The 39 Steps to writing a perfect thriller by author John Buchan's grandson | Daily Mail Online comments Even now, almost 100 years after it was first published, the story retains a modernity that is little short of astonishing 'The 39 Steps, in its language, its settings, its nods to contemporary technology and its characterisation, belongs firmly to the 20th century,' said John Buchan's grandson, Toby On a late-summer’s day in 1914, a man walks with his small daughter down a rickety flight of wooden steps leading to a private beach from a house on the clifftop. The girl, just turned six, is improving her counting by determinedly calling out the number of each step. ‘Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-NINE!’ she says in triumph as they step off onto the sand. Thus Alice Buchan gave the title to her father’s, my grandfather’s, new novel, little knowing that it would prove to be one of the most enduring adventure stories ever to be published.

John Buchan wrote The 39 Steps in a few weeks towards the end of 1914, while staying with his wife and children at Broadstairs in Kent, in a house on the cliffs overlooking Stone Bay. (The house is still there; indeed, anyone wishing to re-enact the novel’s finale may rent it as a holiday let.) While there, he became ill with the duodenal problems that plagued him all his life, and which had prevented him from joining the Army, Britain having declared war against Germany on August 4 that year. Two major elements among these facts – the clifftop setting and the coming of war – infuse what has come to be widely regarded as the first modern spy thriller. Buchan posted the manuscript to Blackwood & Sons in Edinburgh, publisher not only of books but of the famous literary magazine that bore its name. ‘It has amused me to write, but whether it will amuse you to read is another matter,’ he wrote. He need not have fretted. Blackwood’s accepted it at once and published it in the magazine, in serial form and pseudonymously, between July and September 1915, and as a book under Buchan’s name in October.

It was an immediate success – and more than that, it has become a classic of its kind. Today, the principal charges levelled against the novel are that it is dated, and that it relies too heavily upon improbable circumstances or coincidences. Yet I would argue that even now, almost 100 years after it was first published, the story retains a modernity that is little short of astonishing. Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, released in 1935, is an extremely well-made comedy thriller that's widely and deservedly admired I am reminded of its place in our collective narrative by a cartoon I clipped from a newspaper a few years ago and pinned to my office wall. It shows a boy of about eight, standing in front of his parents. He is wearing a tweed Norfolk jacket, a tie, breeches, chequered shooting stockings and what are no doubt stout brogues. Eyes closed as in serious thought, he is drawing on a pipe clamped between his teeth, the bowl of which he’s holding in his left hand. In his right, half wedged beneath his arm, he holds a copy of The 39 Steps.

Anxiously, his mother is saying to her husband, ‘Why doesn’t he read Harry Potter, like other kids?’ Why indeed? True, The 39 Steps isn’t read by the young (or old) in anything like the numbers that JK Rowling’s marvellous creation attracts, but it’s still in print nearly 100 years after its first publication; indeed, it has never been out of print, something that isn’t true of the works of, for instance, Jane Austen. John Buchan has quite often been called ‘the last Victorian’, but I have always found this a somewhat lazy description, especially when applied to his writing. He was, of course, a Victorian by birth and upbringing, but he was not stuck in the past. The storyline of The 39 Steps makes free use of the technology of its age: cars and a motorbike, radio and the telephone, a fleeting reference to a semi-automatic pistol and even a monoplane, at a time when all these were rarities – new-fangled, almost certainly dangerous and, to many, arguably morally suspect. Given that Buchan was 40 by the time the novel was published, their inclusion strikes me as remarkably innovative.

It is, unsurprisingly, a novel of its time, its slang sometimes dated, its characters perhaps anachronistic (and sometimes unfairly pilloried), most of its certainties atomised for ever in the cataclysm of the Great War. Nonetheless, it is instructive to read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, first published in 1912, three years before The 39 Steps. The former, fine adventure story though it is, is unquestionably a Victorian novel, owing much, as all ‘lost world’ novels must, to Sir Henry Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (1885). The 39 Steps, in its language, its settings, its nods to contemporary technology and its characterisation, belongs firmly to the 20th century. I’m not going to rehearse the plot and action of the novel here, not least because there’s a good chance that readers will be familiar with it already. They may remember some of the scenes: the hero, Richard Hannay, leaping from the express as it crosses the great iron railway bridge over the Forth, say, or the villain holding up his hand to show the missing finger that confirms him as the enemy.

And what grubby-minded schoolboy didn’t snigger over the scene in which the girl (a ‘topper’, and no mistake), handcuffed to the hero, slowly removes her damp stockings? John Buchan pictured in Native American headdress in 1937 Marvellous stuff – except that none of it is in the novel. These, and many other such scenes, come from Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘tiresomely silly’ film, as my grandmother once described it to me. Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, released in 1935, is not tiresomely silly as a film, of course. Quite the reverse: it’s an extremely well-made comedy thriller that’s widely and deservedly admired. It was the making of Hitchcock, too, for it brought him to the attention of Hollywood; more than that, it had a profound influence, for it established the ‘chase’ or ‘pursuit’ thriller as a favoured film genre. All that said, however, what is true is that Hitchcock’s film bears about as much resemblance to Buchan’s novel as West Side Story does to a late-16th-century performance of Romeo and Juliet.

(I will allow that the book’s ending, as quietly dramatic as it is, is virtually unfilmable.) In short, as a representation of the novel’s subtleties, and especially its remarkable sense of landscape and setting, and its at times almost claustrophobic tension, the film fails signally, even while it triumphs as an entertainment in its own right. It’s an indication of the book’s enduring appeal, however, that to date three feature films and a 90-minute television adaptation have been made of it, the last in 2008 (and a fourth film has been rumoured for this year). All take considerable liberties with the text, and none quite conveys the world that Buchan created, or maintains the tension of hiding and pursuit, largely on foot, that occupies very nearly one half of the novel. Nor has any caught the boredom and stagnation that drive Hannay and cause him to feel an exultant joy in action even as he faces more and greater threats.

As he admits from the start, reflecting on his life in London, ‘The weather made me liverish, the talk of the ordinary Englishman made me sick, I couldn’t get enough exercise and the amusements of London seemed as flat as soda-water that has been standing in the sun.’ Though often frightened, sometimes desperate and for a time badly injured, Hannay never weakens. Even given everything that is at stake – Britain’s secret naval plans, at risk of capture by German spies – he continues to find the life into which he has been thrust ‘grand’. My grandfather’s characters were frequently based upon (or, more accurately, were amalgams of) people he knew, sometimes very well. Many of them died in the Great War, to his lasting sadness, among them his close friend and business partner Tommy Nelson, to whom The 39 Steps is dedicated.

Buchan's skill lies in making the unlikely not just believable, but eminently reasonable They are easy to laugh at now, these ‘clubland heroes’, stereotyped with clipped military moustaches, inextinguishable briars filled with strong shag, indestructible tweeds and stout footwear, and a habit of direct speech and, sometimes, even more direct action. Yet there is something of Keith Douglas’s poem Aristocrats about them, too: ‘How can I live among this gentle obsolescent breed of heroes, and not weep?’ The world in which my grandfather and his friends had been raised, with its established order and certainties (and not always admirable prejudices, it must be said), vanished forever in the catastrophe that overtook Europe and much of the Middle East between 1914 and 1918. And in the decades that followed their simple code of honour, courage, steadfastness, self-reliance, patriotism and courtesy came to seem outmoded, if not risible.

And what of Richard Hannay, that 37-year-old Scot who, having made his pile – ‘not one of the big ones, but good enough for me’ – as a mining engineer in Rhodesia, has returned to live in England? According to my grandfather, he was partly based on Edmund ‘Tiny’ Ironside (later Field Marshal Lord Ironside), an artillery officer who had fought and been wounded in the Second Boer War and had worked undercover by disguising himself as an Afrikaner in order to spy on the Germans in South-West Africa. (Either his disguise was insufficient or the Germans were cleverer than he had assumed, for it’s said that he was rumbled and had to leg it.) As to the improbabilities, such is the novel’s pace and atmosphere that they go largely unnoticed. Buchan declared that he set out to write a ‘shocker’ in which ‘the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible’, and he did exactly that. Besides, are they any greater than those in, say, Frederick Forsyth or Ian Fleming (both avowedly influenced by Buchan’s spy thrillers)?

Buchan’s skill lies in making the unlikely not just believable, but eminently reasonable. By the time the book was published, the trenches of the Western Front were dominating the public consciousness. The lone figure who stands between a nation’s safety and the machinations of a great power was no longer realistic. Yet it is an attractive, if romantic, idea, and in this lies much of the novel’s power. As for me, I like to picture the slight figure of my grandfather coming down the steps to the beach all those years ago, clutching my aunt Alice’s hand, abstractedly turning over in his mind the plot for a novel which was to change the spy story forever. Finally, there is a postscript to the story of Alice and her resolute counting. When, in the Forties, that area of Broadstairs was redeveloped, the old wooden steps set into the chalk cliff face were torn out and replaced. A literate builder or developer saved a piece of the 39th and sent it to our family (for John Buchan had died in 1940), a measure not only of the book’s fame, but also of the affection in which it is held.

‘The 39 Steps’ by John Buchan, special cloth-bound edition, is published by Michael O’Mara Books, priced at £9.99 John Buchan (Author of The 39 Steps) edit data John Buchan (1st Baron Tweedsmuir) was a Scottish novelist and public servant who combined a successful career as an author of thrillers, historical novels, histories and biographies with a parallel career in public life. At the time of his death he was Governor-General of Canada. Buchan was educated at Glasgow and Oxford Universities. After a brief career in law he went to South Africa in 1902 where he contributed to the reconstruction of the country following the Boer War. His love for South Africa is a recurring theme in his fiction. On returning to Britain, Buchan built a successful career in publishing with Nelsons and Reuters. During the first world war, he was Director of Information in the British government. He wrote a twenty-four v John Buchan (1st Baron Tweedsmuir) was a Scottish novelist and public servant who combined a successful career as an author of thrillers, historical novels, histories and biographies with a parallel career in public life.

At the time of his death he was Governor-General of Canada. Buchan was educated at Glasgow and Oxford Universities. After a brief career in law he went to South Africa in 1902 where he contributed to the reconstruction of the country following the Boer War. His love for South Africa is a recurring theme in his fiction. On returning to Britain, Buchan built a successful career in publishing with Nelsons and Reuters. During the first world war, he was Director of Information in the British government. He wrote a twenty-four volume history of the war, which was later abridged. Alongside his busy public life, Buchan wrote superb action novels, including the spy-catching adventures of Richard Hannay, whose exploits are described in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, The Three Hostages, and The Island of Sheep. Apart from Hannay, Buchan created two other leading characters in Dickson McCunn, the shrewd retired grocer who appears in Huntingtower, Castle Gay, and The House of the Four Winds; and the lawyer Sir Edward Leithen, who features in the The Power-House, John Macnab, The Dancing Floor, The Gap in the Curtain and Sick Heart River.

From 1927 to 1935 Buchan was Conservative M.P. for the Scottish Universities, and in 1935, on his appointment as Governor-General to Canada, he was made a peer, taking the title Baron Tweedsmuir. During these years he was still productive as a writer, and published notable historical biographies, such as Montrose, Sir Walter Scott, and Cromwell. When he died in Montreal in 1940, the world lost a fine statesman and story-teller. The John Buchan Society was founded in 1979 to encourage continuing interest in his life, works and legacy. Visit the website ( ) and follow the Society on Twitter ( ) and Facebook ( ). See also and Encyclopeadia Britannica Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. ...more We Tell Stories - Classics: The 39 Steps The 39 Steps by John Buchan 'My guest was lying sprawled on his back.

There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor.' Adventurer Richard Hannay has just returned from South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his London life - until a murder is committed in his flat, just days after the victim had warned him of an assassination plot that could bring Britain to the brink of war. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland, where he must use all his wits to stay one step ahead of the game - and warn the government before it is too late. One of the most popular adventure stories ever written, The Thirty-Nine Steps established John Buchan as the original thriller writer and inspired many other novelists and filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock. Buy 'The 39 Steps' John Buchan John Buchan was born in Perth. His father was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland; and in 1876 the family moved to Fife where in order to attend the local school the small boy had to walk six miles a day.

Later they moved again to the Gorbals in Glasgow and John Buchan went to Hutchesons' Grammar School, Glasgow University (by which time he was already publishing articles in periodicals) and Brasenose College, Oxford. His years at Oxford - 'spent peacefully in an enclave like a monastery' - nevertheless opened up yet more horizons and he published five books and many articles, won several awards including the Newdigate Prize for poetry and gained a First. His career was equally diverse and successful after university and, despite ill-health and continual pain from a duodenal ulcer, he played a prominent part in public life as a barrister and Member of Parliament, in addition to being a writer, soldier and publisher. In 1907 he married Susan Grosvenor, and the marriage was supremely happy. They had one daughter and three sons. He was created Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield in 1935 and became the fifteenth Governor-General of Canada, a position he held until his death in 1940. 'I don't think I remember anyone,' wrote G. M.

Trevelyan to his widow, 'whose death evoked a more enviable outburst of sorrow, love and admiration.' John Buchan's first success as an author came with Prester John in 1910, followed by a series of adventure thrillers, or 'shockers' as he called them, all characterized by their authentically rendered backgrounds, romantic characters, their atmosphere of expectancy and world-wide conspiracies, and the author's own enthusiasm. There are three main heroes: Richard Hannay, whose adventures are collected in The Complete Richard Hannay; Dickson McCunn, the Glaswegian provision merchant with the soul of a romantic, who features in Huntingtower, Castle Gay and The House of the Four Winds; and Sir Edward Leithen, the lawyer who tells the story of John MacNab and Sick Heart River, John Buchan's final novel. In addition, John Buchan established a reputation as an historical biographer with such works as Montrose, Oliver Cromwell and Augustus.

NSTC - The 39 Steps NSTC Adapted by Patrick Barlow, Directed by Ceil Herman From the novel by John Buchan, From the Movie of Alfred Hitchcock, and an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon L to R: David Reyes (Clown 1), Emily Campion (Pamela) Algernon D'Ammassa (Hannay) and Dustin Hadfield (Clown 2) L to R: Dustin Hadfield (Clown 2), David Reyes (Clown 1) as Heavies L to R: Algernon D'Ammassa (Hannay) and David Reyes (Clown 1 as Professor Jordan) L to R: David Reyes (Clown 1 as the Announcer), Algernon D'Ammassa (Hannay), Emily Campion (Pamela) and Dustin Hadfield (Clown 2 as Mr.

Memory) L to R: Emily Campion (Margaret) and David Reyes (Clown 1 as the Crofter) L to R: Algernon D'Ammassa (Hannay) and David Reyes (Clown 1 as the Milkman) L to R: Emily Campion (Margaret), David Reyes (Clown 1 as the Crofter) and Algernon D'Ammassa (Hannay) L to R: Dustin Hadfield (Clown 2), David Reyes (Clown 1) as salesmen, and Algernon D'Ammassa (Hannay) L to R: Emily Campion (Annabella) and Algernon D'Ammassa (Hannay) Sep 16-Oct 09, 2011 FRI SEP 16,23,30 OCT 7| 8:00 PM SAT SEP 17,24, OCT 1,8*| 8:00 PM SUN SEP 25, OCT 2,9*| 2:30 PM THU SEP 29 | 7:00 PM Description The play is adapted by Patrick Barlow from the 1

915 novel by John Buchan, the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock and an original concept by Simon Corbie and Nobby Dimon, and will be directed by NSTC's Artistic Director Ceil Herman.

"The 39 Steps" is Broadway's longest running comedy. The script takes a story which was originally a thriller, and plays it as a comedy with quick costume, set and lighting changes and filled with allusions to other Hitchcock films, including "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest." Mix the original Hitchcock film of "The 39 Steps" with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python, and you have a whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre. This 2 time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning treat is packed with laughs. A blend of virtuoso performances by 4 actors and wildly inventive stagecraft, "The 39 Steps" is an unforgettable evening of pure pleasure. . The Black Box Theatre production stars Algernon D'Ammassa as the hero, Richard Hannay. D'Ammassa was last seen at the Black Box Theatre in NSTC's "Crime and Punishment." The other three actors are new to the Black Box Theatre, but have considerable experience performing in other venues.

Emily Campion portray Hannay's three love interests which include Annabella, the mysterious woman who gets Hannay involved in the thriller, Margaret, the farmer's wife, and Pamela, the classy woman who Hannay meets on the train, and spends a large portion of the play handcuffed to, as he and she flees his pursuers. David Reyes and Dustin Hadfield all the other characters in the show, including salesmen, police, pilots, milkmen, music hall performers, and country inn owners, among others. Peter Herman is the Scenic and Lighting Designer, Lana Eckman designed Costumes, Debbi Knapp is Choreographer, and Rorie Measure is the Assistant Director. Multiple lighting, sound, slide projection, and costume changes are skillfully handled by the production team which includes Jill Drake, Stage Manager, Danny Wade, light board operator and slide projectionist, Kimberly Caroe, sound board operator, and Daniel Caroe, Assistant Stage Manager. Director's Note John Buchan was born in 1875 in Perth, Scotland and wrote The 39 Steps in 1915.

Buchan's son, William, later wrote that the title originated when the author's daughter, then about age six, was counting stairs at a private nursing home in Broadstairs, where Buchan was convalescing. "There was a wooden staircase leading down to the beach. My sister, who was about six, and who had just learnt to count properly, went down them and gleefully announced: there are 39 steps." Some time later the house was demolished and a section of the stairs, complete with a brass plaque, was sent to Buchan. There have been three different film versions, none of which are faithful to the book. The novel concentrates on the protagonist, Richard Hannay, and no female character is added for love interest. The first, and best, adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock starred Robert Donat as Hannay and Madeline Carroll as Pamela. The other women, Margaret and Annabella, were essential to the plot of the film. The play casts one actress as all three women and uses two male actors, termed "The Clowns," to portray all the supporting characters. Peter and I saw The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre in London.

The Criterion specializes in plays which require actors to play multiple roles, such as The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and The Complete Works of America (Abridged), both of which we produced at BBT. Since I did not direct either of these, I had no idea of the complications involved. Directing this show required the help of very versatile and talented actors, designers and crew, all of which I was fortunate to have. Many thanks to them all. Credits 'The 39 Steps' presents unique challenge Cast of four has more than 100 roles - By Gerald M. Kane , Las Cruces Bulletin It was with great anticipation that I attended the opening night performance of "The 39 Steps" at the Black Box Theatre. I couldn't imagine how this long-running parody/farce, still playing in London and New York, with productions performed all over the world would play out in Las Cruces. Before the show, the guiding forces behind the No Strings Theatre Company, Ceil and Peter Herman, told me this play presented unique challenges on so many levels. Ceil Herman admitted it was the most difficult show she ever directed in all her years at stage direction. Fear not, Ceil and Peter Herman.

You did a terrific job, as I guessed you would. While the opening night performance was understandably choppy, the first before an audience, I am confident that with your guidance, this talented cast and crew will smooth out the rough edges very quickly. Make your reservations early, gentle readers. As the four actors in the company, and a very busy behind-the-scenes crew settle more comfortably into their demanding roles in this arduous and often hilarious play, you will be in for quite a treat. Peter Barlow adapted the famous 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name together with the 1915 novel by John Buchan. From the novel, only the lead character, debonair Richard Hannay, is taken, and the result is one amazing piece of theater craft. This show is a farce/parody in the truest sense of the words with the addition of enormous bits of shtick thrown in, in the most surprising places. The play first premiered in England in 2005 with the greatest challenge being that the entire company consists of four actors playing more than 100 different parts. Crazy, you say? Yes, indeed it is.

What impressed this reviewer most is that how so complex a play could be assembled in such a short time - about one month! Some cast members must change costumes and accents in seconds. The costume design by Lana Eckman is applauded. Eckman certainly did her homework and stitching. Debra Knapp's choreography of a '30s dance routine at the end of the first act is a hoot. Each cast member must take a bow. Algernon D'Ammassa, whose work in BBT's "Crime and Punishment" was impressive, continues to please. His character is the "glue" that holds the story together. As Hannay, he does not have the wavy hair mentioned over and over in the script, but he does deliver his lines with alacrity, charm and wit, and a pencil-thin mustache. A newcomer from New York City, Emily Campion makes a fine debut as the only female actor in the cast. Her English, Scottish and German accents, coupled with her alluring looks and good acting range, make her just right in her three fetching roles. Her comic timing is excellent. And now to the "heavy lifting" parts.

Two "clowns" must play close to 100 roles between both of them - some male, some female, some English, some Scottish, some German, some appearing on the stage for a fleeting few seconds. We are so lucky to be able to watch these two performers "do their stuff," nicely assisted by a backstage crew who make magic happen on a minimalist set, enhanced with outstanding rear projections. David Reyes, a recent transplant from Kansas City, Mo., armed with an abundance of acting experience, really outdoes himself in so many "over-the-top" roles in this show, and he deserves special praise. I hope we see much more of him in future productions. Whether he is the villain of the play, Dr. Jordan, the wife of the Scottish Innkeeper or a jovial vaudeville performer, he performs each role to the hilt. It is hard to believe that Dustin Hadfield is only a junior in high school. His maturity, stage presence and remarkable comic timing is something special to behold. How fortunate that we have more years of seeing him both at the Black Box and New Mexico State University.

The mystery of the meaning behind "The 39 Steps" will be for me to know and you to figure out between humor, gun shots, stage fog and guffaws as this extraordinary comedy plays out before your eyes. Bravo to all. Make your reservations now. The play may be extended, and I am hoping it will, because this is the type of show that makes experiencing live theater so important. "The 39 Steps" kicks off the 2011-12 No Strings season and runs through Sunday, Oct. 2, at the Black Box Theatre, 430 N. Main St. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 25 and Oct. 2, and 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29. Tickets are $10 regular admission, $9 for students and seniors over 65 and all seats on Thursdays are $7. To reserve tickets, call 523-1223.

Seating JOHN BUCHAN - The 39 Steps JOHN BUCHAN JOHN BUCHAN John Buchan (1875-1940) – First Baron Tweedsmuir of Enfield Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet, and novelist, whose most famous thriller was The Thirty Nine Steps (1915), his 27th book. Alfred Hitchcock’s film version of the story, made in 1935, is ranked as one of the director’s best works. Buchan published nearly 30 novels and seven collections of short stories. “Public life is regarded as the crown of a career, and to young men it is the worthiest ambition. Politics is still the greatest and the most honourable adventure.” John Buchan was born in Perth, Scotland, as the eldest son of Rev. John Buchan and Helen (née Masterton) Buchan. He studied at the University of Glasgow and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he had an outstanding career, winning the Stanhope Essay Prize in 1897 and the Newdigate Prize in the following year.

In 1901 he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and a private secretary to the High Commissioner for South Africa, Lord Milner (1901-03). Prester Johnn (1910) was based on his South African experiences. After returning to London Buchan specialized in tax law and continued to write. In 1906 Buchan started to work for the publisher Thomas Nelson and Sons. He revitalized publication of pocket editions of great literature and virtually edited The Spectator. In 1907 he married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor; they had three sons and one daughter. During World War I Buchan was a war correspondent before joining the army. While ill in bed in 1914 during the first months of the war, he wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps. He served on the Headquarters Staff of the British Army in France as temporary Lieutenant Colonel (1916-17). When Lloyd George was appointed Prime Minister, Buchan was made Director of Information (1917-18) and then for a short time Director of Intelligence, a brief interlude in Buchan’s career of which he did not much talk.

After the war Buchan became a director of the news agency Reuters. From 1927-35 Buchan was Conservative MP for the Scottish universities. He had then a number of important government posts, serving among others as Lord High Commissioner of the Church of Scotland (1933-34). In 1935, after moving to Canada, he was created the first Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield, and served until his death on February 11, 1940, as Governor General of Canada. As a writer Buchan started his career in the late 1890s. Buchan published his first novel, SIR QUIXOTE OF THE MOORS in 1895, while still a student at Brasenose College, Oxford. It was followed by such works as SCHOLAR-GIPSIES (1896) and HISTORY OF BRASENOSE (1898). At Oxford Buchan wrote five books, and before he was twenty-five he had published eight books. However, he did not devote himself entirely to writing.

After a sojourn in South Africa Buchan became a dedicated supporter of Britain’s imperialism, and viewed some of his earlier literary endeavours rather uncomfortable. GREY WEATHER (1899), his first collection of tales and sketches, and THE WATCHER BY THE TRESHOLD (1902), included some tacitly pagan stories. The Thirty-Nine Steps presented spy-catcher Richard Hannay, who was modelled after a young Army officer named Edmund Ironside, later Field-Marshal Lord Ironside of Archangel. Buchan met him during WW I. In the story Hannay had all the qualities of a hero, who could defend the English way of life against foreign thread. The book was adapted into screen by Alfred Hitchcock. Buchan was one of the director’s favourite writers, and he had earlier toyed with the idea of filming Buchan’s GREENMANTLE (1916). Often in Hitchcock’s films an innocent man is chased by the police and the villains.

In one scene Hannay says: “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.” The basic outline of the story was thoroughly worked over in the film. At the end Hitchcock parallels handcuffs with a suggestion of marriage. The sequence in which Hannay was first protected and then betrayed by a jealous Highland crofter, have no counterpart in the book at all. The 39 Steps was crucial for Hitchcock’s career – it became an international success and brought him to the attention of the American producer David O. Selznick, with whom he would cooperate in Rebecca (1940) and other films. Richard Hannay appeared again in Greenmantle, where the hero plays a spy and stops the Germans from using an Islamic prophet for their own ends. This time Hannay’s adventures take him through Germany and the Balkans to Constantinople and finally to the Near East front of World War I. Another series character, Sandy Arbuthnot, tackle with Hannay a gang of international criminals in THE THREE HOSTAGES (1924). The books end Hannay’s adventures.

He is now married, has a son, and is happy with his life as lord of Fosse Manor. When the evil plans of Dominic Medina threaten post-war peace, Hannay returns to his old life of action. Lawyer Edward Leithen was the central character in three novels, starting from THE POWER-HOUSE (1916), and continuing in THE DANCING FLOOR (1926), which returned again in the theme of paganism, THE GAP IN THE CURTAIN (1932), and SICK HEART RIVER (1941). Dickson McGunn, a respectable Glasgow grocer, appeared in HUNTINGTOWER (1922), CASTLE GAY (1930), AND THE HOUSE OF THE FOUR WINDS (1935). In WITCH WOOD (1927), a historical novel, Buchan told about stern Scottish Protestants and devil worship. The Gap in the Curtain was a supernatural story, in which the guests at a country house party are enabled by an unconventional scientist to catch a glimpse of an issue of the Times dated a year ahead. Sir Edward finds himself in the middle of an old struggle between faith and doubt.

Among Buchan’s other works were 24-volume NELSON’S HISTORY OF THE WAR (1915-19), biographies of Montrose (1913, 1928), Walter Scott (1932), Oliver Cromwell (1934) and Augustus (1937). Buchan’s autobiography, MEMORY HOLD-THE-DOOR, was published in 1940.”Victor Maskell, the protagonist modelled on Sir Anthony Blunt in John Banville’s the Untouchable (1997), may regard Buchan as ridiculously old-fashioned. But the kind of material which his thrillers were first to bring into focus – the conspiratorial shadow cast by contemporary history, the challenge to integrity and cohesion, the bleak vicissitudes of international power play – continue their complex existence in the genre, as shown in not only Kumari (1955) and Helen All Alone (1961) by Buchan’s son, William, but also in Heart’s Journey in Winter (1995) and High Latitudes: A Romance (1996), by James Buchan, John Buchan’s grandson.

The 39 Steps (1935) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error | Mystery , Thriller | 1 August 1935 (USA) A man in London 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.

Director: John Buchan (adapted from the novel by), Charles Bennett (adaptation) | 1 more credit » Stars: a list of 40 titles created 06 Dec 2012 a list of 46 titles created 03 Mar 2014 a list of 43 titles created 27 Mar 2014 a list of 44 titles created 27 Feb 2015 a list of 25 titles created 2 weeks ago Title: The 39 Steps (1935) 7.8/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 1 win & 1 nomination. See more awards » Videos While traveling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is part of a plot to set off a bomb in London. But when the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock A young woman discovers her visiting uncle may not be the man he seems to be. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A man and his wife receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them? Director: Alfred Hitchcock A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory. Director: Alfred Hitchcock After three British agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent when their duty to the mission conflicts with their consciences. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A family vacationing in Morocco accidentally stumble on to an assassination plot and the conspirators are determined to prevent them from interfering. Director: Alfred Hitchcock On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Several survivors of a torpedoed ship find themselves in the same boat with one of the men who sunk it. Director: Alfred Hitchcock A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife. Director: Alfred Hitchcock Edit Storyline Richard Hannay is a Canadian visitor to London. At the end of "Mr Memory"'s show in a music hall, he meets Annabella Smith who is running away from secret agents. He accepts to hide her in his flat, but in the night she is murdered. Fearing he could be accused on the girl's murder, Hannay goes on the run to break the spy ring. Written by Claudio Sandrini <pulp99@geocities.com> It's Great...It's Grand...It's Glorious! See more » Genres: 1 August 1935 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Les 39 marches See more » Filming Locations: Mono (British Acoustic Film Full Range Recording System: at Shepherd's Bush London) Color: Did You Know? Trivia Gaumont was determined to crack the American market with this adventure, so the company invested heavily in it.

This meant importing named stars like Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll . See more » Goofs In the Music Hall scene, Donat's stand-in is clearly sitting in his place in the audience on at least two occasions. See more » Quotes [first lines] Music hall announcer : Ladies and Gentleman, with your kind attention, and permission, I have the honor of presenting to you one of the most remarkable men in the world. Heckler in Audience: How remarkable? He's sweating! See more » Frequently Asked Questions Don't be put off by its age - this one is worth seeing. 13 April 2005 | by palinurus2 (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews If what you want from a thriller is in-yer-face mugging, special effects, noise, a booming soundtrack, gore, nudity and flashy editing, this one is not for you.

However if you are a more discerning moviegoer who values a great script, exquisite understated acting, wit, humour and intelligence, and you are willing to overlook the technically rough bits (come on, this was 1935, you cannot measure it by 2005 standards !!) - then enjoy, because you are in for a treat. Robert Donat is one of the most charming heroes that ever graced the screen, and but for his frail health and loathing of the Hollywood pzazz (he later refused some great movie parts offered to him, which eventually went to the likes of Erroll Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks Jr) he might have become one of the greatest. Watch the dinner scene with the crofters, in which he manages to convey his plight to the wife entirely without words. Great acting. Also the wickedly funny bravura piece at the political rally. Madeleine Carroll must be among the coolest and feistiest of Hitchcock's favoured blondes, not as insipid or irrelevant as many of the others were. She is a veritable icicle and it takes a long time for her to thaw, but then watch the sparks fly.

I feel a little sad for the people who cannot be bothered to check out this movie because of the tinny sound or the b&w photography. Forget about those superficialities and concentrate on the real values - the script, the acting, the lighting, photography and camera work -, just allow yourself to get carried away with the fast paced action, and you'll love it. 78 of 87 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes

Question: Who wrote the novel The 39 Steps?
Answer: John Buchan