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.

Matthew Kresal John Buchan's 1915 thriller novel The Thirty-Nine Steps has proved to be a rich ground for filmmakers. From Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 classic to its less stellar 1959 remake and a more recent BBC television movie, Buchan's thriller has been updated and revised time and again. Yet with the exception of the BBC's version, most have chosen to take the bare bones of the novel and create something new out of it. There's an exception to every rule and this 1978 adaptation would prove to be that in returning not just to the original time period of the novel but capturing it in spirit (if not in incident) better than its predecessors.It's perhaps best than the film owes less to Hitchcock and more to Buchan, especially given how the 1959 film turned out. Much of the flavor of the novel is captured here with the notion of a network of agents of a foreign power up to skullduggery and intrigue in the spring of 1914 which draws Richard Hannary, a mining engineer who has spent some years in Africa before coming to London, into a race against time. Though the film does pay homage to Hitchcock's film (and how could it not?), much of the film's incident can be traced to the original novel, if at times in a roundabout kind of way. The film does make additions including the characters of Alex Mackenzie and her fiancé along with some villains and indeed a totally new ending, these don't deviate hugely from what was originally written. The ending, the largest of the changes, is in fact something of an improvement over Buchan's own ending and it's no surprise that it has found some measure of iconic status in its own right. As a result, the film (despite the changes and additions it makes) might well be the most faithful adaptation of the novel we're ever likely to see.That said, there's plenty to recommend the film for besides that. Take Robert Powell, made famous for his roles in Doomwatch and Jesus Of Nazareth, as Buchan's archetypal innocent man on the run Richard Hannay, . Powell was perfect casting has the right amount of charm, intelligence and good looks to be believable in the role of unlikely action hero from the moment he opens his apartment door to the iconic closing sequence. Powell pulls the role off with great panache but also the occasional air of vulnerability, something that sets him apart from other Hannay's both before and after him. Powell though is the tip of the iceberg.The film's cast is a veritable who's who of British acting talent in the late 1970s though not always in large roles. The always excellent David Warner is in fine form as the traitor Sir Sir Edmund Appleton with Donald Pickering and Ronald Pickup superbly bringing his henchmen to life who chase Hannay across the country. Also pursuing Hannay is Eric Porter as Chief Superintendent Lomas while Hannay is aided by Karen Dotrice as Alex with Miles Anderson as her fiancé David Hamilton, all of whom do well even if they are times given limited material to work from. Sir John Mills appears as Scudder, the secret agent who sets invents in motion the events of the film, playing a more likable version of the character than presented in either the original novel or in the subsequent BBC version. The cast is rounded off by notable character actors including George Baker, Timothy West, Andrew Keir, David Collings, and Edward de Souza among others.The film's production values are splendid as well, capturing the pre-war period feel superbly. These range from the sets created by Harry Pottle to the various costumes and locations chosen which all evoke the era or at least what the viewer often thinks of as that era. Indeed that can be said of the entire approach to the film under the direction of veteran director Don Sharp which brings the right tone to the film. Combined together, they create a film that superbly brings the novel to life while also pastiches it. While perhaps overshadowed by Hitchcock's film, this 1978 take on the same source material may very well its equal. From Robert Powell and a superb cast to fine production vales and a script that treats Buchan's novel with respect, it manages to be faintly nostalgic but knowingly so in a sleeker and more modern packaging. It takes a very familiar tale and re-energize it into an engrossing and suspenseful watch. The result is not only a good way to spend 98 minutes or so but a fine example of the thriller genre.

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.

jotix100 "The Thirty Nine Steps", the spy novel by John Buchan, has been adapted for the screen three times. The most famous one being the 1935 version by Alfred Hitchcock which still remains an old favorite by most viewers. The 1959 remake directed by Ralph Thomas was a vehicle for its star, Kenneth Moore. We were intrigued when the Don Sharp 1978 film version when it showed up on a classic channel not long ago.Not having read the novel, we cannot, in all honesty, make an objective assessment of how close to the written page the latest remake is, but we were pleasantly surprised by what Mr. Sharp was able to accomplish. The adaptation was written by Michael Robson. The action used a lot of well known backgrounds. The best of these is the one that takes place in the last sequence of the film in which we are taken inside Big Ben where Hannay, having solved the mystery, goes after the Prussian spies.Robert Powell was effective in his characterization of Hannay, the South African engineer that is drawn, against his will, to be at the center of a manhunt for something he never did. The cast was excellent. John Mills, Eric Porter, David Warner, Donald Pickering, Ronald Pickup, and Karen Dotrice, among them. John Coquillon was the cinematographer and the musical score was created by Ed Welch. Don Sharp's entertaining take on this classic is worth a look.