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The 39 Steps
Sign in to saveAlso known as 39 Steps, The Thirty-nine Steps, Thirty-nine Steps, The Thirty Nine Steps
1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock
OverviewAI-generated
The 39 Steps is a 1935 British black-and-white film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The cast includes Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, and Godfrey Tearle. Based on a work by John Buchan, the film was written by Charles Bennett, Alma Reville, John Hay Beith, and John Buchan. Michael Balcon served as producer, with Bernard Knowles as director of photography and Charles Williams as composer. Produced by Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, the film was distributed by the same company and Netflix.
The narrative is set in Scotland, with filming taking place in Edinburgh. The film runs for 86 minutes and is classified as a spy, mystery, crime, and drama film. It received a Metascore of 93 and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 96%. On IMDb, it holds a rating of 7.6 based on 66,264 votes, while TMDb lists a vote average of 7.331 from 1,049 votes. The film has won three awards and received one nomination.
Synthesized by Vinony from 47 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.3Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.
Cast
- Robert Donat as Richard Hannay
- Madeleine Carroll as Pamela
- Lucie Mannheim as Annabella Smith
- Godfrey Tearle as Professor Jordan
- Peggy Ashcroft as The Crofter's Wife Margaret
- John Laurie as John the Crofter
Themes
- london, england
- based on novel or book
- scotland
- falsely accused
- scotland yard
- secret agent
- film noir
- murder
- fugitive
- on the run
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
7.6/10
65,037 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
96%
Metacritic
93/100
- Year
- 1935
- Runtime
- 86 min
- Genres
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Rated
- Approved
- Awards
- 3 wins & 1 nomination total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Screenplay by
- Charles Bennett Ian Hay
- Based on
- The Thirty-Nine Steps , 1915 novel, by John Buchan
- Produced by
- Michael Balcon
- Starring
- Robert Donat Madeleine Carroll Lucie Mannheim Godfrey Tearle
- Cinematography
- Bernard Knowles
- Edited by
- Derek N. Twist
- Music by
- Louis Levy Jack Beaver (uncredited)
- Production company
- Gaumont-British Picture Corporation
- Distributed by
- Gaumont British Distributors
- Release date
- 6 June 1935 ( 1935-06-06 ) (London)
- Running time
- 86 minutes
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Budget
- £50,000
via Wikipedia infobox
~17 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The 39 Steps is a 1935 British spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. It is loosely based on the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It concerns a Canadian civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organisation of spies called "The 39 Steps" from stealing British military secrets. Mistakenly accused of the murder of a counter-espionage agent, Hannay goes on the run to Scotland and becomes tangled up with an attractive woman, Pamela, while hoping to stop the spy ring and clear his name.
Since its release, the film has been widely acknowledged as a classic. The film maker and actor Orson Welles referred to it as a "masterpiece". The screenwriter Robert Towne remarked, "It's not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps."
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The 39 Steps” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.