The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps is a masterclass in propulsive narrative cinema that even today's so-called blockbuster auteurs should study.

The scene in which Mr Memory is asked at the London Palladium "What are the 39 Steps?" remains one of 20th-century cinema's most gripping moments.

The Thirty-Nine Steps neatly converts its essential implausihility into an asset by stressing the difficulties which confront its hero when he tries to tell outsiders about the predicament he is in.

In Hitchcock's hands, however, this well-known espionage adventure provided the basis for a new sort of thriller and a new sort of comedy.

It's melodrama and at times far-fetched and improbable, but the story twists and spins artfully from one high-powered sequence to another while the entertainment holds like steel cable from start to finish.

Hitchcock at his very best.

... an effortless balance of romance and adventure set against a picaresque landscape populated by eccentrics and social register smoothies, none of whom what they appear to be.

From an absolutely dull adventure story -- The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan -- Hitchcock has drawn a good film. He has invented episodes. He has inserted wittiness and mischievousness where the original contained only heroism.

[Hitchcock] tells the story clearly and convincingly and the wildly melodramatic moments are in part offset by such well observed sequences as the Scottish political meeting, the Forth Bridge episode, and the discreetly managed scene in the inn bedroom.

A noteworthy example of Hitchcock's early thrillers, riddled with plotting, backstabbing, clever twists, and the big reveal of the meaning behind the title.