Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 4-April-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The 39 Steps (1935)

The simple plot of Alfred Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps" involves a Canadian man in England who becomes embroiled in international intrigue after unwittingly befriending a spy. On the run for a murder he didn't commit, the man follows the only lead he has to Scotland, where he manages to avoid capture and hook up with a pretty woman en route to clearing his name. So, like other films from Hitchcock's early period, "The 39 Steps" centers around an innocent bystander caught up in the affairs of a Europe on the brink of major upheaval. But if three remakes are any indication (including one presently in the works), the picture has its own unique charms as well.

The most interesting thing about "The 39 Steps" is the relative anonymity of its characters. Oftentimes, a lack of information about the protagonist and the people he meets weakens a movie, but in this case it serves to engage the viewer in an unusual way. We never know what the unfortunate Canadian (played by Robert Donat) does in London, or what sort of friends and pursuits he has, or what motivates him to allow the spy, a woman he has never met, to follow him home after a vaudeville show. (Nor do we know why she chooses to confide in him.) As a fugitive for most of the film, he never stays in one place or with one person for very long, so the other characters are defined to a small degree and only by their dealings with him. This makes for a movie whose focus is general, not personal; it chiefly concerns the way in which people respond to the needs of strangers, i.e., the interactions and connections that define a society at its most basic level.

However, Hitchcock was always interested in what makes people tick, so even in a film with broad significance he makes sure his characters don't go unnoticed. For his part, Donat demands attention with wit, intelligence, and an open nature (not to mention eye liner that doesn't quit after days on the lam), and Madeleine Carroll gives a spunky performance as the romantic interest who almost condemns him out of conventional mistrust. But the most striking characters in "The 39 Steps" are those whose brief moments on screen speak volumes about hidden natures and personal tragedies. In the most memorable scene of the film, Donat takes refuge in the rustic home of a puritanical farmer and his young wife, the latter of whom risks what little peace she has to help him. In addition, the character who holds the key to the international mystery and Donat's freedom suggests a fascinating study in eccentricity and manipulation.

"The 39 Steps" doesn't contain any major surprises and appears to have a few holes (although I can't decide whether these are the result of choppy editing or my modern expectation that everything will be explicated for me). Yet its odyssey-cum-espionage flavor and overarching theme about the bonds that unite humankind make it a remarkable and entertaining diversion.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.