WATCH NOW
“Understatement would be saying that contemporary escapist entertainment traces back to ‘The 39 Steps,’” said Robert Towne, the screenwriter of “Chinatown,” who noted this of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller dating back to 1935, which has now been re-released by Criterion.
Hitchcock used source material from John Buchan (an author he liked) and created a recipe for the perfect blend of action and thriller. The plot places a heroic albeit slightly dimwitted and friendly explorer into the turbulent waters of spy fiction. Our hero is pulled down to an extent in which the public believes he has committed acts of murder or treason, only for him to redeem himself and the nation when the need arises. In this scenario, the hero is Richard Hannay, a Canadian in London when a beautiful spy (Lucie Mannheim) is murdered by an espionage group in his flat. Insert Robert Donat portraying Hannay. He now goes on a journey to Scotland where he tries to find the lead to the spy network and evade the police who think he is the murderer.
The plot, as rough as it may be, has been remade over thirty-nine times. Hitchcock himself had the pleasure of doing it in ‘North By Northwest’ while doing the rounds in Hollywood. (Robert Donat’s chase scene with the autogiro precedes Cary Grant’s murderous crop duster attack.) Above all, parading as a popular entertainer on TV and the public’s obsession with him has made Hitchcock’s addiction to this formula understandable it charges helpless heroes and audiences into persecution and redemption fantasies where enemy agents and the police pursue them relentlessly. It does not permit the spectators any chance to ponder, Oh, this is so brimful of paranoia. Moreover, it enables a clever director like Hitchcock to evoke patriotic sentiments without the uncritical ultra-nationalism that would infuriate more judicious viewers.
Still, Hitchcock’s most original invention in “The 39 Steps” lies in the erotic. As Hannay escapes London in the Flying Scotsman, he kisses a blonde with spectacles (Madeleine Carroll) to deceive the policeman that is stationed in the corridor of the train. (By the way, Carroll is the first of Hitchcock’s great cool beauties, and when she takes off her glasses the effect is as electric as Dorothy Malone’s in ‘The Big Sleep’.) Hannay expects her to believe he is a gentleman as if she had actually drank from the fountain of truth. But he has miscalculated. And in what can only be described as Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Hannay’s freedom now depends on him being handcuffed to this icy, doubt-filled blonde. Their courtship peculiar in the typical odd couple way is a more sensual rendition of tough love: the cuffs require them to spend time together and try each other’s strength.
After watching the movie again and seeing how fresh and new it was for its time, I gave Towne a call to get his thoughts on why he considered it the father of modern-day escapism. I managed to catch him right before he was on his way to London to work on a screenplay about the Battle of Britain.
“I think it’s interesting,” he said. “Because most ‘pure’ movie thrillers, especially when you think of Hitchcock, are either fantasies consummated or stressors expurgated. ‘The 39 Steps’ is, if not the only one, one of the few films that accomplishes both simultaneously. He puts you into this extreme level of anxiety when a murder is committed. And you’re shackled to a beautiful girl whilst trying to save your country. What’s even more surreal is that you’re also trying to escape all sorts of dangers and wish to come to a turbulence-free life. Where’s the turbulence? You actually start living in a world where both ‘Psycho’ exists and you are the hero, and where ‘The 39 Steps’ is the aftermath. It’s kind of a great trick, really.”
In 2000, Towne produced his own adaptation of “The 39 Steps.” In Hitchcock’s approach, Hannay becomes famous immediately after the media informs the public that a murder has taken place in his apartment. In the film “Towne” he functions as a celebrity from the start. “Imagine a movie actor that has a horrible reputation. Only one comes to my mind: Mel Gibson. I had the murder happen while he was on Australia playing a movie.”
So he is an actor who is infamous in his own right, and he is finally engaging in the same manner as in the old movie. This is something that is somewhat more complex than usual: the posters for the star’s new movie can very well serve as wanted posters. And when this Hannay learns about, “the thirty-nine steps,” he imagines it is some sort of drug rehabilitation program.
Towne expected that Rick Hannay’s outback ramblings would evoke the same shrewd yet gallant, rugged spirit Hitchcock discovered in Donat’s Richard Hannay on the Scottish moors. There was talk of getting Towne to mount it in 2006 but he now says it will not be done and so does everyone else. As ample consolation, we still have “The 39 Steps” of 1935, which is an evergreen film directly fulfilling the writer, John Buchan’s romantic adventure, “That which effects the mind with a sense of wonder, the surprises of life, fighting against odds, the weak confounding the strong, beauty and courage flowering in unlikely places.”
To watch more movies like The 39 Steps (1959) visit 123movies
Also Watch for more movies like:
