malcolmgsw In the seventies I was offered a job in the Rank Films legal department,but luckily I turned it down,as their proposed programme of film production was short lived.After all you can only sustain production programme so long by making remakes.Whilst a competent film in itself it is not a patch on the Hitchcock classic.The Big Ben finale looks so phoney with the process workGive me Mr Memory anytime

Robert J. Maxwell It's quite different from Alfred Hitchcock's 1930s version. The emphasis here is on spying and preventing the assassination of a Greek diplomat in 1914. The Balkans must hold together to give Britain time to prepare for the inevitable war. And it's complicated. Uncovering the villain and the villainous plot is not a simple matter of running into some guy with a bit of his finger missing. The plot is a tangled knot of fake identities and a confusion that results in both the police and the scurrilous assassins chasing Robert Powell (as Hannay) around Scotland and London.I'm not sure any of the versions I've seen follow the novel very closely. It's been years since I've read the book but I do recall that somewhere along the way Hannay had to take a job as a ditch digger. No such vulgar passage here.The novel aside, Hitchcock's version is an improvement over this one in many ways. The incident in which Robert Donat as Hannay spends the night in the home of a stingy, jealous farmer with a sympathetic wife is almost a short movie in itself, both suspenseful and dramatic. "Do ye eat the herring?" Nothing like that here.On the other hand, this is pretty tense on its own. Hannay escapes from a stalled train by climbing under a bridge, only it's not over the Forth of Firth. Nice shots of Hannay as a distant figure on the Scottish hills, running for his life, his long black coat flapping, while two marksmen try to bring him down.And the exciting climax would have suited Hitchcock to a T. A bomb that will destroy the Greek diplomat and the rest of Parliament with him is set to go off at 11:45. Hannay and the police must stop this from happening by defanging the explosive device then clambering out onto the face of Big Ben and wrestling with the mammoth minute hand. Someone falls to his death. Hitch would have loved it but this version is still well enough done to generate a lot of apprehension.

ultron77 It is said that it is hard for a remake to reach the level of its original counterpart, but this film is the rare exception. It reaches the level of the 1935 Hitchcock film and vastly surpasses it. Instead of the restricting in-studio black and white shots, this film offers the realm of colour and the expansive location shooting of the Scotland hills.Set in 1914 before World War 1, Thirty Nine Steps follows the story of Richard Hannay (Richard Powell) on the run from London after being framed for the murder of a spy (Sir John Mills), and being pursued across the Scottish landscape by both the police and the real murderers, led by the scheming villain, Edmund Appleton (David Warner).Appleton plans to assassinate someone of great importance at a certain time back in London,and it is up to Hannay to interpret the clues the murdered spy has left behind, evade his hunters, and return to England. This leads to one of the most fantastic climaxes the cinema has ever seen.

neilnewt cinematography, acting and pace outstanding. Better than the Hitchcock original (and I thought it was superb also). Where can I obtain a DVD or VHS? John Buchan's novel is tweaked a bit to bring the plot to a more contemporary milieu as opposed to a prior to the Great War time, but the excitement of the chase and the quick witted competence of the Renaissance man Richard Hannay (as played by Richard Powell) stands up well to the many action heroes of present day cinema (Bruce Willis, Matt Damon, the new James Bond, etc.). Also, one of the best performances by David Warner I have seen - truly sinister! Hitchcock actually thought Buchan's "Greenmantle" was a better novel, but it has never been produced. I wish Bevis, Clarke and Smith would produce a sequel!!!!