The 39 Steps [1978] [DVD]

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Passing the Torch: As he is dying from a stab wound at St. Pancreas Station, Scudder gives Hannay a vital clue as to where he has hidden the notebook that carries all the information he found on the assassins. Colonel Scudder (John Mills) is a British spy who has uncovered a plot to assassinate the Greek premier on his visit to London, something that will spark a crisis in the Balkans and likely lead to war in Europe. When he finds himself pursued by enemy agents determined to kill him and take possession of his evidence against them, Scudder seeks sanctuary in the apartment of a neighbour in his building, Richard Hannay (Robert Powell). The 39 Steps was the sixth most popular film at the British box office in 1959. [21] According to Kinematograph Weekly the film performed "better than average" at the British box office in 1959. [22] Critical [ edit ]

The old films suffer technically against today's. The pace of modern films is much faster. The style of acting is different. Those old actors were marvelous, but if you consult the man in the street, he's more interested in seeing a current artist than someone who's been dead for years. [2]Powell said "If we had tried to use Buchan's book literally we would not have had a film at all. For one thing it's thoroughly anti-Semitic and no one would get away with that." [3] The question is: for the seven million people who watched it, did it feel authentic, did it create a sense of period? ...We were creating a realistic world within a world– a world of damsels and heroes and a huge amount of excitement. That, for me, is the priority. Did it create that world? It absolutely did. That's not to say that we don't work increasingly hard to get everything right. But it's hard to get all the details right when it's a 21st century drama, never mind anything earlier. [16] Broadcast [ edit ] Davies, David Stuart, afterword to Buchan, John, The Thirty-Nine Steps (Collector's Library, 2008) ISBN 978-1-905716-44-9, p. 148

Pettigrew, Terence, British film character actors: great names and memorable moments, Volume 1982, Part 2 (Rowman & Littlefield, 1982), ISBN 978-0-7153-8270-7 p. 28 Hanks, Robert (29 December 2008). "The Weekend's Television - The 39 Steps, Sun BBC1/ Caught in a Trap, Boxing Day ITV1". The Independent. London . Retrieved 1 January 2009.Nigel Richardson (4 April 2009). "Fifty of Britain's best-kept secrets". The Telegraph . Retrieved 8 April 2012. The casting of Finnish actress and dancer Taina Elg, meanwhile, was unpopular with contemporary critics, who felt her performance to be unconvincing, feeling that "her beauty is frozen by the uncertainties of ignorance, if not of neuroticism". [12] Other players were largely character actors with long associations with Pinewood Studios and producer Betty E. Box. [5] [13] Producer Greg Smith said he wanted to make the film because he had always been a fan of John Buchan's books and wanted to do a version of The Thirty-Nine Steps which was "true to the period in which the novel was set, just prior to the Great War, when Europe was one huge powderkeg and nobody knew what a world war was." [1]

Not His Sled: Unlike in the novel, the mysterious phrase "the 39 steps" refers to a staircase in St Stephen's Tower, leading to where the assassins have placed their bomb.Part of the appeal was the cars, I'm a bit of a buff... And I said– jokingly, of course– that I wouldn't be in The 39 Steps unless the action included the famous chase scene in which Hannay is pursued by a biplane. I've always wanted to be chased by a plane like Cary Grant in the movie North by Northwest and I was just delighted when it happened in our version of Steps. [8] Locations [ edit ] The main gate at Stirling Castle, one of the locations used for the production and the setting for a pivotal scene.

A 2013, Scottish developer The Story Mechanics used the Unity game engine to create The 39 Steps, a digital adaptation. [44] [45] Interactive fiction [ edit ] Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 302. Interior filming took place primarily at Pinewood Studios, with extensive location filming in Scotland, including North and South Queensferry, Dunblane, Balquhidder, Altskeith and at the Falls of Dochart in Killin, as well as other parts of Stirling and Perthshire such as Brig o' Turk and its 1930s wooden tearoom, which featured as "the Gallows" inn . [16] [17] The film also includes a large section at Waverley Station and at Princes Street Station, Edinburgh, on the Forth Bridge and on board a train hauled by an ex-LNER Class A4. [18] The cinematography was by Ernest Steward, and it was filmed in Eastmancolor. [15] Music [ edit ] Filming took place on location in Scotland. [2] Locations used included the area around West Register Street in Edinburgh for the London scenes at the start of the film, Bo'ness railway station, [9] Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum for the interior scenes of St Pancras railway station, [10] Glasgow City Chambers, Culross, Stirling Castle, [11] Dumbarton Castle, [12] the highlands of Argyll and Loch Katrine, used for the finale. [7] [13] Filming [ edit ] The Scottish author, a future Governor-General of Canada, was recuperating from a duodenal ulcer at a house in Broadstairs where a nearby set of steps, set into the cliff, runs down from the garden to the beach. These are thought to have inspired the title, which in the book refers to the steps down to a quay where the villains' vessel, Ariadne, is waiting to speed them away.

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Would You Believe an Industry Could Die?". Sunday Times. London, England. 15 June 1980. p.63 – via The Sunday Times Digital Archive. During the journey, he has a chance encounter with Miss Fisher ( Taina Elg), a netball coach at a boarding school for girls. He is forced to pretend they are lovers to avoid the police detectives who boarded at Edinburgh. However, Miss Fisher gives him away and Hannay jumps from the stationary train on the Forth Bridge. Oxford, Nadia (30 April 2013). "The 39 Steps Review". Gamezebo. Archived from the original on 3 May 2013 . Retrieved 2 September 2013. Sir Walter accepts the bulk of Hannay's story but doubts that Karolides' life is in danger. An urgent government phone call, however, informs him that Karolides is already dead. The two men travel to London, where Sir Walter is to host a high-level official meeting at his city townhouse. Hannay, now cleared of the Portland Place murder, is left to his own devices, but a general feeling of unease prompts him to call at Sir Walter's house. He arrives just in time to see the First Sea Lord leaving; their eyes briefly meet, and Hannay recognizes him as one of the spies in disguise. Hannay breaks into the meeting, but by the time the deception is confirmed the man has long gone, taking with him the naval secrets he has just learned. a b c Harper, Sue, Women in British cinema: mad, bad, and dangerous to know (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000) ISBN 978-0-8264-4733-3 p. 160