The 39 Steps (1935)

First of all, I am very happy to join the team and make Armageddon Blows a trio of hip and cool movie reviewers for our tens of... ten readers to enjoy. With my brother Nick's recent lull in activity, Brian wanted some variety in this site's reviews and extended an invitation my way. I love movies, like to write, and am a movie review junkie, so naturally I accepted the invite. Who knows, maybe Armageddon Blows will be the launchpad to the future "Roeper & Adams at the Movies." (Ebert has to retire, or die, sometime. Right?) Now on to my first review.

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Going into "The 39 Steps," I really didn't know much about it other than it being a Hitchcock. But it is an early British Hitchcock which I am not as familiar with compared to his later American films. I also remembered being interested in 10th grade English class because it was Holden Caulfield's little sister's favorite movie in The Catcher in the Rye (she memorized every line of dialogue). So "The 39 Steps" is a Hitchcock and is featured in one of my favorite books, so I figured it must be great. I was right in my assumption.

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The movie features an innocent man named Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) who gets himself wrapped up in murder and espionage merely by chance. He's on the run from the police for a murder he didn't commit and from spies looking for a secret he knows little about. Hannay escapes numerous perils on his way from London to Scotland and back to London without most of the people he encounters trusting him. He even manages to get handcuffed to the woman who trusts him the least.

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Robert Donat is excellent as a man who is stuck in trouble way over his head, but is still smart enough and has enough wit to keep himself alive and out of custody. Looking at Donat, you can see a desperate and scared man in Hannay who still has the confidence to believe he'll find a way out and entertain (it is a movie after all). But "The 39 Steps" is also very funny despite being a suspense thriller. There are many times in which Hannay finds himself in humerous situations: spending the night with a creepy Scottish farmer, sharing a coach with two underwear salesmen, and a mistaken identity forcing him to give a political speech. Plus, the dialogue while he is handcuffed to a terrified Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) is nearly perfect. At just under 90 minutes, this film is fast paced and jam packed with many twists and turns that always keep you guessing, but always make sense - including an odd little savant that Hitchcock brilliantly brings full circle. So don't be alarmed by a 1930s movie; it's as fun and entertaining as any modern thriller. I highly recommend it.

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GREAT MOVIE: 4 out of 5 stars (just to let you know, I tend to give few fives out)

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Hopefully I can soon contribute more to Armageddon Blows.