Incredibly, only 10 years into his directing career, Hitchcock had reached his 20th movie with "The 39 Steps". This is a pivotal point in time. In the early thirties, the "talkies" had arrived and now reigned supreme. Still a lot of directors struggled with adapting their directing style and technique to accommodate the dialogue while still making the cinematography fluid.
Hitchcock´s first talkie was the adaptation of the silent "Blackmail" into a talkie by adding extra scenes and sync´ing voices and more. The 39 Steps is a far cry from the fumbling execution of Blackmail. Here he is in full control of the combined audio-visual medium. In fact he uses it with such a virtuosity and humour that it is quite astounding how he was able to adapt to this. My idea is that Hitchcock always had the complete audio-visual version of his movies in his head, but weren´t able to fully express it before the talkies were invented.
Hannay, a canadian visitor in England is suddenly caught up in a spygame, when a mysterious foreign woman is killed in his appartment. After they meet in a musichall, she invites herself to his place and reveals that she is followed by foreign spy´s who are out to end her life as she holds a great secret.
Now Mr. Hannay is left with the suspicion all over him, both from the mysterious woman´s persuers and from the ordinary police authorities. his only lead is a map to a place (near "Killin´:-) ) in Scotland, where one of her "connections" live. He knows that the only way he can now clear himself of accusation of murder, is to find those who are behind all this.
With the police and the spies hot on his tail, he is only just a step ahead of his potential demise. No one believes his story and claim of innocence, when he has to convince someone to help except some on the women he encounters on his way. He is bounced around by pure circumstances and ends up in all sorts of intricate situations, not least getting hand-cuffed to a beautiful lady who at first had given him up to the police. It is only when the lady discovers that he must be speaking the truth, that he can finally solve the problem.
From a purely plotwise view this would not be a perfect movie, as there are a few slightly unbelievable or too convenient things that happen But I am pretty sure that Hitchcock himself cared less about the precision of the plot, than the suspense of the story. Hitch has now honed his skill in the art of suspense, a genre that he is now connected with, and realised that it might just be his thing. After the previous films, a Viennese musical and Suspense thriller, comparing their successes must have spelled it all out pretty well for him. He did venture off in other directions now and then later, but always came back to suspense.
A thing worth pointing out is the principle of the "MacGuffin". This was a term coined by a scriptwriter just a few years before but it has now become something solely acquainted with Hitchcock as originator. Here he uses it very obviously. The MacGuffin is that "secret thing" everyone seems to be either trying to hide, find or expose, but it is basically just a tool for the characters to "follow" around, to get things going. The audience does not really care for it, as long as it sounds like a plausible idea.
Another thing worth noting, are the slight political and you could say nationalistic undertones. In 1933, Adolf Hitler had come to power in Germany and the female "Agent" who is killed in his apartment has a suspiciously german sounding accent. As the tension in Europe had already started to build, the whole spying and "agent" thing had suddenly gotten new wind in its sails and Hitchcock was not slow to adapt. We get a good deal of use of "modern technology" like the "helicopter" (is that the name?) and instant wanted announcement via the wire and radio and so on. Those modern times .-)
And yet in between we get so many great and carefully composed shots. The personal favorites of mine are the statue in Hannay´s apartment pointing to the open window where the murder would have escaped and the cut where the trains whistle blows meanwhile the landlady "screams" in Hannay´s apartment when discovering the body. This way the whistle sound becomes the landlady´s scream. very creative.
The acting is generally very good, even for the supporting cast. I particularly like Robert Donat, as the "suave" gentleman, who unwillingly is caught up in saving himself and the country he is visiting (even if he is just from one of the colonies). While some of the other tall, dark male heroes can be rather stiff in Hitchcock´s movies, Donat has a certain Mickey Rourke or James Dean´ish way about him that is very charming and disarming.
It seems to me that Donat really understood what Hitchcock was going for and in particular the scenes with Madeleine Carroll, he is handcuffed to in an inn, is very well played and has some hilarious moments ... and more than a bit of eroticism too. in fact the erotic lightness goes through all the way, from the mysterious lady who is killed, the underwear salesman on the Flying Scotsman train, the very young wife of the scottish farmers place when he is on the run over the moors, and the stripping of the lady´s wet stockings in the inn. Hitchcock does these little sexy hints so lightly and discrete but still very effective.
I would agree if some critics would say that it is a predictable plot and to some extend the story, but one must remember, this is the birth of the classic style of the thirties thrillers, and this is a prime example of a genius execution of such a movie. Directors still look back on "39 Steps" and it has been remade no less than three times (to my knowledge). It is based on a popular book, but still.
Of the english era Hitch, this is probably my favourite movie, though I have not yet watched the later "The Lady vanishes" which is supposed to be another classic from this period. But I doubt it can outdo this one. It is really a classic thirties movie with a lot of emphasis on humour and charm and it manages to strike that balance between tongue in cheek fun and suspense thrills. Still it has Hitchcock written all over it with one great, memorable shot after the other. The weakness is only a somewhat lacking character arc of the main protagonist and a deeper and more psychological impact of the story than it can manage as it is. In the end though, to me, what really matters, is the overall "charm" of the movie and this one has it bucketloads.
9/10
