The 39 Steps

Plot synopsis:
The story starts on 28 June 1914; Richard Hannay (Rupert Penry-Jones), a mining engineer and an intelligence officer during the Second Boer War, is in London following his recent return from Africa, finding England "cliquey", "class-bound" and "deathly, deathly dull". Evading German spies (Werner Daehn and Peter Stark), Scudder (Eddie Marsan) pushes himself into Hannay's flat and reveals himself to be a betrayed freelance British Secret Service Bureau agent, who has been on the trail of a German espionage ring with headquarters in Scotland. He has heard rumours of a plot to assassinate a high-ranking European royal, which could lead to war. Believing he will soon be killed, he hands Hannay a notebook to pass to Captain Kell of the Secret Service Bureau. While Hannay answers the door, Scudder is shot by one of the German spies seeking his notebook who has entered the flat via a back door. The police arrive, and Hannay is arrested for murder before escaping.
Unable to contact Kell, Hannay flicks through the notebook, finding it contains pages of code using Roman numerals. He finds a map in the back and takes a train to Scotland to prove Scudder right, attempting to decipher the code en route. Finding out Archduke Ferdinand has been assassinated, Hannay reaches Scotland and leaves the train to escape the police. He stays in a barn overnight, where he deciphers the code in the notebook (except a section in double code), which reveals the Germans want to destroy the Royal Navy so that they could invade the country, starting a war. Chased by the police, the Germans and machine-gun-fire from a biplane, he encounters brother and sister Harry and Victoria Sinclair, a prospective Member of Parliament and a suffragette respectively (Patrick Kennedy and Lydia Leonard), who believe him to be a Liberal spokesman. At a political rally in a nearby town (Culross) where Hannay meets Sir George Sinclair, Harry and Victoria's uncle (David Haig), Victoria aids Hannay's attempt to escape, before they are captured by the Germans. With the notebook missing from Hannay's pocket, they are taken to Longkeep Castle (Dumbarton Castle), the headquarters of the German espionage ring, where they are imprisoned by Professor Fisher (Patrick Malahide). Sir George arrives as they are captured and inquires about them while they are held in another room. After he leaves they are bound and gagged and placed in the cellar. They escape and return to where they were captured to look for the notebook, which Victoria reveals she had picked from Hannay's pocket and hidden. They stay overnight in an inn, where Hannay details the contents of the notebook to Victoria.
In the morning, they escape to Harry's house, where Victoria unsuccessfully attempts to contact Captain Kell. Hannay, alone, meets with Sir George, who sits on the defence committee. Hannay reveals the contents of the notebook, leading to Sir George disclosing that a meeting of the National Committee of Defence is being held the next day at Stirling Castle to unveil new naval plans, matching part of the double code. Later, Hannay and Victoria kiss, and the next morning he sees her leaving with a man, whom he recalls seeing previously on the train and at the rally. With the notebook missing and finding out that Victoria disconnected the call she made to the Secret Service Bureau before it was connected, Hannay goes to Stirling Castle, believing Victoria to be a traitor. There, Victoria reveals she works for the Secret Service Bureau and he meets Kell (Alex Jennings) and Wakeham, the man Victoria left with earlier (Steven Elder), who reveal they used Hannay to distract the Germans and sent Victoria to keep an eye on him. Hannay deduces that Sir George is the traitor, as he should have heard them when he was at Fisher's House, and, with his photographic memory, has escaped with the naval plans memorised. To identify his rendezvous point with the Germans, they crack the remaining code, referring to the room they were previously imprisoned in at Longkeep Castle, and discover "39 steps" written in the notebook by Scudder using invisible ink. At the Castle, Hannay and Victoria find 39 steps leading to a loch. A shoot-out ensues, and a German U-boat surfaces in the loch. Fisher, the Germans and Sir George fail to get to the U-boat before it submerges, and surrender.
Together by the loch, Hannay and Victoria kiss before she is hit by a bullet fired by a surviving gunman, falls into the loch and disappears. The story concludes four months later, after the declaration of the First World War, when Hannay, in a British Army officer's uniform, is waiting to meet someone at St Pancras Station. Harry appears, saying that Victoria wanted to say goodbye, and Hannay sees her in the distance. In reply to Hannay's bewilderment, Harry tells him, "top secret, old man." Victoria disappears behind a luggage trolley and Harry tells Hannay she'll see him after the war.

Tags: murder

Review:
First things first, Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps' is and always will be a classic of the British cinema and Ralph Thomas's remake (it's unashamedly a remake, rather than an adaptation of the novel) fails to equal it.
Taina Elg's foreign heroine however, though very attractive is no Madeleine Carroll and is perhaps the movie's weakest link.The stars are backed up by a splendid cast of familiar British character actors, ranging from Sid James's cameo as a truck driver, to Brenda De Banzie's turn as a friendly, man-hungry roadside café owner.Another plus is the glorious Scottish locations (genuine this time, as opposed to the original's studio mock-ups), filmed in luscious 'Eastmancolor'.All in all, while Ralph Thomas is no Alfred Hitchcock (but then, there's only one Hitch), the remake is ideal entertainment, perfect viewing for a dark winter's night, curled up in your armchair with hot coffee and toast by your side..
Often criticised for being a shot-for-shot remake of the Hitchcock original, this film is in fact a perky little thriller which benefits from Kenneth More being a more sympathetic leading man than Robert Donat (he was somewhat aloof) in the '39 version.
True, the film trades heavily off the script for the Hitchcock version, and true it does not go back to the original novel for context, spirit or historical setting in the way the '78 version does; but for me, the film is the jewel among the three.
In the '78 version (and the unofficial remake called North By Northwest) the role of the hit-men is further developed and the suspense increased as a result.Other things to watch out for in the '59 version are Sidney James, Brian Oulton and a host of supporting players (not to mention Tania Elg's legs in the remake of the stocking-removing scene, all the more intriguing for being in colour).
I do enjoy watching this film, the picture quality is excellent ( Eastmancolor ), lovely views of London and Scotland in the 1950's, plenty of humour, nice actors and a good plot which really keeps you guessing what it's all about for about 50 minutes.
I have seen the original version by Hitchcock, its the same story but in black and white with awful picture and sound quality ( I have most of Hitchcock's films on DVD ) and there's no advantage to the Hitchcock film over this one - on the contrary this one is better.
It's quite possible to enjoy this 39 Steps, but it helps to see it fresh, without any recent memory of the 1935 Hitchcock version.
What Hannay encounters along the way is a suspicious school teacher, Miss Fisher (Taina Elg), who turns him in on the train going to Scotland; a fortune teller; an all too knowledgeable professor; two killers; a clever escape while handcuffed to Fisher and, finally, the secret only Mr. Memory, a music hall performer, can unlock.
The movie has several good elements, especially the charm and confidence of Kenneth More as Hannay; some wonderful Scottish scenery (the movie is in color); great train rides and one exciting train escape; a ripely eccentric performance by Brenda de Banzie as a fortune-telling realist who helps Hannay; a menacingly friendly appearance by Barry Jones; a funny performance by Joan Hickson as a twittering school teacher that reminded me of a middle- aged Miss Marple on amphetamines; and an all too brief performance by Faith Brook as the nanny.
I can't remember much of the original film version of THE 39 STEPS but seeing this remake a couple of days ago I got the distinct feeling that it's rather inferior to the Hitchcock version .
Much of the problem lies with the director Ralph Thomas who has a long and successful track record of making comedies and he seems unsuited for thrillers , everything seems a little too lightweight here and it's not helped by the cheery and jovial musical score or indeed Sid James playing a straight role as a lorry driver .
It should also be pointed out that while Kenneth More plays an affable type of hero in Richard Hannay he lacks the dashing charm of Robert Donat in the original and is probably less effective than the slightly angry young man of Robert Powell in the latter 70s remake .
I dispute what it says in the IMDb trivia section about this movie being a shot for shot remake of the original Hitchcock version but it totally lacks an updated feel .
Stodginess suffuses "The 39 Steps": it seems all too fitting that this must be one of the last action pictures whose hero wears a business suit and tie throughout.As a modernised, colour remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic, it makes the Highland scenery look good.
The constant flashes of imagination and twists which Hitch extracted from genre material-- such as the glimpse of the crofter and his young wife through the window after Hannay leaves, or the chorus line's legs kicking heedlessly behind the pitiable Mr Memory-- have all vanished, like a master-painter's brushwork obscured by clumsy retouching.That poignant final scene in the music hall could serve as a film-school case study in the gap between genius and mediocrity.
It isn't as good as Hitch's film, choosing to replace out and out suspense with a more humoristic approach, but the chase yarn aspects are briskly directed by Thomas, and the Scottish locations provided a wonderful backdrop to the fun drama.
I can't really do any of the others down, and in fact the Hitchcock version starring Robert Donat is a classic.
Since Alfred Hitchcock's well-known version from 1935, there have been two further adaptations of John Buchan's "The 39 Steps".
The 1978 version with Robert Powell kept the pre-World War I setting and was much more faithful to Buchan's plot than Hitchcock had been.
The 1959 version, however, was a remake of Hitchcock's film, keeping much of the plot, and even some of the dialogue, of his version.
In the 1959 film, made during the Cold War, there is little doubt that the villains are working for the Soviet Union, although again this is never explicitly stated.In this version the hero, Richard Hannay, is not a Canadian (as he was in Hitchcock's film) but an Englishman, recently returned from working in the Middle East.
There are also some added scenes, such as the one where Hannay stays at an inn whose landlady turns out to be a spiritualist medium.Hitchcock's film was a comedy-thriller which combined suspense with humour, and the remake was intended in the same vein.
Ralph Thomas was known as a director of both comedies (such as the "Doctor" films) and thrillers (such as "The Clouded Yellow") so he doubtless seemed the right man for the job.
Kenneth More plays Hannay as the sort of decent, middle-class stiff-upper-lipped English gentleman which had become his stock-in-trade, a characterisation which seems stolid and uninteresting next to the panache of Robert Donat's dashing action hero.
Elg always comes across as dull and unglamorous, especially when compared to Madeleine Carroll who played the equivalent role in the Hitchcock film, and her foreign accent makes it difficult to accept her as a British schoolmistress.Some of the blame for the film's comparative failure, however, must lie with the director and scriptwriters.
Some of the scenes, such as Hannay's escape on the Forth railway bridge, are indeed better done here than they were in the original, which is perhaps not surprising given that Thomas evidently had more financial resources available to him than did Hitchcock.
Had they wanted to make a new version of "The 39 Steps" they should have gone back to Buchan, as the makers of the 1978 film did.
It is thus not even a shadow of either the Hitchcock original or the 1970s costume drama.This was an opportunity to get rid of some of the excesses of the Hitchcock version, such as Mr Memory, a character that was not in Lord Tweedsmuir's novel.One inevitably compares Kenneth More's Hannay with Robert Donat and Robert Powell.
When Robert Donat essayed Richard Hannay in the original you were watching a most desperate man thrown together with Madeline Carroll running from the cops.Kenneth More apparently decided he was Cary Grant and played it the way Grant did his last Hitchcock film North By Northwest.
And Taina Elg was no Madeline Carroll, few women have ever been that beautiful.Best in this rather tepid remake is Brenda Da Banzie as a most horny women who keeps dropping hints at More who seems completely oblivious.This version of The 39 Steps isn't a patch on what Hitchcock did though it has its moments..
This is a good film, bringing up to date the previous Robert Donat version.
Kenneth More, who seemed to appear in every British film I watched in the 1950s, is excellent as Richard Hannay.
The climax in the theatre is a little unbelievable with the audience watching dancing girls minutes after the Memory Man has been shot, for example, and we are not told how Hannay and Fisher managed to get from Perthshire to London with every policeman in Great Britain after them!
Decent remake, but for me the Hitchcock film will always be better.
I will say right now I do prefer the Hitchcock film, which was really entertaining, suspenseful, well made and had believable chemistry between Robert Donat and Madeleine Caroll despite the deviations from the book.
I also felt the scripting on occasions lacked the wit and suspense that made the Hitchcock film so memorable.Flaws aside, the plot is still good and intriguing enough, and so is the music which is quite stirring and the stylish camera work.
Kenneth More, while he has acted better, is still very likable in the lead role of Richard Hannay, and the location shots of London are excellent, plus the Scottish scenery is stunning.
Overall, this is a decent remake, but as I have accentuated many times, the Hitchcock film will always be better, no matter how much it is removed from the source material.
Other characters (like the Scottish spiritualist) are just out of place.Worse than this is the fact that the film lacks real tension or excitement.
The 1970's remake is much better than this as it doesn't just ape the Hitchcock version.
It was directed by Ralph Thomas, which says a lot, and written by Frank Harvey and they change things just enough not to make it a carbon copy, using actual Scottish locations and casting Kenneth More, who is a very different Richard Hannay from Robert Donat.Actually More was a very personable actor and it's he, and he alone, who makes this as entertaining as it is; just don't expect too much from the poor man.
This 1959 version of The Thirty-Nine Steps is so far removed from the original work by John Buchan that it does neither any justice to compare the two.As it is, it has to be taken as a standalone movie and, as such, it fails miserably.The plot, performances (particularly those of the support actors) and set-pieces are all woefully under-par for even a movie of this modest magnitude.
I agree with many here who say the direction is a little stodgy and some of the changes seem pointless, but this film (like several others) is transformed from an 'also ran' to a rather jaunty thriller by the always-excellent Kenneth More.
The Thirty-Nine Steps may not be the best film ever made or the best version of this story from a technical point of view, but I find it by far the most appealing..
This version goes for a lighter more comedic touch but that does not stop the movie being fun, with some quaint set pieces and some proper British stiff upper lip bravado from Kenneth Moore.
Seeing Kenneth More on a cast list generally means you're getting something of strong English stock, very stiff upper lip but with a touch of humour, and that is exactly what we have here.Our story starts when a nanny drops a rattle, and ends - as the classic Hitchcock thriller does - with Mr Memory at the music hall.
Between we have a romp across Scotland with More and Taina Elg, and lots of intrigue.Nothing special, and a little bit colourless, this 39 Steps is a time-filler, nothing more.
THE 39 STEPS is a '50s-era reworking of the Hitchcock classic and a new adaptation of the famous spy novel by John Buchan.
The lead is played by likable man-of-the-moment Kenneth More (fresh from the success of Titanic epic A NIGHT TO REMEMBER) who teams up with Finnish beauty Taina Elg to foil a sinister plot by a gang of conspirators.We always knew that the Hitchcock film would be a hard act to follow but this version makes a decent stab of it, I think.
It's set in a dated, far-off world in which the bad guys (such as Michael Goodliffe) are bad in a clean, safe, gentlemanly way straight from the pages of an Enid Blyton book.CARRY ON director Ralph Thomas is an odd choice to helm this adaptation, but he turns out to fit the material well; there's plenty of light comedy here and it works well, particularly a hilarious moment when an unprepared More is forced to lecture a hall of giggling schoolgirls.
This 1959 version is much closer to the story, but seems to follow the screenplay of Hitchcock more so than the book by John Buchan.
The 1978 version (directed by Don Sharp and starred Robert Powell as Hannay) was the closest to Buchan's original.It was just as the First World War was about to ignite when Bachan penned the story while convalescing in Broadstairs, England.
Wanted for murder Hannay finds himself caught up in a plot that could threaten Britain & those who live there...This British production was directed by Ralph Thomas was a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's earlier The 39 Steps (1935) which itself was based on the novel of the same name by John Buchan while yet another big screen version was made as The Thirty Nine Steps (1978) a couple of decades after this, while I liked The 39 Steps for most of it's duration as a fairly gentle & light hearted action adventure I simply didn't understand the end.
If it had worked properly how was it all meant to go down?The 39 Steps looks nice enough, the colourful London & Scottish locations add to the film although maybe the special effects aren't the best, the shot of Hannay hanging on to the side of a speeding looks poor.
I have never seen Hitchcock's original or read the novel so I cannot compare how this stands up to them.Filmed on location in Scotland & in the studio back in London, this is well made for the time although obviously it does look a bit dated today.
Legendary comedy actor Sid James has a great little cameo as a truck driver.The 39 Steps is a perfectly good adventure mystery film until the end where it all falls apart, none of it made any sort of sense to me.
A zippy and enjoyable version of John Buchan's novel, far lighter in tone that Hitchcock's.
In Hitchcock's film, Hannay undergoes different sorts of divagations and dangers than he does here, in Ralph Thomas's film.
Basically it follows the same plot as the original, Richard Hannay (Kenneth More) meets a spy who tells him something she shouldn't of, and is murdered soon after, putting Richard in the frame and on the frame.
Good thriller over shadowed by Hitchcock's film which it remakes.
Kenneth More is Richard Hanny in what is essentially a bright and colorful version of the Hitchcock film.
Its a good little film on its own but suffers in comparison to the other versions.
Other versions aside, its a good little film that is fine in its own terms.
For me having recently seen the Hitchcock film a couple of times, not to mention the stage adaption I found myself all "stepped" out.
"The 39 steps" is quite an enjoyable Kenneth More movie.Like a good boy scout Mr More is unflappable,resourceful,straightforward,clean in word and deed and whistles cheerfully under all difficulties.He carries a comb with him and manages to look manly wearing pale - blue shorts.He is a nice middle - class 1950s English hero,soon to be drowned under an ocean of vicious foul - mouthed murderous thugs who will beat the film audiences into submission to such an extent that well - spoken chaps with service flats in town and spare time on their hands to save the old country from Johnny Foreigner will shortly disappear from our screens for ever - or at least until Don Sharp's brilliant 1970's remake.
It is a remake of the 1935 film that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and well as being the second of four film versions of the 1915 John Buchan novel.
Kenneth More, the quintessential British leading man of the 1950s, takes on the role of Richard Hannay.
This Hannay is a very different character from the Hitchcock film in that he's know a British diplomat and quite a bit older.
They range from Faith Brook as the woman who sets things in motion, Barry Jones as the mysterious Professor Logan, Brenda De Banzie as Nellie Lumsden and the various actors playing the various Scottish eccentrics that Hannay bumps into on his journey through Scotland.
The film is less an adaptation of the original novel so much as an updated remake of the 1935 Hitchcock film.
If you've seen the original Hitchcock film then there will likely be some disappointments due to a bit of miscasting and an over emphasis on humor.
Overall though, the film has its own merits including Kenneth More's fine performance as Hannay and some good production values.
The 1959 version of The 39 Steps then is a good film in its own right but not as good as the Hitchcock film that proceeded it.