The 39 Steps

Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Robert Donat	Richard Hannay/Mr. Hammond/Capt. Fraser/Henry Hopkinson
Madeleine Carroll	Pamela/Mrs. Henry Hopkinson
Lucie Mannheim	Miss Annabella Smith
Godfrey Tearle	Professor Jordan
Peggy Ashcroft	Margaret, crofter's wife
John Laurie	John, crofter
Helen Haye	Mrs. Louisa Jordan
Frank Cellier	Sheriff Watson
Wylie Watson	Mr. Memory
Gus McNaughton	Commercial Traveller on Flying Scotsman (as Gus MacNaughton)

Director	Alfred Hitchcock
Producer	Michael Balcon; Ivor Montagu
Writer	John Buchan; Charles Bennett

A man in London tries to help a counterespionage agent, and is soon finding himself in one jam after another.

Hitchcock's first great romantic thriller is a prime example of the MacGuffin principle in action. Robert Donat is Richard Hannay, an affable Canadian tourist in London who becomes embroiled in a deadly conspiracy when a mysterious spy winds up murdered in Hannay's rented flat--and both the police and a secret organization wind up hot on his trail. With only a seemingly meaningless phrase ("the 39 steps"), a small Scottish town circled on a map, and a criminal mastermind identified by a missing finger as clues, quick-witted Hannay eludes police and spies alike as he works his way across the countryside to reveal the mystery and clear his name. At one point he finds himself making his escape manacled to blonde beauty Pamela (Madeleine Carroll), whose initial antagonism is smoothed by Hannay's charm and the sheer rush of her thrilling chase. It's classic Hitchcock all the way, a seemingly effortless balance of romance and adventure set against a picturesque landscape populated by eccentrics and social-register smoothies, none of whom is what he or she appears to be. Hitchcock would play similar games of innocents plunged into deadly conspiracies, most delightfully in North by Northwest, but in this breezy 1935 classic, Hitch proves that, as in any quest, the object of the search isn't nearly as satisfying as the journey. --Sean Axmaker