En Londres, un hombre intenta ayudar a un agente de contraespionaje. Cuando matan a dicho agente, el hombre es acusado y tiene que huir para salvarse y detener un círculo de espías que busca... Leer todoEn Londres, un hombre intenta ayudar a un agente de contraespionaje. Cuando matan a dicho agente, el hombre es acusado y tiene que huir para salvarse y detener un círculo de espías que busca información de alto secreto.En Londres, un hombre intenta ayudar a un agente de contraespionaje. Cuando matan a dicho agente, el hombre es acusado y tiene que huir para salvarse y detener un círculo de espías que busca información de alto secreto.
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
- Premios
- 3 premios ganados y 1 nominación en total
- Commercial Traveller
- (as Gus Mac Naughton)
- Political Meeting Chairman
- (sin créditos)
- Second Passerby Near the Bus
- (sin créditos)
- Minor Role
- (sin créditos)
- Police Sergeant
- (sin créditos)
- Palladium Doorman
- (sin créditos)
- Fake Police Officer
- (sin créditos)
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Todo el elenco y el equipo
- Producción, taquilla y más en IMDbPro
Resumen
Opiniones destacadas
There is no director in the history of the cinema who liked a good chase film better than Alfred Hitchcock. This one's a beauty with a wrongly accused of murder Robert Donat, running from London to Scotland and back again to find some spies to clear his name. Along the way Donat picks up a lovely and first unwilling traveling companion in Madeleine Carroll who is arguably the first of his blonde heroines.
Donat and Ronald Colman rivaled for roles somewhat, they seem always to be cast as the same type of characters. Of course Donat worked primarily in the UK and on stage while Colman was strictly a movie actor since the silent days. Colman is the only other guy who could have done this and other Donat parts. It's a pity there are none like either of these guys around today.
When Geoffrey Tearle thinks he's disposed of Donat by shooting him, Donat's life got saved by a hymn book in his breast pocket. Whether that was a device in the original novel by John Buchan or something Alfred Hitchcock improvised the inspiration for it was definitely taken from the attempted assassination of former President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. While running for president on the Progressive ticket that year, Roosevelt was shot in the chest in Milwaukee. What saved his life was a copy of his speech and an eyeglass case in his breast pocket.
The whole thing here is how the espionage is being carried out and I won't reveal it. But if you've seen Torn Curtain remember why Paul Newman was the only guy they could send on that espionage mission.
This is probably Hitchcock's best film from his pre-Hollywood period and shouldn't be missed.
However if you are a more discerning moviegoer who values a great script, exquisite understated acting, wit, humour and intelligence, and you are willing to overlook the technically rough bits (come on, this was 1935, you cannot measure it by 2005 standards !!) - then enjoy, because you are in for a treat.
Robert Donat is one of the most charming heroes that ever graced the screen, and but for his frail health and loathing of the Hollywood pzazz (he later refused some great movie parts offered to him, which eventually went to the likes of Erroll Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks Jr) he might have become one of the greatest. Watch the dinner scene with the crofters, in which he manages to convey his plight to the wife entirely without words. Great acting. Also the wickedly funny bravura piece at the political rally.
Madeleine Carroll must be among the coolest and feistiest of Hitchcock's favoured blondes, not as insipid or irrelevant as many of the others were. She is a veritable icicle and it takes a long time for her to thaw, but then watch the sparks fly.
I feel a little sad for the people who cannot be bothered to check out this movie because of the tinny sound or the b&w photography. Forget about those superficialities and concentrate on the real values - the script, the acting, the lighting, photography and camera work -, just allow yourself to get carried away with the fast paced action, and you'll love it.
Over a span of four days, the smart and unflappable protagonist, Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) is involved in a circular journey to prove his innocence and expose the hive of intrigue. He is involved in chases and romantic interludes that take him from London to the Scottish Highlands and back again and he assumes numerous identities on the way - a milkman, an auto mechanic, a honeymooner, a political speaker among others.
The opening of the film, the first three shorts do not show him above his neck. With his back to the camera, he is followed down the aisle to his seat. He is then assumed to be lost in the crowd. This gives the audience the feeling that he could be anybody. Later when he takes in the identities of a milkman, a mechanic, a politician one realizes that he is Hitchcock's archetypal 'everyman' who unwittingly finds himself in incredible dilemmas.
In one of the brilliantly managed sequences on the train, Richard Hannay throws himself at a lone girl and forces a kiss just as a detective and two policemen pass by their compartment. It reveals his desperation to remain free until he can prove his innocence. In the scene after Annabella staggers into his room with a kitchen knife in her back, Hannay sees her ghostly image (which is superimposed) talking to him, `What you are laughing at right now is true. These men will stop at nothing.' The double exposure achieves a result which is a tad chilling and sad. The hallmark of Hitchcock's style is his ability to completely shock his audience by deliberately playing against how they would be thinking. In such episodes as the murder of the woman in Hannay's apartment or when the vicious professor with the missing finger casually shoots Hannay, the action progresses almost nonchalantly leaving the viewers stunned.
A great story, interesting and likeable characters, slyly incongruous wit, classic Hitchcockian motifs and a great MacGuffin are just a few things that make the The 39 Steps the quintessential Hitchcock.
This is one of several movies on Hitchcock's theme of the unjustly accused man. In a nicely-crafted sequence at the beginning, Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), a Canadian visiting London, is caught up in a spy plot and suspected in a murder, and he spends the rest of the film trying to evade both the police and the actual killers. The settings include a London music hall, a train, the Scottish moors, a political meeting, and several others that add to the exciting story. For much of the action, Hannay is entangled with a skeptical blonde played by Madeleine Carroll, and the two have good chemistry in a running verbal battle. There are also several entertaining minor characters that add wit and interest, especially the music hall performer "Mr. Memory".
It all moves quickly and holds together well, resulting in great entertainment that will be enjoyed by anyone who likes classic thrillers.
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaBefore filming the scene where Hannay (Robert Donat) and Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) run through the countryside, Sir Alfred Hitchcock handcuffed them together and pretended for several hours to have lost the key in order to put them in the right frame of mind for such a situation.
- ErroresThe serial number of the autogyro has been reversed, showing that the stock shot has been reversed for effect.
- Citas
Richard Hannay: I know what it is to feel lonely and helpless and to have the whole world against me, and those are things that no men or women ought to feel.
- ConexionesEdited into Everything Is Thunder (1936)
Selecciones populares
Detalles
- Fecha de lanzamiento
- País de origen
- Sitio oficial
- Idioma
- También se conoce como
- Los 39 escalones
- Locaciones de filmación
- Glen Coe, Highland, Escocia, Reino Unido(Hannay arrives at Professor Jordan's home)
- Productora
- Ver más créditos de la compañía en IMDbPro
Taquilla
- Presupuesto
- GBP 50,000 (estimado)
- Total a nivel mundial
- USD 54,096
- Tiempo de ejecución1 hora 26 minutos
- Color
- Relación de aspecto
- 1.37 : 1