39 Steps

Pros: Intelligent, suspenseful script; atmospheric cinematography; strong performances; stellar DVD transfers for the best products

Cons: If you're not careful, you can get stuck with inferior prints for this film

The Bottom Line: Hitchcock's top pre-Hollywood film and one of the best films of the thirties. Don't hesitate to check it out just because of its age. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Review: Oooooo! I love this film. Clever. Mysterious. Subtly romantic. What's not to like? This was the best of Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood films (though T he Lady Vanishes is a close second). With the latest DVD prints, ...

Pros: Everything!

Cons: Madeleine Carroll was old enough to be my grandmother... Who knew... Sigh!

The Bottom Line: The 39-Steps is a masterpiece. It works on every level. It is a quirky romance; it is a brilliant comedy; but most of all, it is edge-of-your seat suspense.

Review: Every time I go to a theater in the West End, I expect a beautiful woman with a sexy accent to demand to go home with me. So far, no luck... ...

Pros: Donat and Carroll, Hitchcock's early seeds of genius, a movie before it's time

Cons: Tame by today's standards, Lousy sound quality, rapid quipping often inaudible

The Bottom Line: This is an interesting movie that shows the beginnings of the Hitchcock genre. It is fun to watch, although the quality of the sound brings it down a notch.

Review: Alfred Hitchcock's earlier movies show that he was far from a late bloomer in creating mystery and suspense, heavily laced with folksy humor. There is only one genre that really applies, unique to the genius that was Hitchcock. Because if Hitchcock...

Pros: Robert Donat, action, cinematography, black humor

Cons: Dated, plot holes, cheesy special effects

The Bottom Line: A very good cliffhanger that shows the inventiveness of the fiendishly clever brain of Alfred Hitchcock.

Review: The 39 Steps (1935) Alfred Hitchcock started his career in London making films for companies like British International Pictures, first in silent, and then in talkie formats. His visual knack that worked well in the silent films carried over and made ...

Pros: Robert Donat, Madeline Carroll, Charles Bennett's script

Cons: almost nothing

The Bottom Line: Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful adaptation of John Buchanan’s The 39 Steps truly stands the test of time as one of the director’s most stimulating spy-thrillers

Review: British film director Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps is a significant piece of cinema history for several reasons. It is generally considered to be his first spy-chase suspense-thriller, a genre he would return to, successfully, time and again ...

Pros: Hitchcock, Donat, Carroll, magnificent Scotland

Cons: Occasionally abrupt continuity

Review: Why do most people today automatically associate movies of the Thirties and Forties with boredom in black-and-white? Although most films were indeed on black-and-white prints, one needs only to watch a showing of Alexander Korda's Four Feathers...

Pros: Exciting story, good actors, believable characters, masterful direction

Cons: Sound is poor by today's standards.

The Bottom Line: If you've enjoyed other Hitchcock movies, this one is not to be missed.

Review: Robert Donat stars as visiting Canadian who gets embroiled in a British espionage plot in this 1935 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This was one of the last films that Hitchcock made in England before bringing his talents to the United States four ...

Pros: action, direction, script

Cons: familiar story and characters

Review: Which film directed by Alfred Hitchcock has a plot having an innocent man accused of murder? One might as well ask in what Hitchcock film does he make a cameo appearance!

Before 1935, Hitchcock had already made three 'wrong man' films: The...

Pros: Handsome stars, a nice intrigue plot, dated acting was still present, but a good film.

Cons: Clever and double catches were not present in these plots, but still fun.

The Bottom Line: Hitchcock buffs will find this a solid effort at early film, and like the mystery afoot!, but this is not your modern intrigue! Silly scenes abound.

Review: Intrigue 1935 The 39 Steps is my 39th epinion review ... and now the mystery starts, of course with a killing and spies -- oh my! Though Hitchcock liked his film Young and Innocent the best of his early British films, I can't see why this did ...

Pros: some quick, clever dialogue, fast-paced story, suspense

Cons: how many coincidences can one story take?

The Bottom Line: Don't read the novel then expect the film to be anything like it.

Review: I'll confess my terrible sin. While I expect to be derided and perhaps poked with sharp sticks, my only defense shall be, "I was young, yea, and foolish."

For verily, I read the book The 39 Steps, by John Buchan, after I saw the film...