The 39 Steps Review- By Michael Carlisle

 Title: The 39 Steps
Year: 1935
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Country: UK
Language: English

With The 39 Steps the "Master of Suspense" Alfred Hitchcock proves that he is also a connoisseur of the MacGuffin; a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues. In Orson Welles' Citizen Kane the MacGuffin is the word "Rosebud", in this particular film it is the secret of the 39 Steps. It is an object of great intrigue, that catapults this sheer excitement of a story.

A Canadian man in London named Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) tries to help a counterespionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to both save himself and also stop a spy ring which is trying to steal top secret information.

Alfred Hitchcock had financial successes before, but none quite reached the acclaim of 39 Steps. It gave him tremendous international success, being mainly responsible for his emigration to the United States as a first rank film-maker. None of his future successes, like Rear Window and Psycho, would be possible without this picture. 

Discussing the film with French New Wave Director Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock said “What I like best about The 39 Steps are the swift transitions.” Indeed it is swift, unrelenting and gloriously cut. The transitions are seamless, the editing is masterful. The chilling atmosphere goes very well with the brief moments of comedy. In one scene Donat, running away from police, finds himself in a political meeting mistaken for a politician. He finds himself giving an impromptu speech and gets a standing ovation for his efforts. 

 "I know what it is to feel lonely and helpless and to have the whole world against me, and those are things that no men or women ought to feel!" As an audience we connect with Richard Hannay because he is an everyman. Indeed, there is an Indiana Jones aspect, but he is a lot like the general public. He has very human wants and needs. He is not villainous, not overly moral, he is just a man who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He succeeds when he is charmingly dishonest, but never when he tries to tell the truth. When Madeline Carroll enters the picture, it shifts in tone. It becomes less serious and more of a romantic screwball comedy. However, because it's not abrupt and it's rather subtle the film gets increasingly better. 

In conclusion, The 39 Steps is a fantastic picture because it can go from a paranoid thriller to a light comedy and back again without losing its momentum. Hitchcock's deliberate use of the camera is so inventive that many books have been written about it. A mere review could not do Hitchcock's technical mastery justice. 39 Steps is a rarity; a masterpiece that also is a crowd-pleaser. It has not aged a bit, despite being 79 years old. Praise it! 5/5