The 39 Steps

This movie was recommended to me by an old friend as one of his favorites. It's a movie I had never heard of, and if I hadn't heard about it from Chris it probably never would have come to my notice. I've seen the more well-known Hitchcock movies (Psycho, North by Northwest, and Vertigo), among others, but have never even really looked at the entire list of movies he directed until now--and I see a few more I'd like to watch. But back to this movie.

*SPOILER* I like that I did not guess that Mr. Memory's memory was to be the method of transporting the sensitive data out of the country. Looking back, I feel I should have known to attach some significance to his presence in the movie, but I suppose at the time I just assumed it was a way to establish that Hannay (played by Robert Donat) was Canadian (though I'm not sure now why that matters) and, more importantly, a way for Hannay to meet Annabella. But I always enjoy it when a movie keeps me guessing.

I found it to be an annoying plothole that the assassins were able to enter Hannay's apartment and stab Annabella in the back without waking (or killing) Hannay, especially as Hannay did not seem at all worried that the intruders could still be in his apartment. I guess it shouldn't be very surprising that any assassin worth his salt could pull this off without detection, and I suppose the fact that they left Hannay alive could be explained by the idea that, by leaving a dead woman in his apartment and thus framing him for murder, they both get Hannay out of their way and cover their own tracks. However, that still leaves the problem of Hannay being completely unconcerned that a killer could still be in his apartment. Plus... if you were an assassin and you didn't know how much information your mark had passed on to the man in whose apartment she was staying, wouldn't you kill him too, just in case? Oh well. It was still a fun movie to watch.

It was funny to notice what must have been really risqué back in 1935--in this movie they showed a woman's brassiere (no woman in it, of course) which I can imagine causing quite a scandal 74 years ago.

By the way, *I* know what causes pip in poultry.