Richard Hannay (Character) Richard Hannay (Character) There may be more photos available for this character. To select more photos to be displayed in this character's gallery, click the Edit Photos link. Overview From The 39 Steps (2008) (TV) Richard Hannay : No one should involve themselves in intelligence work without a good breakfast. See more » Update You may correct errors and omissions on this page directly. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process. IMDb Everywhere Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! The Greatest Literature of All Time - Movies: The Thirty-Nine Steps The Thirty-Nine Steps The novel The Thirty-Nine Steps is a modern classic of the espionage and thriller genre and the movie The 39 Steps is a great Hitchcock film, also a classic of the espionage and thriller genre. Yet this first of three major film adaptations is nothing like the book. The main character played by Robert Donat (Goodbye, Mr.

Chips) is still named Richard Hannay and he still goes on the lam in Scotland from both foreign spies and police who think he's murdered someone in London, just as in the book. But that's about the extent of the similarity between film and book. In John Buchan's novel, Hannay had made his fortune in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe during colonial times) and is staying in England when a man in his building named Scudder tells him about an anarchist conspiracy to start war in the Balkans, this being just before the First World War. Scudder's murder leads to Hannay's flight, and he spends most of the novel playing cat and mouse with his pursuers in the highlands before he gets a government bigwig on his side and solves the mystery that has something to do with "thirty-nine steps". More Hitchcock than Buchan Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) however starts with gunfire during a mentalist act by a performer called Mr. Memory. Hannay is now a visiting Canadian who takes home from the curtailed performance a mysterious woman, a Miss Annabella Smith, who reveals a Nazi plot to steal top-secret papers from Britain, this being before the Second World War.

Her murder sends him scampering for his own life in Scotland where he is helped by two other women. One, played by blond-bombshell Madeleine Carroll, manages to get herself handcuffed to Hannay�leading to humourous and romantic complications. In the end, Hannay returns to London and Mr. Memory to find a solution to the mystery that is altogether different from that of the book�entirely changing the significance of the title. No wonder the film's title (The 39 Steps) is spelled differently, using numerals instead of words. All of which is to say, forget the book. This is a fun old movie. Somewhat dated of course, but Hitchcock knew what would make terrific drama for the audience of his time in his first great suspense thriller. He would make Secret Agent (again with Carroll as female lead) the next year and then Sabotage and The Lady Vanishes, among others, over the following three years in Britain before moving to Hollywood to make his most famous films. Same idea many years later This film though was remade more than two decades later, with Mr. Memory and many of the same plot elements that Hitchcock's writers had created.

In 1959's The Thirty-Nine Steps, Hannay, played by dependable British actor Kenneth More, is pulled into the plot by the murder of a nanny whom he has met in the park and who has vital national secrets. This version appear to be readily available on video, but fans and critics are evenly split on whether it's a step up or step down from the 1935 film, as it's very similar. Some think the fact that this version shows Scotland in colour, compared to the black and white of Hitchcock's version, is enough of an improvement to recommend it. Boring Buchan For verisimilitude with the book, you have to go the 1978 movie of The Thirty-Nine Steps, the third made-in-the-UK production, which is hard to find today. Hannay, ably portrayed by Robert Powell, is from the African colonies, the time is pre-WWI, the murdered man is Scudder, there is no Mr. Memory, and there are no women trying to seduce our hero or get themselves otherwise hitched to him. The plot of this Thirty-Nine Steps pretty well follows the Buchan novel, except for a thrilling finale atop Big Ben.

David Warner, as always, is a delicious villain. Until near the end though, this film is somewhat dull. Perhaps Hitchcock had known what he was doing when he replaced the Buchan story with more dramatic material. Powell went on to portray the continuing escapades of the same character in a 13-episode series for British TV called Hannay in 1988. Rather stagy, Masterpiece Theatre kind of productions. By the way, if that scene on England's Big Ben in the 1978 Thirty-Nine Steps reminds you of another Hitchcock film, North by Northwest (1959), in which the hero nearly ends up being pushed off that most American monument, Mount Rushmore, it may not be accidental. Despite returning The Thirty-Nine Steps to the original novel, the 1978 Thirty-Nine Steps has several elements that pay homage to Hitchcock. Moreover, North by Northwest is considered by some to be Hitchcock's own remake of The Thirty-Nine Steps. An innocent man flees by train and on foot across the Midwest (the U.S. equivalent to the Scottish Highlands in the U.K.), pursued by both spies and government agents who think he's a killer.

I don't think it's the same film. But whether or not we count North by Northwest as an adaptation of The Thirty-Nine Steps, the similarity of its plot at least shows the great influence Buchan's slender novel has had on the thriller and suspense genre. You can probably find twenty or thirty movies with this general storyline throughout the history of cinema right up to the present time. Buchan sexed up Speaking of North by Northwest, a scene from that movie in which the fugitive is chased by a aircraft, somehow finds its way into the most recent video version of Buchan's thriller. In The 39 Steps of 2008, our hero Hannay (Rupert Penry-Jones) is inexplicably strafed by a plane in the hills of Scotland. It's one of several action elements that have been added to this latest Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Buchan's book to keep it from becoming as dull as the previous attempt. We also get an escape accomplished by bomb blast, a shoot-out at a Scottish loch while a German submarine stands by, and a romantic fling with a suffragette.

The time is supposedly 1914 and you may find a few anachronisms in all this, not to mention cars from the 1920s being used. But it's all good clean fun, accomplished without straying too far from the book and, mercifully, without CGI special effects you might expect in a twenty-first century update of an original thriller. Even the addition of the love interest, the early feminist who may be something more than an innocent bystander (Lydia Leonard), brings much needed humour and romance to the otherwise earnest tale. Sure, the blond and buff Penry-Jones is impossibly good-looking as Buchan's supposedly nondescript, everyman hero and his Hannay is given a background to explain his skilled and resourceful dealing with police and espionage agents. But the film keeps things moving along quickly enough that you don't have time to question it. The only big credulity-straining lapse is at the end when...well, I won't give it away, but it's a doozy. � Eric The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan on BBC Radio corrections or additions?? Introduction Richard Hannay, the character created by John Buchan featured in 5 novels.

The Thirty Nine Steps was the first and most well known, Published in 1915. Hannay also featured in Greenmantle (1916); Mr Standfast (1919); The Three Hostages (1924) & The Island of Sheep (1936). For those unfamiliar with The Thirty Nine Steps. Richard Hannay returns from South Africa to the "old country" - but soon becomes bored, wishing he was back on the veldt that he's used to as a mining engineer. He is drawn into a very shadowy world of espionage - when a man living in his building (Scudder - who has just faked his own suicide) seeks refuge in Hannay's flat. Hannay listens to, and believes Scudder's incredible story and agree's to help him. He returns to the flat several days later to find Scudder murdered by his pursuers - and himself branded as a murderer and on the run from both the police and Scudder's adversaries, who rightly guessed that Hannay (who's fled to Scotland) now has the information and must be silenced.

BBC Radio The BBC first appear to have adapted The Thirty Nine Steps for radio in 1939, other productions of the story appeared in 1948, 1950, 1953, 1958, 1972. A reading of the book by Frank Duncan was issued by the BBC Transcription service. If anyone can enlighten me on early productions - please email me. The following are details of the two most recent BBC radio productions. Cover of the BBC Radio Collection issue of the David Rintoul version, which also featured a 90 minute production of the John Buchan story Witchwood. 1992 ISBN: 0563366680 Top Films There have been three film versions of the book to date, the acclaimed Alfred Hitchcock version from 1935 featuring Robert Donat, the 1959 version with Kenneth More as Hannay, and in 1978 Robert Powell played the role. Each of these versions changed aspects of the story.

Images of Richard Hannay Top Television Thames TV produced this period series in 1988 & 1989, Robert Powell returned to the role of Richard Hannay, in this series of self contained adventures. Gavin Richards also featured as Count von Schwabing. The format for the series was by Michael Robson, and it was produced by Robert Banks Stewart. The Three Hostages has twice been produced by the BBC. In 1952, Patrick Barr played Sir Richard Hannay in a "live" 6 part adaptation. A new production adapted in 85 minutes by John Preddle and directed by Clive Donner was broadcast on BBC1 on 27/12/1977. Barry Foster was Sir Richard Hannay. Audiobooks Two, I enjoyed. The Thirty Nine Steps - an unabridged reading by Robert Powell has been issued by Chivers Audio Books; on 4 cassettes.

ISBN: 0745158129 The Thirty Nine Steps - an abridged reading by James Fox was issue 14 in Orbis Publishing Ltd's; Talking Classics series on 2 CD's & 2 cassettes, around 1994. ISBN: 074890313/5 39 FACTS - The 39 Steps 39 FACTS NOW PAY ATTENTION! HERE ARE 39 DAZZLING AND IMPORTANT FACTS RELATING TO THE 39 STEPS 1 The 39 Steps was Peggy Ashcroft’s second film 2 Robert Donat was affectionately known as the Monte Cristo man 3 One of the film's major motifs is the confining, sexually-frustrating institution of marriage. 4 North by Northwest (1959) is widely considered Hitchcock’s "American Thirty-Nine Steps." 5 John Buchan’s official title was First Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield, Oxfordshire 6 Hitchcock’s film was remade twice both in the UK: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1959), d.

Ralph Thomas and The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978), d. Don Sharp 7 The 1978 version starred Robert Powell as Hannay 8 The 39 Steps is only one of Buchan’s several works that feature the character Richard Hannay 9 Madeleine Carroll from the Hitchcock film was the first in a notorious line of Hitchcock's female stars that later included Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren 10 At the old Wembley Stadium, 39 steps needed to be climbed to reach the Royal Box and collect a winner’s trophy 11 The 1959 version of The 39 Steps has by far the most location filming of any of the three versions of the movie.

Filming took place over a large portion of central Scotland albeit mostly in the Trossachs area 12 The 39 Steps was Hitchcock’s first film with a classic theme that he modelled repeatedly for the remainder of his career 13 Trains are a major theme in Hitchcock’s films: The Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train, Sabotage, North By Northwest and The 39 Steps 14 Hitchock was reported to say, “What interests me in the drama of being handcuffed” as one of the major themes of the film 15 There is no Mr Memory in the novel, but he is based on a real-life character 16 Hitchhcock’s birthday was the 13 August 17 Hitchcock was a mean practical joker. He handcuffed Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll together for their very first scene and then “lost” the key for over an hour 18 During World War One, Buchan worked for the British War Propaganda Bureau and as a war correspondent for The Times, before joining the Intelligence Corps in France.

It was during the first few months of the war that, whilst confined to a bed and recovering from illness, Buchan wrote his most famous novel, "The Thirty-Nine Steps", which was subsequently published in 1915 19 In the spring of 1915, Buchan became one of five journalists attached to the British Army, responsible for writing articles for both The Times and the Daily News 20 Buchan won the Victory Medal and the British War Medal 21 Patrick Barlow appeared in the Rolo television commercial where a honeymooning couple are travelling on a train with a love heart drawn on the carriage window in the condensation. There is one last Rolo left in the wrapper and they are both smiling at each other all lovey-dovey. They go through a tunnel, he looks at the sweet, not there! He looks at his wife who is chewing the last sweet innocently; he angrily wipes the love heart from the window.

He didn't love her enough to save her his last Rolo 22 Patrick Barlow was Bridget Jones’s mother’s love interest in the film Bridget Jones’s Diary 23 Barlow also starred in Notting Hill, and Shakespeare in Love as Will Kemp 24 Another leading role of Barlow was as Toad in The Wind in The Willows at the National Theatre 25 There are 686,000 entries with Patrick Barlow in them on Google 26 There are 1,480,000 for Alfred Hitchcock 27 The atomic number 39 is a silvery metallic element that is common in rare-earth minerals; used in magnesium and aluminium alloys - yttrium, Y 28 The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1571 given in English and Latin, the assent of which is still required of clergy in the Church of England forms the "authorised standard of doctrine" of the Anglican Church of Australia.

They form the basis of the Articles of the Episcopal Church of America and the Twenty-five Articles of the Methodist Church 29 39 is the sum of the 43rd & 44th digits of pi 30 The 39th day of the year is February 8th 31 There are 39 books in the Old Testament 32 The number thirty-nine, symbolizes understanding, thoughtfulness, meditation and mental superiority 33 The fastest train from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh is 4 hours and 19 minutes 34 The huge cantilever sections of the rail bridge spanning The Forth are one of the most familiar landmarks of Scotland. Completed in 1890, the bridge was constructed from 54,000 tonnes of steel, 194,000 tonnes of stone and concrete, and in excess of 21,000 tonnes of cement. This was the largest steel bridge in the world, using approximately 7,500,000 rivets produced by The Clyde Rivet Company.

Success was not without its casualties and, throughout the course of construction, 57 men lost their lives 35 Today the bridge, now a ‘listed structure’, still carries about 150 trains each day across The Forth, and has been regularly maintained over the years. An extensive five-year refurbishment programme was undertaken at the turn of the millennium, costing in excess of £40m, and employing somewhere between 150 and 300 men per day, six days a week. At an average height above the general water level of some 361ft (m). It used to be said that as soon as the painting team had reached the far side of the bridge, it was time to start over at the beginning 36 The Code 39 is a bar code broadly used in non-retail applications. It is a bar code that allows for alpha and numeric encodes, as well as some symbols 37 St David’s Cathedral in West Wales had 39 steps 38 Bryan Ferry recorded a version of Ira Gerswhin’s “The 39 Steps” 39 The 39 Steps - Show Reports - National Operatic and Dramatic Association Review Author: Michael L.

Avery I really did not know what to expect when I arrived at The Queen’s Hall for this production. I knew a professional production of the story had been touring in 2013. In fact, I saw it in Malvern where I found it to be a rollicking comedy drama based around the famous thriller, filmed three times to date, all very straight, featuring Robert Donat (1935), Kenneth More (1959) and Robert Powell (1978) plus a more recent television version starring Rupert Penry Jones. Alfred Hitchcock, apparently, junked most of John Buchan’s original novel for the first version and the films generally seem to have followed that version. The 39 Steps themselves seem to take on a different meaning with each production. Not to worry, The Queen’s Hall Theatre Club presented the same version I saw last year, adapted by Patrick Barlow from the Hitchcock scenario. That was something of a relief, as I suspect the original John Buchan version from 1915 might be somewhat old fashioned by now. The company had, however, accepted quite a challenge, taking on this version.

The basic story-line is quite straightforward/convoluted, involving a stout hearted English chap who finds himself drawn into a web of espionage and intrigue involving a lady dying across his lap, him taking a dangerous train journey to Scotland, an equally dangerous trip on foot across the Scottish moors and a denouement back in London, in a theatre. Much of the humour derives from the fact that all the characters are played by just five actors here (four in the professional version) who, by their actions, have to make the very static props and scenery take on a life of their own - and it works. The actors throw themselves into the action, occasionally involving them in outrageous characature. I think Benny Grace’s performance as a braw Scottish lady probably epitomises this but there is a lot of it, from everyone concerned, throughout the production. The actors all deserve a pat on the back. David Nixon played our hero, Richard Hannay, with a suitably stiff upper lip, pencil moustache and a straight face throughout. Peter Cook and Benny Grace play numerous silly ass Englishmen, spies and Scottish people. How their activities did not cause David Nixon to crack up is beyond me. The audience was very amused by them.

Lisa Berg played the femme fatale in two guises, Anabella (who dies in Mr Hannay’s lap early on) and Pamela who has to deal with a saucy scene involving them with wet clothing in a hotel room. She probably had the straightest parts in the play, after Hannay, both of which she carried off to good effect, especially when he had to slide off an armchair, under her corpse, which was suspended by the arms of his chair. Caroline Grace was another Scottish character, being a squinty eyed crofter’s wife, plus a showgirl in the final theatre scene. They all deserve praise for carrying off a quite difficult task which caused a great deal of amusement within the audience. This was my first visit to see The Queen’s Hall Theatre Club but, I hope, not my last. Search PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: The 39 Steps — Stitching Hitch Together | Playbill PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: The 39 Steps — Stitching Hitch Together By Harry Haun Jan 17, 2008 Flashlights streaked the cold, dark skies in front of the American Airlines Theatre Jan.

15, signaling the Broadway arrival of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps — in miniature on stage. Less is moronically more in this ragtag theatrical retelling of Hitch's unwieldy 1935 spy romp. In there, too, is a salute to the indomitable spirit of actors deliriously determined to approximate the impossible. That conceit won an Olivier for Best New Comedy of 2007. Patrick Barlow , who received this prize for adapting the play (from an equally demented original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon — and, lest you forget which is very easy to do since it tells an entirely different story, John Buchan's 1915 novel), gulped big-time to find his modest opus transplanted on the Main Stem. "No, I never envisioned Broadway," he said at the Marriott Marquis afterparty, shaking his head in bewilderment. "It's very hard for us Brits. All the Americans like it. When you're in the West End and you have American tourists, they all love it — it's a different thing to them. It's like coming into a foreign territory and watching the natives.

To come over here and do it — that's frightening." On new and shaky turf, the humor has been broadened for the Yanks, and he approves: "It's a much better theatre here — and a much bigger theatre so you have to fill it. "It started off at a tiny theatre in North London called The Tricycle. Normally, I do huge epics on a shoestring budget — the Zulu War or the Charles and Diana story or Wagner's Ring Cycle, in a half-hour with two people — very serious topics, done on a small scale." There have been three different sets of "The 39 Steps" on the screen. Robert Donat in 1935, Kenneth More in 1959, Robert Powell in 1978 — all had the same title, but the 39 steps were not always defined the same. Sometimes they were spies, sometimes actual steps. According to Barlow, his play version recycles virtually verbatim "about half, basically" of the original screenplay written by Charles Bennett, Ian Hay and Mrs. Hitchcock, Alma Reville — although Playbill's title page doesn't acknowledge the considerable contribution.

The big, overriding difference between the two presentations is the absurdly ambitious lengths to which Barlow and his director, Maria Aitken , will go to match the mediums. "We do exactly the same cut," director Aitken threw out for inspection, referring the film's classic piece of editing: On discovering Annabella Schmidt stabbed to death in the apartment of our hapless hero, Richard Hannay, his charwoman opens her mouth to scream, and the mouth suddenly turns into a railway tunnel as a train charges into it. "When she starts to scream, it's the train whistle, and smoke belches out of the wings, and everybody runs about in the smoke. Annabella — the body — gets up and pushes her own chair off, and within seconds we're in the train with Hannay and the two salesmen." Then she had to contend with the memory of Mr. Memory, the music-hall mentalist whose mind has the classified information that all the subversives are scampering after. "There are these wonderful sideway shots in the movie where he appears to be leaning across the frame.

We do that with the actual actor." Indeed, Cliff Saunders plays the part at a Pisa-like tilt, rocking side to side like some schmo on the beach. "I used to do it much bigger, and it got a bigger kind of laugh," the actor allowed. "That was the way we did it in Boston, but, when we came here, we tried to tap into the characters a little more. I like it now when people actually get a little choked up when Mr. Memory does his last scene." In a cast of four, Saunders is listed first in the Playbill cast listing as "Man #1," followed by Arnie Burton in the role of "Man #2." In truth, these two comprise a menagerie of multi-tasking — a pair of perpetually whirling dervishes who keep the lunacy at full gallop. "I've never counted," claimed Burton, "but supposedly there are 155 parts, so I'd say that I do 75 roles, something like that. That's including a bog, a river, a brook, all inanimate objects. I play four different characters in one scene, and then I have a scene with myself.

"It's so much fun — and I know everyone says that on opening nights — but it truly is. I love old movies so I get to do some old movie-acting and do it with three incredible people." Still not counting, Burton figured that he has seen the Hitch flick "like, 20-something times. I watched it a lot for the auditions, and then, once we were in rehearsal, I would periodically watch it. And, y'know, I still put it on, just to look at a scene or something." Burton got his acting chops in stock. For years, he was one of the gems at the Pearl Theatre Company, along with John Rando , who subsequently became the Tony-winning director of Urinetown . "I was just talking to John. He came to see the show the other night, and he said, 'We should go back and do something at the Pearl together.' So we may just do that, I dunno. He told me, 'Think of a play.'" Well . . . Scapino, anyone? One thing he really doesn't count is his first outing on Broadway.

"I took over in the last Amadeus ," Burton said, "doing valets and small parts, and I understudied Mozart" (Michael Sheen). Like the whole cast, he considers The 39 Steps his first on Broadway. With the Canadian-born Saunders, a Broadway debut was a conscious choice. "When I chose to do this, I'd been offered something else — a movie — and it was a very tough decision because I wanted to work with the director, but it was one of those things where I thought, 'Well, I've done movies and a lot of theatre, but I'd never done Broadway.' I think every actor has that curiosity. Not to put Broadway as a notch on a belt, but I gotta say, it's a lovely experience. New York has been very kind to me. I'm very glad I did it." A brunette, Jennifer Ferrin , was asked by Aitken to fill the shoes of the first of the "Hitchcock blondes," the mesmerizing Madeleine Carroll. "I was shocked [Aitken] cast me," Ferrin admitted, "but I was grateful to get to work with her.

She's so brilliant and caring." For Charles Edwards , who originated the Hannay role in London, a Broadway debut is the light at the end of a very long tunnel. "It feels wonderful, primarily because I've been involved with this from the beginning. Somewhere in 2006, we started. It was a show before that, but Maria hired me when she started. She saw me do Hay Fever at the Haymarket with Judi Dench . For a while, I was rehearsing by day and acting at night." Edwards logged up lots of 39 Steps himself in preparing for the Brit-twit who passed for hero in the generation before 007, but he was ever-mindful of The Aitken edict: Don't Do Donat. "More than watching him, I watched the whole genre of that kind of film acting," Edwards explained. "That's what I was trying to know. I didn't want to do a Robert Donat take-off per se. I wanted to try and take off on that era of film histrionics." He still counts himself a fan. "Hugely — 'Goodbye, Mr.

Chips,' all that, even when I was a kid." Director Aitken also had a prior appreciation of Donat. "His modernity is what I liked so much. You know how acting dates so quickly? Donat is giving a performance that would pass mustard now. His voice is a caress that sorta shades constantly into irony. He just does that so lightly. We, of course, have to take those qualities and make them bigger." A sizable galaxy of stars in attendance on opening night was upstaged and outglittered by the director herself. She moved with effortless grace through the evening as if she hadn't a worry in the world, dressed in a handsome, Orientally designed mandarin jacket. One might suspect an homage to Donat — who wore a similar get-up in his final film, 1958's "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" — but no: "It's not in the catalogue," she demurred. "I'm wearing my dead relative's jewelry, my grandmother's frock and a coat." It was nice way of saying she wanted to have her loved ones with her on her first big night on Broadway.

The loved one beside her most of the night, in vaguely rumpled tweed, was indeed a Writer — her husband. "When I was teaching drama at Yale," she recalled, "someone sent me comfort packages of novels. One week he sent me the entire works — which wasn't very much in those days — of Patrick McGrath. I rang my friend, who's a literary agent, and said, 'This guy's fantastic. Why have I not noticed him? He's obviously English.' And he said, ‘Well, he lives here. And would you like to meet him tonight because I'm having dinner with him?' So I leapt on the train, and I married him six weeks later." McGrath, whose latest book, "Trauma," was just published by Random House, has had two novels turned into movies — "Spider" by David Cronenberg in 2002 with Ralph Fiennes, and "Asylum" by David MacKenzie in 2005 with Natasha Richardson .

Aitken backslid and took a role in "Asylum." Until she started directing full time a decade ago, she was one of the West End's best reviewed and best regarded character actresses, with a specialty in Noel Coward comedies. She recently directed his 1924 Easy Virtue in Chichester and will start rehearsing a West End revival of it in August that will star Natasha Richardson.

(The movie version of Easy Virtue, it is ironic to note, was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1927; a remake of it is in the works for Jennifer Biel.) First-nighters included a raft of Tony winners: Bill Irwin , Audra McDonald (with her 110 in the Shade director, Lonny Price ), lyricist Lisa Lampert (drowsily chaperoned by Bob Martin), directors-choreographers Kathleen Marshall and Tommy Tune (the latter was off with the patrol at dawn to The Windy City to see for the first time the Goodman Theatre which will launch its season in the fall with his Turn of the Century, written by "the boys" of Jersey Boys , Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice ), lyricist David Zippel (who just had his great song, "Another Mister Right Left," summarily nailed by Teri Ralston at The Metropolitan Room), Blythe Danner and, relatively fresh from Mauritius, Katie Finneran on the arm of Peter Coyote (who's narrating Ken Burns' new 12-hour documentary series on the national parks).

Others present: Malcolm Gets, dance legend Jacques d'Amboise, director Mark Wing-Davey (readying Brett C. Leonard's Unconditional for a LAByrinth launching at The Public), Alison Fraser (off to St. Martin's on Thursday for some quality R&R before beginning the LuPone Gypsy on Broadway), Craig Lucas , director Mark Brokaw , The Overwhelming author J.T. Rogers and set designer John Lee Beatty . Caroline McCormick, waiting for hubby Byron Jennings to finish his prize-winning mustache-twirling in Is He Dead?, made intermission chit-chat with Old Acquaintance Margaret Colin and Broadway's first Mrs. Potts, Beth Fowler. The latter said that she was bound for Steel Magnolias at the Paper Mill Playhouse with Kelly Bishop and that she was spending this week workshopping a musical version of Please Don't Eat the Daisies, which is based more on the Jean Kerr book than the Doris Day movie; Kaitlin Hopkins and Gregg Edelman are playing Day and David Niven to her Spring Byington.

Colin said her TV show, "Gossip Girl," has been picked up and will resume New York filming as soon as the writers strike is settled ("I play the evil Eleanor, one of the neglected moms," she trilled happily, and it sure sounds like License To Kill from here). Playwright Stephen Karam and director Jason Moore were there, representing Speech and Debate, their sleeper hit in the bowels of the Laura Pels Theatre. Moore's Avenue Q is doing 85 percent capacity in its fifth year (!) and made a big step forward with his third project by shrewdly signing up Spamalot Tony nominee Christopher Sieber for a stretch in Shrek. Joel Vig, late of Hairspray and now of cabaret, said his sold-out show ten days ago at The Metropolitan Room is prompting a second Vig gig there. Film prof Dr. Richard Brown weighed in just in case an expert witness was needed for The 39 Steps. The expert really on the 39 Steps case was there: dialogue coach Stephen Gabis.

Simon Jones, whose recorded voice opens The 39 Steps with some plummy cautionary words about cellphones and such, was otherwise on vocal rest after a robust The Actors Company Theatre/TACT reading of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution over the weekend, but he'll be up and at 'em Jan. 21 for The Gingold Group's monthly reading of GBS at The Players Club. The next Shaw show will Geneva, with Carole Shelley and George S. Irving. "I've been reading about you," Roundabout's Todd Haimes said in passing to Jones' wife, Nancy, referring to Michael Palin's "Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years." It seems she is the publicist who put that Monty crew on the map in America. Another keeping-up-with-the-Joneses tidbit: This was the day their 18-year-old, Tim, left the nest. He was immediately replaced with a 55-foot television screen, which may help . . . The cast of The 39 Steps takes its opening night bows.

(Photo by Aubrey Reuben) Today’s Most Popular News: The 39 Steps: Special Edition [Blu-ray]: Amazon.co.uk: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucy Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle, John Laurie, Peggy Ashcroft, Frank Cellier, Helen Haye, Miles Malleson, Gus McNaughton, Peggy Simpson, Hilda Trevelyan, John Turnbull, Jerry Verno, Wylie Watson, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Balcon: DVD & Blu-ray Â£5.99 & FREE Delivery in the UK on orders dispatched by Amazon over Â£20. Details In stock. Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available. Special Offers and Product Promotions Enjoy Â£1.00 credit to spend on movies or TV on Amazon Video when you purchase a DVD or Blu-ray offered by Amazon.co.uk. A maximum of 1 credit per customer applies. UK customers only. Offer ends at 23:59 GMT on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 Here's how (terms and conditions apply) Note: Blu-ray discs are in a high definition format and need to be played on a Blu-ray player.

Frequently Bought Together Product Description Product Description Alfred Hitchcock's most celebrated British thriller, adapted from John Buchan's novel. Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) becomes the victim of mistaken identity when a female corpse is dumped in his flat by a spy ring. He tries to track down the true murderers whilst being pursued by the police, and hooks up with an unwilling accomplice (Madeleine Carroll). Their adventure eventually leads them to a music hall, where the secret of the 39 steps is revealed. Also included is the documentary 'Hitchcock - The Early Years'. From Amazon.co.uk A high point of Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood career, 1935's The Thirty-Nine Steps is the first and best of three film versions of John Buchan's rather stiff novel . Robert Donat plays Richard Hannay, who becomes embroiled in a plot to steal military secrets. He finds himself on the run; falsely accused of murder, while also pursuing the dastardly web of spies alluded to in the title. With a plot whose twists and turns match the hilly Scottish terrain in which much of the film is set, The Thirty-Nine Steps combines a breezy suavity with a palpable psychological tension.

Hitchcock was already a master at conveying such tension through his cinematic methods, rather than relying just on situation or dialogue. Sometimes his ways of bringing the best out of his actors brought the worst out in himself. If the scene in which Donat is handcuffed to co-star Madeline Carroll has a certain edge, for instance, that's perhaps because the director mischievously cuffed them together in a rehearsal, then left them attached for a whole afternoon, pretending to have lost the key. The movie also introduces Hitchcock's favoured plot device, the "McGuffin" (here, the military secret), the unexplained device or "non-point" on which the movie turns. --David Stubbs --This text refers to the DVD edition. "39 Steps to Create a Comedy; It's the 39 Steps but Not as the Author Intended.

DAVID WHETSTONE Talks to Richard Ede, Star of an Admired Spoof" - The Journal (Newcastle, England), May 7, 2013 | Online Research Library: Questia Read preview Article excerpt IN the Theatre Royal brochure it is billed as "the world's favourite comedy" and probably this would have puzzled John Buchan, author of The 39 Steps. His adventure yarn first appeared in serial form in a magazine but came out as a book in October 1915. Buchan, a Scot, wrote it when he was in bed recovering from an ulcer. He described The 39 Steps as his first "shocker", meaning an adventure whose events seem highly unlikely. But in retrospect they were plausible enough. The book is set in 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War, when Europe was supposedly crawling with spies. The novel was the first to feature Buchan's famous hero, Richard Hannay - or Major General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour. Returning to London from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Hannay is plunged straight into a fast-moving, mysterious and highly dangerous train of events.

Hannay is said to have been based on a real-life soldier, Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside, who, as a young man after the Boer War and before being elevated to the top brass, spent time spying on German colonial forces in South West Africa. Buchan's escapist novel was hugely popular, particularly with soldiers bogged down on the Western Front. Alfred Hitchcock made it into a film in 1935 and it was filmed again in 1959, 1978 and 2008. Hannay was played, respectively, by Robert Donat, Kenneth More, Robert Powell and Rupert Penry-Jones - upper lips suitably starched in every case. On stage in Newcastle this week it's Richard Ede filling the (no doubt beautifully made) Hannay shoes. And an actor whose past roles include the voice of Narky the Aardvark in adverts for a caravan park company will be hoping we laugh. This, you see, is not John Buchan's The 39 Steps but an adaptation by Patrick Barlow whose comedic alter ego is Desmond Olivier Dingle, founder of the two-man National Theatre of Brent.

His telling of the Buchan tale has been a smash in the West End. It won Best New Comedy at the Olivier Awards and is "dizzyingly entertaining" and "uproariously jolly", depending on which critic you read. … Subscribe to Questia and enjoy: Full access to this article and over 10 million more from academic journals, magazines, and newspapers Over 83,000 books Access to powerful writing and research tools Article details Subscribe to Questia and enjoy: Full access to this article and over 10 million more from academic journals, magazines, and newspapers Over 83,000 books Access to powerful writing and research tools Article details

Question: What character has been played by Robert Donat in 1935, Kenneth More in 1959 and Robert Powell in 1978?
Answer: Richard Hannay