The 39 Steps (1935)
UK
Feature Film
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Charles Bennett, Ian Hay, John Buchan
Cinematographer: Bernard Knowles
Cast: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle, Peggy Ashcroft, John Laurie
Funny, thrilling, and sexy, Hitchcock’s prototypical wrong-man thriller – in which a Canadian, living and working in London, is wrongly implicated in the murder of a secret agent, and sets off for Scotland in search of the 39 Steps (cryptically brought up by the now deceased spy,) trailed by both the police and the real killers – is perhaps the great director’s most purely entertaining film, filled with wonderful comic detail, gorgeously drawn characters, and delightful sub-plots. Iain.Stott
