Hope everyone had a good Canada day! Today’s Sunday Matinee is Alfred Hitchcock’s brilliant masterpiece from 1935 The 39 Steps.
The movie sets up and features several themes that Hitchcock would use through many of his movies to come. The macguffin, the wrong man falsely accussed on the run, the blonde love interest and much more.
Canadian Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) is at a live theatre watching Mr. Memory answer questions from the audience when shots are fired and chaos ensues. Hannay meets Annabella Smith (Lucie Mannheim) who takes him to her place. Tells him she is a spy and that people are trying to kill her.
The bad guys have information that they are trying to smuggle out of the country. She tells Hannay that the head bad guy is missing a finger and that all this has something to do with something called the 39 steps.
Before he finds out more from Smith she is killed and Hannay goes on the run from the killers and the police who think he killed Smith. On the way to clear his name and figure out what the 39 steps are he runs into Pamela (Madeleine Carroll).
I love The 39 Steps. It’s fast, intense, thrilling and I love the conclusion. It’s a fantastic movie and one of Hitchcock’s best.
