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Created Nov 09, 2009 10:21PM PST • Edited May 31, 2016 07:36PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   Delightful and gripping, this early Hitchcock gem became the model for fugitive hero thrillers ever since. Terrifically entertaining – albeit dated in dialog, edginess and production values – The 39 Steps is a must see for anyone interested in the original hero-on-the-run-from-the-good-and-bad-guys movie.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   Robert Donat plays the innocent fugitive with intrepid grace and good humor, never flustered, often with a twinkle in his eye. His impromptu speech in front of a political meeting is as deft as tongue-in-cheek acting gets.

   Madeleine Carroll is terrific: smart, arch, sexy. The first of Hitchcock’s icy blonds, her stellar performance in The 39 Steps led to America, where she became the highest paid actress in Hollywood.

   To get Donat and Caroll suitably into their roles, Hitch handcuffed them together on the set and pretended for several hours to have lost the key. What a stitch that Hitch.

   Two members of the large supporting cast stand out.

   • Prolific character actor John Laurie’s dour farmer suspects something between his young wife and a handsome visitor. Laurie’s a study in paranoia as his eyes dart back and forth between the two during a laughably tense dinner.
   • Godfrey Tearle easily inhabits the patrician Professor Jordan, a man used to controlling everyone and everything around him.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Economical story telling: 2 gun shot victims, 1 bread knife stabbing, 2 memorable kisses, 1 train escape, 1 perfect scene when a kidnapped woman realizes the hero has been telling the truth, 1 hilarious endorsement speech, 1 accusation of adultery, 1 whistled tune, and 1 Mr. Memory.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

    Hitch never delivers a surprise without first setting it up. For instance, the hero ostentatiously exits and reenters the exterior door to his train cabin while stopped at Edinburgh station. Shortly thereafter he uses these unusual cabin doors to make his escape, a thrilling but now believable stunt. Another example: The hero carries a large bread knife from the kitchen into the next room, making this future murder weapon familiar to the audience.

    Hitch also turns the trite into the humorous when a charwoman discovers a murder victim, opens her mouth to scream, and Hitch cuts immediately to the getaway train entering a tunnel, whistle blaring. Whistle where we expected scream: No movie fan can avoid smiling at that one.

12. Play Great 4.0

    While Hitch isn’t credited as a writer, it was likely his idea to goose the sex appeal from the original story. For instance, the spy who gets stabbed in the book is a man, not a beautiful woman. Nor is the novel’s fugitive hero accompanied by another beautiful woman when he spends the night in a Scottish inn.

    Much of the spoken dialog is hard for contemporary American ears to understand. However, it’s always clear what the upshot is.

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    Film is a pallet – not a literal representation of reality – for an artist like Hitchcock. He’s not quite in Orson Welles territory, but close.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.6

    Gorgeous gams and a knife between the shoulder blades deliver all the edge this classic thriller needs.

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Fierce 1.7

19. Rudeness Polite 1.5

21. Reality

    Glib 1.5

    The movie has recently been adapted into a hilarious stage production, where four actors play all 139 roles. It’s worth seeking out if you’re near Broadway or the West End. Interestingly, the play is 100 minutes long, whereas the movie is an ultra-tight 86 minutes.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.5

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0