The 39 Steps (1935)

Hitchcock’s career begins to gain momentum with this amazingly paced thriller the essence of which would shine in the rest of his filmography, particularly “North by Northwest” and “The Man who Knew too Much”. The script is tight and brilliantly structured, with a plot that slowly unravels, revealing the typical grandeur we’ve come to love from Hitchcock’s brand of suspense. It’s lathered in old-timey attitudes and quirks, and I don’t mean of the political sort, but rather the gentlemanly attitude and the hilarious disregard for the law, like an an Inn keeper kicking out the police mid-investigation for having a drink. Black and white film is stunning. I swear some thirties movies are more aesthetically pleasing than much of modern cinema. The 39 Steps frame the Scottish Highlands beautiful in a mood, almost horror movie, noir style. This matched with the constant police and agent presence all the more cold. Though I don’t think it was intended, this feels like an anti-capital punishment film. It looms over like a musk over the whole picture like fog over a graveyard. The romance is stilted and of the time, but it retains a desperate quality which makes you somewhat uncertain to how it might play out. A genuinely unpredictable chemistry, that although takes up less than a third of the runtime, is oddly gripping. I also like how small the symbol of hope is at the end. They simply hold hands after all the madness is over. The supporting cast, especially the other female characters, play interesting roles. There’s this rich ‘world building’ where we find ourselves running into realistic and strange scenarios which, almost like a dream, seem to add subtext into the action. For example, after one character helps our hero escape we have a moment of fear for her as she pays the consequences at the hands of her deranged husband. Another instance with the way wives are shown to get the short end of the stick makes me think there’s a theme of commitment here and whether it is worth keeping. In the safe relationships couples are frustrated (e.g. the milkman) but when they are conflicted and ‘at risk’ they’re strong. Whether that was intended, I don’t know, but Bravo Hitchcock!