Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by Michael Balcon & Ivor Montagu (both uncredited)
Written by John Buchan (novel) & Charles Bennett (adaptation) & Ian Hay (dialogue)
Starring Robert Donat
Madeleine Carroll
Lucie Mannheim
Godfrey Tearle
Music by Charles Williams
Cinematography Bernard Knowles
Editing by Derek N. Twist
Distributed by Gaumont British
Release date June 1935 (UK)
August 1 (US)
Running time 86 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
The 39 Steps was perhaps the first film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in which he gained American attention. It is a fast paced spy suspense story which features one of Hitchcock’s favourite themes, that of a man who has been wrongly accused of committing a crime, in this case murder. There is another element used here that Hitchcock would use to greater effect later by using of a famous landmark, here it is Scotland’s Forth Bridge, as the background for the action. Hitchcock had done this type of thing in 1929 with the climax on the dome of the British Museum in Blackmail, and he would do it again in North By Northwest by using Mount Rushmore. It must be said that here the Forth Bridge doesn’t play such a large part in the 39 Steps as the monuments in the other two films I mentioned, but it is still here.
The film is very exciting and quite enjoyable.
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