The 39 Steps [1978] [DVD]

Product Information

Stars filmed at Loch Katrine for BBC Drama, The 39 Steps". Scottish Water. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011 . Retrieved 31 December 2008. At the railway station, just seconds before he can reach Hannay, Scudder is murdered by the agents. With his dying breath he gives Hannay a message he doesn't understand. Hannay is mistaken by witnesses at the railway station as being the assailant and is arrested but is soon captured by the Prussians while being transferred to jail. During their interrogation of Hannay, they ask what he knows of the "Thirty Nine Steps". The Prussians allow him to escape in the hope he will lead them to the secret notebook. At St Pancras, Hannay manages to find Scudder's second notebook, but this turns out to be a dummy, with only a three-word riddle in it. Only Hannay can understand the riddle, which sends him to Scotland to find the real notebook. Hannay flees to Scotland on a train, but he is forced to make a daredevil escape on a bridge when the police board. The adaptation was originally planned to be broadcast on BBC One on Boxing Day, [4] but was later moved to a Sunday night slot on 28 December. It was simulcast in high-definition on BBC HD. a b c Bell, Matthew (10 December 2008). "TX: The 39 Steps". Broadcast . Retrieved 31 December 2008.

The Thirty-Nine Steps first edition dustwrapper". Johnbuchansociety.co.uk. 19 October 1915. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013 . Retrieved 12 October 2013. Production [ edit ] Hannay (Powell) hanging from Big Ben during the film's denouement. The scene was a departure from Buchan's novel, but was added because the Houses of Parliament represented the centre of British power in 1914.

Together by the loch, Hannay and Victoria kiss before she is hit by a bullet fired by a surviving gunman, falls into the loch and disappears. The story concludes four months later, after the start of World War I, when Hannay, in an army officer's uniform, is waiting to meet someone at St Pancras railway station. Harry appears, saying that Victoria wanted to say goodbye, and Hannay sees her in the distance. Harry tells him, "top secret, old man." Victoria disappears behind a luggage trolley and Harry tells Hannay that she will see him after the war. The Thirty-Nine Steps is a 1978 thriller film directed by Don Sharp and starring Robert Powell. It is adapted from the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. a b c d e f g h i Judy Klemesrud (27 April 1980). "A New Film Version of 'The 39 Steps': Opening This Week". New York Times. p.D8. Film is absolutely right for this project. It has scale, big exterior locations and that's something that still challenges HD.... The HD cameras available to us on our budget are still vulnerable in difficult weather conditions [encountered during filming]. There's no doubt that what we've got on 35mm is just so much more detailed. It has so much more depth of field and richness than we could have got on HD. [7] Historical inaccuracies [ edit ] Hannay (Penry-Jones) being chased by a 1916 biplane in a promotional image from the production. Penry-Jones was "delighted" that the scene was included, but it drew criticism and viewer complaints for its historical inaccuracy.

In the book, the 39 steps lead down to a beach and filmically there is not much you can do with that. Today, audiences demand more of a grandstand finish. That was the major liberty we took – the ending. People can say, 'You're not being true to the ending,' as they stay away by the millions... [Big Ben was chosen for the end] because it was an analogy we were working for – Europe was a time bomb in 1914. And we figured that the centre of European politics would undoubtedly have been the House of Commons. So we thought, 'Why not finish the film in the political seat of Britain?' [1] Oxford, Nadia (30 April 2013). "The 39 Steps Review". Gamezebo. Archived from the original on 3 May 2013 . Retrieved 2 September 2013.

Interior filming took place primarily at Pinewood Studios, with extensive location filming in Scotland, including North and South Queensferry, Dunblane, Balquhidder, Altskeith and at the Falls of Dochart in Killin, as well as other parts of Stirling and Perthshire such as Brig o' Turk and its 1930s wooden tearoom, which featured as "the Gallows" inn . [16] [17] The film also includes a large section at Waverley Station and at Princes Street Station, Edinburgh, on the Forth Bridge and on board a train hauled by an ex-LNER Class A4. [18] The cinematography was by Ernest Steward, and it was filmed in Eastmancolor. [15] Music [ edit ] Had Hannay not secretly unloaded Scudder's gun as the spy slept, the man would have been able to defend himself and likely not needed to run. Chances are he probably wouldn't have ended up dead either.

a b Spicer, Andrew, Typical men: the representation of masculinity in popular British cinema, (I.B.Tauris, 2003) ISBN 9781860649318 Davies, David Stuart, afterword to Buchan, John, The Thirty-Nine Steps (Collector's Library, 2008) ISBN 978-1-905716-44-9, p. 148 John Buchan wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps while he was ill in bed with a duodenal ulcer, an illness which remained with him all his life. Buchan's son William later wrote that the name of the book originated when the author's daughter was counting the stairs at St Cuby, a private nursing home on Cliff Promenade in Broadstairs, where Buchan was convalescing. "There was a wooden staircase leading down to the beach. My sister, who was about six, and who had just learnt to count properly, went down them and gleefully announced: there are 39 steps." There were actually 78, but he halved the number to make a better title. When the original steps were later replaced, one of them, complete with a brass plaque, was sent to Buchan. [6] A set of later concrete replacements, now numbering 108, still runs from the garden to the beach. [7]

More film versions

As he tries to escape the apartment building unseen by the assassins while in disguise, a friendly milkman passes by Scudder, recognises him, and greets him loudly, which alerts the assassins.