The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

I think this is the second Hitchcock film I’ve seen (after Birds) and I’m very happy with my experience. Interestingly, I noticed that the act of film itself is often referenced (maybe I’ve been watching too much Godard!), such as at the beginning when Robert Hannay (Robert Donat) asks Annabella if she’s an actress and she says no. Hitchcock is truly the ‘master of suspense’ − I got that just from watching two of his films. It’s amazing how without music (until Pamela realises Hannay’s innocent), Hitchcock manages to build up such tension and excitement. The audience is at an advantage and it’s like you know what the character is feeling and have a sense of what could happen but are never sure until it does. Although there were plenty of excellent surprises. I was just travelling along, getting into the characters, when suddenly the man Hannay believes is on his side, reveals that he has a little finger − that was an “Oh my gosh” moment for me. It was just fabulously done − everything just crashed around me. 

It was an interesting plot about a secret agent, Annabella, who is stabbed at Hannay’s house and as he runs away and is suspected of her murder, he tries to find the person she was looking for, to prevent the secret of The 39 Steps from being revealed. (The 39 Steps turns out to be the name of a group of secret agents). But it’s a great story about an innocent man forced to act as if he is guilty, never knowing who to trust (and often trusting the wrong people). It is both a thriller, as well as a comedy − I doubted this classification labelled on the DVD at first but as the film progressed it all made sense. Some amusing moments, such as physical comedy when Hannay’s escaping with Pamela in handcuffs and they sort of run into the fence (with Pamela going under and Hannay trying to go over). Also, I really liked the scene when they are staying in a Scottish motel and are chained to each other but try to hide it from the motel owners. The motel owner walks out and tells her husband, the young couple are so “in love with each other”, and then we suddenly cut to Hannay and Pamela arguing, trying to break apart. That was a very clever use of juxtaposition of shots, simple but effective. The same goes for when Hannay (still handcuffed) asks Pamela, “can I be of any assistance?” when she tries to take off her stockings, and ends up holding a sandwich for her, after stroking her leg (as his hand was joined to hers). Robert Donat was very entertaining − he just had this simple delivery that was so honest but very light-hearted, particularly when he was sarcastically talking about his life as a murderer, though Pamela believes he is. I really liked his performance, the actor seemed really familiar and quite a charming character − I’m definitely going to look at some of his other films.

After reading articles, such as Laura Mulvey’s "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", which talks about feminism and the role of women in films (she focuses on Hitchcock as one of her examples), I can see how this film would relate to some of her arguments − even though it was made in the 1930s, before the article and before any real notions of feminism gained momentum. Interestingly, Hitchcock decides to insert the female character of Annabella, though there is no female in the novel. However, the fact she gets killed off in the beginning of the film was quite unexpected for me. There is a close call when Hannay is shot but survives thanks to a book in his jacket. Also, the humour present when Hannay asks the milkman if he can borrow his clothes to sneak out of his apartment kind of suggests a certain view of females: first he honestly tells the man about the dead woman in his room and the spies waiting outside to which the milkman is clearly not convinced. However, when Hannay rattles off some tale about having an affair with a married woman and the two men outside were her brother and husband, the milkman instantly laughs and offers his clothes, as if to say that is an acceptable act. (I have to say that scene with the two men waiting in the street outside Hannay’s apartment were really freaky, very well done because there was definitely an eerie and unsafe mood set up.

I absolutely love the fact that one of the special features is a PDF copy of the script for the film (looks like the original scanned). Maybe next time I watch this, I will follow with the script because it is just a concrete piece of film before its conception. The other special feature I really liked was the “On Location” segment with Robert Powell, who looked at some of the places the film (plus the two other films of similar names, made later on) was filmed. I think I will look into this program because it’s a great little piece of trivia wonderful for film buffs who want to get that little bit extra about their favourite films. (For instance, he points out how Hitchcock used trains often in his films, which I’m going to try and spot next time I watch one of his films).
So, like I said, after a satisfying first experience, I’m definitely looking forward to watching more of Hitchcock’s work.

4/5