The 39 Steps (1935)

In preparation for watching this movie, I got a the book by John Buchan.  It’s a classic spy novel.  It has thrilled generations of readers.  It’s short.

But I couldn’t read it.  I think my problem was that I wanted the character to try to achieve a goal in a dogged manner.

This guy was bored at the book’s beginning and I guess his goal was to have fun.  Not sure.  He desperately travels in one direction and then returns to his original point.  He makes elaborate plans and then dumps them and does something dumb.  I think I simply don’t understand it.

The movie was enjoyable though.  Hitchcock takes on the tale of the innocent man, hounded by authorities.  It was tense when appropriate and funny in between times.  The vibe between the hero and the love interest was a little weird.  The ending made very little sense to me but I thought it worked on an emotional level.

The best part was the special features.  Much of it was promotional material for the movie that relied heavily on the relationship of the two leads.  Here are some of my favorite taglines. 

tagline: she was fated to be mated to the man she hated.
tagline: he was the man who put the Man in roMANce
tagline: girl’s eye view of a cave man lover