Review of The 39 Steps (1935) by Kenneth L — 20 Mar 2011

This is a fun, early Hitchcock thriller. In retrospect, with its innocent-man-wrongly-accused plot, it feels kind of like a dress rehearsal for North by Northwest. While it's not as memorable as the later film, its achievement is still very impressive, especially given that it was made in 1935.

This must be one of the original spy stories, and you can feel its influence on later movies. An ordinary man (played charmingly by Robert Donat) meets a mysterious woman (an excellent Lucie Manheim) who claims to be a spy. Before he knows it, she's dead, he looks guilty, the police are after him, and all he has to go one are a map and the phrase "the 39 steps." Along the way, he becomes entangled with a pretty blonde who is skeptical of his innocence (a delightful Madeleine Carroll). It may feel a bit familiar today, but you have to remember that this movie was made 76 years ago. It's a good story, and I liked the way elements from the beginning of the film eventually turn up again at the end.

As always with Hitchcock, the movie works on expertly-generated suspense.The train scenes are particularly great here. This one throws in a good bit of humor, too - I found a scene where our hero has to save himself by giving a rousing political speech for a candidate he knows nothing about particularly funny. If you enjoy good old-fashioned Hitchcock storytelling (and really, who doesn't?), check it out.