THE 39 STEPS

Back in the 1980s, I spent a great deal of money to purchase my first VCR. It was manufactured by JVC and it was a large block of a machine, a top loader with those oh-so-handy large colored buttons on the front. The player makes an appearance in the opening titles of ABC-TV's currently running sitcom THE GOLDBERGS (which Judy and I have watched since the first episode). Here's what it looked like.




Raise your hand if you remember it. After shelling out around $500 for the player, I immediately started acquiring classic movies on VHS. These too were not cheap as the market for actually owning movies in a permanent (ha!) format was just beginning to gain traction. Among the movies I bought on tape were several early Alfred Hitchcock films such as THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, SECRET AGENT, THE LADY VANISHES and THE 39 STEPS. These were all films he made in Great Britain prior to coming to the United States in 1940. At the time, it was the only way a film fanatic like myself could acquire and view these early classics but truth be told, the prints and transfers weren't the best with the resulting product being full of pops and hisses and a sub-standard picture quality. The films were most likely in the public domain at the time and not much care was given to making quality recordings. It wasn't great but it was all we had and besides, this was a technological achievement far beyond my wildest dreams. Imagine being able to own copies of classic movies forever and ever without having to stay up way past midnight to catch a heavily edited and commercial filled broadcast of the same material. This was nirvana. Sheer bliss, bad transfer and all.

Until the other day I had only ever seen THE 39 STEPS in this primitive format and that was some thirty-odd years ago. My buddy Kelly Greene and I watched the film in the Blu-Ray format on the Criterion label this week and I was absolutely blown away. Not only did this film look and sound fantastic, I had forgotten what a marvelously entertaining film it is, a visually sophisticated adventure that adroitly combines laughs and thrills with touches of many of Hitchcock's major thematic concerns, themes and motifs that would inform the vast body of his work for years to come.

By the time Hitchcock made THE 39 STEPS in 1935, he had already directed twenty silent and sound films in Great Britain, beginning with THE PLEASURE GARDEN (1925). This makes STEPS the work of a veteran filmmaker who was already incredibly skilled and gifted and who, astonishingly enough, only got better over the course of his career. THE 39 STEPS plays heavily on the idea of an innocent man suddenly thrust into a mysterious world of danger and intrigue. The hero here is one Richard Hannay (the dashing Robert Donat), who is given a scrap of information from a dead female secret agent. With only a map and the words "the 39 steps" to go on, Hannay sets out to solve the mystery in a race against time to prevent something dreadful from happening. He is, of course, suspected of murdering the female spy and must first elude the police. As Hannay gets closer to the truth (even though he doesn't know it), he's also menaced by enemy agents.

Hannay eventually winds up in the company of the lovely Pamela Shaneakwa (Madeleine Carroll), a Hitchcock blonde whom Hannay first meets on a train early in the film. The two find themselves handcuffed together and running for their lives before finally discovering the truth about the 39 steps and foiling the plot.

The action in the film begins and ends in a theater (the remake of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956) also takes place in a theater). Hannay meets a variety of couples throughout his journey, some of them help him in his flight, while others stand in his way. It's only when the two singles, Hannay and Pamela become a trusting couple themselves that the day is saved. The 39 steps are a bit of a McGuffin, a plot device that drives the narrative without being the real truth of the matter. Hannay and Pamela's handcuffed escapades have an air of screwball comedy about them and the scene where Hannay gives a political speech full of double talk is genuinely funny.

But make no mistake about it, THE 39 STEPS is a flat out thriller from beginning to end. It's clearly a template for NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) and while that film is, in my opinion, Hitchcock's most entertaining film, THE 39 STEPS is not far behind. If you're going to watch this one, it's worth the effort to track down the Blu Ray edition on the Criterion label. You won't be disappointed.

Highly recommended.