The 39 Steps (1935)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cinematographer: Bernard Knowles


Very loosely based on the 1915 adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan, the film is about an everyman civilian in London, Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), who becomes caught up in preventing an organisation of spies called the 39 Steps from stealing British military secrets. After being mistakenly accused of the murder of a counter-espionage agent, Hannay goes on the run to Scotland with an attractive woman in the hopes of stopping the spy ring and clearing his name. Much more than just entertaining escapism, The 39 Steps is a complex and effective spy thriller that’s arguably the best of Hitchcock’s films made in England and called a masterpiece by Orson Welles.

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Buy or Rent (watch online)
Special Edition (DVD)
Classic Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much / The 39 Steps / The Lady Vanishes / Foreign Correspondent: The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]
Alfred Hitchcock: Collector’s Edition – Thirty-Nine Steps / The Lady Vanishes / The Man Who Knew Too Much / Sabotage (DVD)
Alfred Hitchcock Classics Double Feature: 39 Steps – Young & Innocent (DVD)

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Lists:

• • No. 331 on The Pendragon Society’s 1000 Greatest Films of All-Time (2019)
  • Listed among The Telegraph’s 75 best British films ever made (2019)

CAST

• Robert Donat as Richard Hannay
• Madeleine Carroll as Pamela
• Lucie Mannheim as Annabella Smith
• Godfrey Tearle as Professor Jordan
• Peggy Ashcroft as Margaret, the crofter’s wife
• John Laurie as John, the crofter
• Helen Haye as Mrs. Louisa Jordan, the professor’s wife
• Frank Cellier as Sheriff Watson
• Wylie Watson as Mr. Memory
• Gus McNaughton as Commercial Traveller
• Jerry Verno as Commercial Traveller
• Peggy Simpson as Maid
• Matthew Boulton as Fake Policeman
• Frederick Piper as Milkman (uncredited)
• Ivor Barnard as Political Meeting Chairman (uncredited)

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Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by Michael Balcon
Screenplay by Charles Bennett, Ian Hay
Music by Louis Levy, Jack Beaver (uncredited)
Cinematography Bernard Knowles
Edited by Derek N. Twist
Running time 86 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English