Review of The 39 Steps (1935) by Jehy T — 23 Aug 2012
"Have you ever heard of the 39 Steps?".
Synopsis: Richard Hannay is vacationing in England when a terrified woman begs him to help her. He's certain she's crazy -- until she appears at his flat with a map in hand and a knife in her back, muttering something about 39 steps.
Often old pictures fall onto indifferent attitudes when they are viewed many decades after their initial release. Not because they haven't withstood the test of time, but because these pictures influence many subsequent pictures into borrowing from the original ideas they first bring to the cinematic language. The 39 Steps seams to be a perfect example of this phenomenon.
The picture is exciting, romantic and sometimes even quite funny. Though by this point virtually every aspect of the movie has been thoroughly absorbed by audiences through lesser, more recent movies. Our hero for example successfully loses his followers by pretending to be a member of a parade, blending into the crowd to escape his potential jailers; an idea that has been used countless times since. The advent of the MacGuffin also may have originated with this Hitchcock feature, a storytelling technique that has been a part of the cinematic lexicon ever since; and used most famously perhaps in Steven Spielberg's Jaws.
Yet, despite all the years of advancement in cinematic tech and artistic ideas. The 39 Steps still does what it was designed to do so many years ago. And will satisfy those film goers looking for an old fashioned thrill.
This review of The 39 Steps (1935) was written by Jehy T on 23 Aug 2012.
The 39 Steps has generally received very positive reviews.
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