The 39 Steps

MOVIE #1,232 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 11.10.23 EVERY OTHER FRIDAY I’M REVIEWING THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. THIS IS TGI-HITCHOCK! We’ve reached the point of this chronological focus on the complete filmography of Alfred Hitchcock where movies are going to start vaulting to the top of the ranking. The 39 Steps is his best film to date, narrowly edging out The Man Who Knew Too Much, a picture which actually has a vaguely similar plot. Everything is starting to click here: the performances are solid, the plot — while silly and convoluted — moves at a rapid pace and all of Hitchcock’s visual flourishes start to come into focus. I still think it leans a little too much on comedy that doesn’t hold up, but I did appreciate how it essentially turns into a romcom by the final act.

Forgetting the somewhat problematic gender dynamics that pop up with Madeleine Carroll being handcuffed to Robert Donat, the two have genuine chemistry. And there are beautiful Scottish exteriors which make it feel like the biggest film of his career to date. You simply can’t argue with scenes like this…


So congrats to The 39 Steps which will hold the #1 spot on the list for at least the next two weeks!

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,231 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,233 ⫸

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The 39 Steps is a 1935 British spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. It is loosely based on the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It concerns a Canadian civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organisation of spies called "The 39 Steps" from stealing British military secrets. Mistakenly accused of the murder of a counter-espionage agent, Hannay goes on the run to Scotland and becomes tangled up with an attractive woman, Pamela, while hoping to stop the spy ring and clear his name. It was released on June 6, 1935.