The 39 Steps (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

This is the film in which Hitchcock stepped forth in command of all his talent in his new guise as the master of suspense. It had been preceded by “The Man Who Knew Too Much” but though that film was good it was still rough in places and lacked most of the Hitchcock touches which are all over “The 39 Steps”. It was a quantum jump forward and he would never look back.The film is fast paced and doesn’t let up for its short duration as it puts its everyman protagonist, Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), on a harrowing journey in which he must elude pursuers, adopting a number of brief disguises along the way. He must not only prove his innocence of a murder but also prevent a lethal spy ring from smuggling Air Ministry secrets out of the country. It’s fast paced and full of twists and turns and never let up for a moment.The theme of an innocent man leading a private life being inadvertently thrown into harrowing circumstances that demand his utmost cleverness and perseverance became a consistent Hitchcock trope, reaching its peak in “North by Northwest”. There are also constant issues of trust and betrayal, another common theme of the director. In “The Man Who Knew Too Much” the woman was a nice mother, but here for the first time we have the more typical Hitchcock woman, Pamela, a beautiful, remote, unattached blonde (Madeleine Carroll). The chief villain is also intelligent, suave and polite. Some of the most dramatic scenes take place in or on well known British icons like the Firth Bridge and the London Palladium. Hitchcock is everywhere in this film.Though it’s a suspense thriller it’s full of Hitchcock’s droll comic touches. In a very clever scene, Hannay, closely pursued by enemy agents, finds himself forced to give a speech to introduce a political candidate he’s never heard of and whose name he mispronounces. While speaking he says, “I know what it is to be lonely and helpless and have the whole world against me” which encapsulates his current predicament. He travels for a while in a train compartment with two women’s undergarment salesmen who blithely chatter and joke about their trade while he is just realizing the depth of his troubles in a moment noting how the world blithely goes on in its ordinary way while his is falling apart.There are so many wonderful visual touches: The shadows and light through the windows in Hannay’s recently rented apartment where the furniture is still covered by drop cloths; the claustrophobic train aisle and the way the dining car waiter almost drops his tray several times; the way Hannay looks so small in front of a vast Tudor window, and so many more images.Gaumont pictures spent a considerable sum on this film and deliberately hired Donat and Carroll because they were known outside of Britain, particularly in America. They work wonderfully well together.Though not budget busters, supporting players are excellent as well. The Scottish farmer’s wife is a young Peggy Ashcroft, who conveys much while saying little.The mysterious woman Hannay meets at the music hall speaks with a German accent and was played by Lucie Mannheim, a popular German actress who had recently fled the Nazis. (Though the nationality of the enemy is never names it’s broadly hinted to be Nazi Germany). Wylie Watson seems like he could have been a real “Mr. Memory” type. The budget also shows in the crowd scenes, especially in the opening music hall sequence with “Mr. Memory” and the final scene in the Palladium.Though the plot has a few issues as plots in these kinds of films often do, one simply ignores them when the movie is this good. There is still one apparently big issue for parts of the audience and that is that some people simply have problems with films from the early thirties. This is understandable. When seeing films of this period you have to realize that many technical parts of film making were still being developed. Talking films were still rather new. The sound is thin and tinny and there is little to no background music . The black and white film was high contrast, lacking the more subtle grey shades that made later black and white films look more smooth and glossy. Editing can be a bit abrupt, though this film contains a brilliant edit where a scream fades into a train whistle. Amazon’s streamed version looks terrific.So do expect that the technology is over eighty years old and make a mental adjustment. Then sit back and enjoy an absolutely smashing film.EXTRA NOTE: “Mr. Memory” was based on an actual British entertainer, “Datas, the Memory Man” (William Bottle) who Hitchcock had remembered from his youth.

A wonderful piece featuring an all-around suspenseful plot that leaves not one character development unexplained.

I have seen the Laserlight version. While I found it to be fairly acceptable considering the low cost, if you are a Hitchcock fan Criterion is the only way to go. The Criterion presentation is hard to fault; considering the age of the film, the image is clear and the sound is always intelligible. Plus I believe the Laserlight version is missing a few minutes, running about 83 minutes as opposed to the 86 minute Criterion.The movie, after all these decades, remains very entertaining. The humor, particularly, holds up surprisingly well. This is in large part to a fantastic performance by Robert Donat. Much has been said about the movie, so rather than reiterate a similar appraisal I'll move on to discuss more reasons why the Criterion version is superior (besides the great picture and audio).There are four main supplements included. The two best are actually vintage pieces, which is somewhat surprising for a 1935 film. The 1937 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast is presented in its entirety, including a commercial break and interview with a retired U.S. spy. This radio adaptation is very entertaining, and also interesting in the ways it compromises for the lack of picture. It runs for just shy of a full hour. Criterion was thoughtful enough to include a handful of still photos of the cast members that occasionally show up on-screen as the radio show plays.The second most interesting piece is a text-based feature, and one of the best of its kind that I've seen. The original pressbook is presented page-by-page. This in itself is useful if you're at all interested in the evolution of movie promotion, as this pressbook is sort of like a newspaper- very different from the pressbooks of today. What makes this a great feature is the ability to highlight and enlarge much of the content on each page; you can get a better look at the vintage photos, as well as read the full text of many articles about the film's stars, about Hitchcock, and many anecdotes about the making of the film.Marian Keene, a Hitchcock scholar, provides audio commentary for the length of the feature. It's not the greatest commentary of all time, but it's very worthwhile. She talks in detail about the compositions of the shots, explaining why the film was visually groundbreaking for its time. She also seems to find phallic symbols in most of the scenes. The downside of her commentary is a tendancy to merely tell us what we're already looking at, or what we're about to look at. But regardless, I felt my appreciation of the movie was increased after listening.The least useful of the main supplements is an approximately 30 minute documentary that originally aired on TV in the '70s. Basically it consists of film clips from a variety of late 20s and early 30s Hitchcock film, mixed with a few still photos, and narrated by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. If you keep in mind that there was no home video in the 1970s, it is easy to see why this program would be valuable for its time. Most of the public had no way of seeing these old films. But now that they are widely available, it makes more sense to just watch the films themselves. In fact, this documentary will spoil the films if you haven't already seen them- many important plot points and twists are revealed. Still, its a passable overview of Hitchcock's early career.Lastly, there are a handful of stills featuring original production art. These is actually more valuable than the documentary, since they pertain directly to "The 39 Steps."Criterion really did a great job with this release. If you're serious about collecting Hitchcock on DVD, spring for this version. If you just want to see the movie without dropping thirty bucks, the Laserlight disc isn't the worst thing out there (plus its got one of those great Tony Curtis intros! I'm not kidding, those intros are the best thing about the bargain-basement Laserlight series.)