The Cool Channel DVD Review: The 39 Steps Posted by J.D. Dunn on 08.24.2006
Many consider this to be Hitchcock's finest British thriller.
The 39 Steps (1935)
D:Alfred Hitchcock W:Charles Bennett, from the novel by John Buchan Starring:Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Manheim, Godfrey Tearle, Peggie Ashcroft and John Laurie. MPAA: NR Runtime: 86m.
The Film:
Hitchcock was never afraid to revel in spy movie clichés. Of course, part of the reason they became clichés was because his movies are so copied that the themes became familiar to audiences around the world. Code names, secret messages, mistaken identities, and assassinations all get a workout during this phase of Hitchcock's career.
After dipping his toes in the spy pool with "The Man Who Knew Too Much," Hitchcock dove in headfirst with his next film — the most recognizable from his British career. Although many of his earlier films were solid pieces of work and miles ahead of what his fellow filmmakers were doing, "The 39 Steps" feels like a quantum leap forward in filmmaking. This is the first film in which Hitchcock truly held the audience in the palm of his hand without losing control of pacing, tone, or content for even the briefest moments.
Donat plays Richard Hannay, a Canadian living alone in England. One night, he goes to the local pub for a pint and to soak in the "entertainment." In this case, it's a performer named "Mr. Memory." Mr. Memory (Wylie Watson) has apparently committed hundreds of thousands of facts to memory and can recall them when asked by the audience. Most of the audience is filled with drunks, so Memory doesn't get many serious questions, but he does impressively answer the few he is able to hear. Things get a little rough between a couple of drunks, and someone fires shots in the middle of the crowded bar, causing a near riot.
In the fracas, Hannay meets Annabella Smith (Mannheim) who offers to go home with him to get away from the riot. Hannay is a single man, and Smith is attractive enough, so he accepts. Once back at his apartment, however, she reveals that she fired those shots to create a diversion and escape from the spies that were there to kill her. She tells him that she's on the trail of "the 39 steps," a secret ring of spies from an unnamed foreign power. She received vital information about a contact in Scotland that she needs to go see as soon as the dust settles.
When Annabella is murdered that night, it puts Hannay in danger. The 39 steps realize that he knows too much about them, and the police think he's guilty of killing Annabella. Rather than stick around and try to clear things up, Hannay recognizes that the best way to clear his name is to travel to Scotland and meet with Annabella's contact who can vouch for his innocence.
Hannay boards a train where he runs into Pamela (Carroll) who takes an immediate dislike to him and turns him in when he puts himself in her confidence. Hannay is forced to leave the train and hike across the Scottish highlands with the police hounds on his trail. After a brief-but-memorable stopover at a crofter's house, Hannay makes his way to Alt-na-Shellach and Annabella's contact, Professor Jordan (Tearle).
Of course, Jordan is not what he appears to be, and Hannay finds himself in the custody of the police once again. After another memorable escape attempt involving a political meeting, Hannay is captured again, but this time he finds himself handcuffed to Pamela, the same girl from the train. Thanks to an act of providence, Hannay is afforded yet another chance to escape and drags uncooperative Pamela with him.
Like "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "The 39 Steps" climaxes in another hall and another assassination. This time, however, the pacing is brilliant, and the film comes to an utterly satisfying conclusion.
Romance
In retrospect, perhaps what left me as hollow and dissatisfied as I was with "The Man Who Knew Too Much" is that there was no romantic subplot. Most of the other Hitchcock touches were present in that film, but the Lawrences were already married, so there was no sexual banter between them.
"The 39 Steps," on the other hand, has it in spades. The cliché of two characters hating each other on first sight only to warm up to each other and fall in love has been done to death, but 70 years ago, it was still a fresh concept. Hitchcock liked that crackling electricity between characters. It's what made the final romance so spectacular. If they could just channel that energy they've used for fighting into a sexual relationship look out!
In all great Hitchcock romances, there is a scene where the characters finally "melt" and let their guard down so that the romance can begin. In "The 39 Steps," Hitchcock stages it inside of a roadside bed and breakfast. Hannay tells her to pretend they're a runaway couple, which warms the owner's heart. She tells her husband privately that she's never seen a couple so in love with one another, and of course, she's one step ahead of Hannay and Pamela.
The brilliance of the scene is how erotic it is without being overtly sexual. Still wet from mucking around on the moors, they light a roaring fire to warm up. Because they're still handcuffed together, they can't leave each other's sight all night. In one memorable shot, Hitchcock shows their shackled hands as Pamela tries to take off her wet stockings. Because of the shackled hands, the back of Hannay's hand rubs up and down her naked leg. It's a scene that is funny and sexy because we know he's enjoying every minute of it, but it's also safe because there's nothing he can do about it.
What makes the scene work is that it's not just about the physical shtick but about great dialogue too. Pamela has been calling him a psychotic murderer since their first meeting, so Hannay decides to spin a yarn about the history of insanity in his family while they enjoy their sandwiches. The story becomes so over-the-top that Pamela can't help but laugh, and the wall between them falls.
The Crofter's Wife
Another memorable sequence comes with Hannay's stop off at the crofter's house. Throughout the film, marriage has been portrayed as a bleak, worthless existence (a nagging wife dominates her husband in the opening scene, the milkman chuckles understandingly about adultery, and the men in Hannay's train compartment ogle the underwear section of the paper while shuddering at the prospect of their own wives in these same garments).
The scene adds little to the plot. It serves merely as a means to get Hannay into a new coat, which will become important later. But in the hands of Hitchcock, screenwriter Charles Bennett, and actress Peggy Ashcroft, the scene is one of the best in the film.
Hannay arrives at the crofter's isolated house in the Scottish highlands after having escaped the train. The crofter (played with appropriate surliness by John Laurie) immediately dislikes Hannay but offers to put him up for the night for a price. When Hannay first meets the crofter's wife (Ashcraft), the age difference between them makes Hannay mistake her for the crofter's daughter.
The crofter's wife is the only person throughout the film who trusts Hannay immediately. At the dinner scene, she catches Hannay intently reading a newspaper article about him being traced to Scotland. He shares a look with her trying to tell her silently that he didn't do it. The jealous crofter, of course, mistakes this for them plotting an affair behind his back.
The main concept the viewer takes from the scene with the crofter's wife is that desolation and loneliness of farm life, and the toll it can take on a young woman's spirit. When Hannay is in the kitchen telling her about city life, she seems to get lost in the possibilities that urban life could afford her. Of course, the crofter crashes those dreams when he enters and grumbles the infamous line, "God made the country."
Hannay is forced to flee the crofter's home, but Hitchcock holds on the crofter's wife for one fleeting moment as she ponders the life she could have had and the excitement this man brought to an otherwise dreary life.
The 411: Hitchcock's first true masterpiece. "The 39 Steps" is a film filled with romance, excitement, drama and comedy. This film, along with "The Lady Vanishes" mark Hitchcock's arrival as one of the top directors in the world. This is the first film in which he's never not in control of the viewer and their emotions. Virtually every note rings true, and the result is an all-time classics. A must for fans of Hitchcock, spy flicks, and good movie lovers in general. A
