The 39 Steps (1959 film)

The 39 Steps
Original British cinema poster
Directed byRalph Thomas
Screenplay byFrank Harvey
Based onThe Thirty-Nine Steps
1915 novel
by John Buchan
Produced byBetty E. Box
StarringKenneth More
Taina Elg
Brenda De Banzie
Barry Jones
Reginald Beckwith
Sid James
CinematographyErnest Steward
Edited byAlfred Roome
Music byClifton Parker
Production
company
Distributed byRank Film Distributors
Release date
  • 12 March 1959 (1959-03-12)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The 39 Steps is a 1959 British thriller film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Kenneth More and Taina Elg.[1] Produced by Betty Box, it is a remake of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film, loosely based on the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.

In the film, diplomat Richard Hannay returns home to London, only to become inadvertently embroiled in the death of a British spy investigating the head of an organisation planning to sell the secret of a British ballistic missile. Hannay thus travels to Scotland to escape the police, and attempts to complete the spy's work.[2]

It is the first colour version of the Buchan tale, and, unlike the mainly studio-bound original, features extensive location shooting. Several large set pieces (such as Hannay's escape from the train on the Forth Bridge and the music hall finale) and much of the dialogue are taken from the original film. As with the Hitchcock version, the scenario was contemporary rather than the pre-Great War setting of Buchan's original.

  1. ^ "The 39 Steps". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  2. ^ Vanessa Thorpe (30 November 2008). "Hitchcock's inventions disappear in BBC's latest version of The 39 Steps". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 April 2012.