionable; she is also a spy who is being pursued by deadly assassins. You see, she has just discovered a wicked plot to steal important British military secrets. Why she is foolish enough to tell all this to a bystander she only met a few minutes ago I don't know, but here's where the plot kicks in: she (a) mentions the 39 steps (but doesn't include its meaning!), (b) warns that the mastermind behind the entire plot is missing the top joint of his finger, (c) is murdered, and (d) leaves Hannay not only confused but also wanted for her murder. So he goes on the run, and throughout the course of his unwanted adventure he finds out what the 39 steps actually are/is, meets the man who probably has a difficult time handling a pencil, discovers who offed Annabelle, and teams up with a blonde (Madeleine Carroll) who acts as his love interest and sidekick.Truth is, Hitchcock has made plenty of movies that bear similarities to The 39 Steps (he can't get enough of wronged-men and sophisticated blondes), but our inhibitions are nonexistent because this is a Hitchcock movie, for crying out loud. Even if many of his themes and characters could pass for brother and sister, there is never a feeling of repetition in his films. As one of the best (and most inventive) directors of all time, he is never lazy, always devising new ways to fondle the camera, finding the fun in actors and their characters, making them people we can root. It's impossible not to remember a specific shot or a specific character in his films considering they all feel so utterly distinct.The 39 Steps is perhaps a seamless example of Hitchcock's genius. It's uncomplicated, totally enjoyable fluff, but like all of his films, there is a harmonious relationship between unaffected escapism and true art. The plot moves along with remarkable speed, resembling a roller coaster ride or an old-fashioned adventure film in the same mindset of The African Queen or King Solomon's Mines. But the punchiness would simply not work if not for Hitchcock's extremely deliberate attitude towards his camera-work and his storytelling. Take, for instance, the scene in which the first murder takes place: the crowd, heckling their brains out, are almost a single body, one big ball of sassiness. But when the gun is fired, it isn't just some random noise that interrupts the situation. Hitchcock skims around the entire group of people, defining them as a large mass. Then, suddenly, he cuts to the hand that shoots, sending the room into a frenzy. A quick move like this only builds the suspense. It gives an impression that in any setting, even a sideshow act where things seem safe, there is always some sort of faceless threat, establishing our, and the leading man's, paranoia. We can laugh at the wit that we're faced with near constantly, and we can sweat bullets all we want at the sight of a villain, but never do we feel completely at ease. Other quirks, such as keeping the mugs of the men who eventually kill Annabelle far away but dangerous, keeping a close-up on Donat whenever he enters a situation where he may or may not be recognized, heighten the giddy thrills Hitchcock magnificently creates.Donat is wonderful, and so are Carroll and the writing, but The 39 Steps is more about Hitchcock than anyone else. It is, perhaps, the film that started it all. It began the legend of the macabre adoring director just as much in love with entertaining audiences as he was with his camera and his thoughtful manipulations.